Living Community Pt1

I still remember the excitement we felt as my wife and I realised back in the early 80's that being part of the Christian Church was like joining an international, national and local family, and not belonging to some exclusive club and hobnobbing with those that were in and ignoring those that were out.

I had just returned from an outreach at the Glastonbury festival where the Youth for Christ team that I was a part of had just spent the weekend with a group from Bugbrooke in Northamptonshire called the Jesus Army, an experience that changed me forever both in regards to evangelism and Church practice.

It seemed that this JA (Jesus Army) group had found a way to be Church 24/7. They shared all things in common and regarded nothing as their own, they lived for each other and for the kingdom, which they called Zion.

This wasn't new of course, the model could be found in the book of acts and the history of the early Church. The difference was that they were actually doing it in the 20th century.

I had experienced some of this type of thinking before, my parents had always operated an open house policy. It wasn't unusual for me to arrive home to a house full of teenagers seeking some form of help or another or to find a gentleman of the road (commonly called a tramp) sitting in our kitchen eating a plate of food.
Mum and Dad later had a deeper shared lifestyle with a young man they befriended through Church where they pooled resources on a practical level, washing machines, car, meals etc.

So encouraged by this different way of doing Church we opened our home to any and all and were prepared to share our meager possessions with any who had need or felt the call to a communal lifestyle.

Of course the reality was different and we soon realised that those who saw an ongoing intentional shared life as part of their Christian calling were few and far between. This didn't stop us though and some time later after leaving our home town we spent some twelve plus years living in intentional Christian community.

But that experience is not what this story is about...
The question I want to explore is can you live community without living in intentional community, communally?

There is reason behind the question. As the years have moved on circumstances have changed, life in the UK has changed and community life at all levels both Christian or other is at an all time low.
Even the Jesus Army (New creation Christian community) is going through some serious changes in direction.
Yet many still long for that shared existence, that life that is interdependent , the desire to live simply and open with others and to be able to share with the lonely and needy that are around us.
Can this still happen without the communal living of a large household in one or more large properties? Does it need the rigid structure that some put in place, structure that would eventually strangle life and spontaneity and cause decline.

I believe it can and there are examples of something new, something organic, happening around us now.
Is this new? how will it work? is it more like what happened in the book of Acts than the previous incarnation?

part two coming soon.