This short quote, and the questions it posed (who are we? what are we about? why are we about it?), probably shaped our conversations in The Liberty Bell last Monday evening.

Armed with our copies of ‘Schools of Conversions: 12 Marks of a New Monasticism’, and a fresh pint of beer/cider (or coffee), David, Ian and I (and Jon, a little later) began reflecting on chapter seven, ‘Nurturing Common Life Among Members of Intentional Community’, which felt very timely/relevant for our local community life.

Following on from David’s opening quote, I flicked ahead to a couple of paragraphs about The Simple Way, and their move from an organic and unstructured life together, towards something more intentional.

“When we first began, we chose to live in a way that was very unstructured. We had a schedule for daily and weekly activities, but did not want to create a chore and task list, and almost anyone who wanted to be part of our lives was welcomed with a ‘come and see’. As a result we had no rituals, no space for journey, and no place for accountability.”

“However, ...we came to realise that our lack of structure, organisation, and clear roles was actually playing a major part in sucking the health out of our ailing community.”

I tried to distinguish between our friendships together, and the possibility that God has drawn us together for a purpose (which was Andy Freeman’s question to us a few weeks ago, and is unpacked some more in the three questions we’ve just identified). “I don’t think that friendship is enough... if it is all we have, then we will only welcome those we instinctively ‘like’, those who are the same as us... and there will be no place for people like Simon (name changed).”

Ian agreed, but appealed for simplicity, so that the life among us is not stifled. “I like the fact that this intentional life is expressed in lots of distinct ways,” he added, turning to some examples on p.110-111. “There isn’t only one model to follow. Maybe we could go visit some other communities or Boiler Rooms and see how they live? I’d like to see their ordinariness.” It occurred to us that some of the people who have visited us, have probably come seeking and saying the same things. ;o)

We paused for a moment. David took a deep breath... and then asked the questions that we spent the rest of the evening attempting to answer (and here’s my attempt at tracking the conversation as it unfolded!). “So what is an intentional community? Are we all ‘intentional’, or is it just your community house?”

Ian: “I suppose there are different levels. Not all of the life together in our community house applies to our wider community, and vice versa? It doesn’t make one ‘intentional' and the other not.”

Phil: “The Louisiana community on p.111 sound a lot like us... “Here we found a group of families and individuals living communally but in separate houses; some of them do not even attend the same church. (Some) have children. Most of them have established careers. Over the past five years, they... have begun to reconsider what it means to follow Jesus in a world that demands upward mobility and individualism. So they call themselves Common Ground Community.” There are a lot of similarities here with us!”

Ian: “Perhaps we need to find our ‘common ground’, our communal things, what makes us distinct?”

Phil: “I agree. Although we have to maintain the tricky balance between finding and growing in these distinctives - these reasons that God has drawn us together - and keeping centred on Jesus himself. Bonhoeffer warns that when a community focuses on it’s life together, rather than Jesus, it will probably die.”

David: “How do we know we’re Christ-centred though? How do we remain Christ-centred?”

Phil: “I guess through living lives wrapped in prayer, through reading and learning scripture, and through welcoming the gifts of God’s Spirit - learning to listen? And, I think, through making ourselves accountable to others, outside of our wider community?”

Ian: “The same question could be asked of every church community of course.” True, true.

Ian: “You know, having Simon in our house... this has never happened to me before. I love the fact that our children are fine with him. He’s not a ‘homeless person’, he’s just another unique, wonderful human being. Esme asked him where he lived the other day.”

David: “Keeping a focus on people is important. Although there are sometimes different ways to fulfill this... do we set projects up for people, or invite them into our homes?”

Phil: “My experience working with Centrepoint is that homeless young people often return to the street even after being offered accommodation... the main reason seems to be the loss of community. It’s not that ‘projects’ are bad, it’s just that the loss or absence of community life-together often undermines them.”

Jon arrived at this point... which gave us a few minutes to visit the toilets, order another drink, etc. And then start talking again...

Jon: “Simplicity is important to me. I’m nervous of structure. I think others are too.”

Ian: “The ‘why are we here?’ question can be interpreted in many ways... we’re here to follow Jesus, make disciples... does it have to be more than that?”

David: “‘Why are we here?’ probably isn’t the best question. I think we need to find the right questions in order to discover the answers we need.”

Ian: “We started this when we met last time. We talked about our values and what we ‘gather around’ didn’t we? We tried to identify our community distinctives. But do these things apply to everyone, even if they don’t feel them as strongly?”

Phil: “One of the questions that 24-7prayer is currently asking is around mission and planting Boiler Room communities across Europe - is this a priority for the 24-7prayer community in Europe, or is it a global 24-7 thing? I think we’re moving towards an understanding that it is a global thing. Some will feel this more than others, maybe because of their geography, but the global 24-7prayer community will begin to explore what it means to carry this as a common priority, vision, distinctive, whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

Maybe we’re in a similar place. Our whole community might identify a focus on justice or creativity, for example, and not everyone might feel it with the same ‘weight’... but we can all gather around that focus/purpose/distinctive, and opt-in because we believe in it as a community, and because we can see God at work in us in that area. I think that naming these distinctives, priorities, whatever, will help us because it will open us to accountability, it will encourage growth and development, and it will challenge our self-centredness.”

Jon: “My fear is that this naming of distinctives, this narrowing down, could become controlling instead of free-ing?”

I read some of a text that Miranda sent me earlier that day. She said she’d been writing down what she described as the “...characteristics of your community”.
Phil: “Certain characteristics are already evident among us. Nate and Merisa Chud talked about us being a ‘creative’ community when they visited. Others have commented on our hospitality. I think we all acknowledge our desire and interest in justice and in becoming more of a praying community. By naming them, owning (up) to these distinctives, priorities, etc., we’re simply acknowledging that this is the work of God amongst us, and that we probably need to take these more seriously/steward these more intentionally. Maybe to be more obedient in these directions. Grow in them. Become more missional in the way we practise them. Invite input and accountability and questions - are we being true to these things?”

Ian: “Maybe it’s like those blog-cloud widget-things. You know, where words that feature regularly on someone’s blog appear larger in the cloud, amongst the other, smaller words. If our community had a ‘cloud’, the big words would be the ones that describe important parts of our life together. Having identified them, we then need to ask what they mean for each of us individually. If we’re a creative community, a hospitable community, etc. what does this mean for me?”

David: “I think there is a big difference between what you’re describing - identifying the distinctives, purpose, vision within us - and in naming some external ‘vision statement’... which is what churches often do.”

We returned to the question of friendship for a short while, and wondered how important it is as a starting point? Although we felt that Christian life together didn’t require people to be ‘best friends’, we also felt that welcoming one another into our lives was essential. Jon summed it up beautifully; “It is good to be known.”

David: “If we use the blog-cloud idea, we probably have half-a-dozen things already... prayer, hospitality, creativity, justice... maybe relationships?”

Phil: “I agree. And for me, identifying these things is a liberating thing, not a limiting, controlling thing. It helps us to answer those first questions - who are we? what are we about? and why are we about it? - we are an intentional, missional community, centred around Christ. We are prayerful, hospitable and creative. We seek to live out God’s righteousness/justice. Naming the things that we want to wrap our life together around gives us purpose and direction. Embracing them as our (current?) distinctives - the evidence of God’s work in us - will probably shape what we read and study together, it will provide us with a lens through which we interpret scripture together. It will also act as a plumb-line, a kind of relational accountability - a Way in which to encourage one another.

It’s that ‘stakes alongside the tomato-plants’ thing again - the plant is alive, but it won’t grow up without the stake, the framework, alongside. The stake enables the plant to grow in a particular direction - the stake is a statement of intent. And the tomato plant becomes ‘obedient’ in a particular direction. It is constrained, yes, but that constraint produces the fruit that the plant is designed to bear. Without the stake, the plant is less fruitful.”

The Proverbs verse, “without vision the people perish” is sometimes translated “without vision the people lose, or cast off, restraint”. The image is of a river without river-banks to constrain/restrain it. The water loses all momentum and simply spreads out, soaking into the earth. With river-banks in place, however, the river runs... it goes somewhere.

Ian wrapped up our evening together. “I want my whole life to go somewhere. I want to learn how I can be more hospitable and creative and prayerful in my everyday working life, as well as with my friends and at home.” Amen to that.

Who knows where a life-together commitment to hospitality, for example, might take us? Who knows what becoming more missional with our hospitality might constrain us towards?

Maybe it will mean opening our meal-times, and homes even, to those who are homeless? Maybe it will mean engaging with local authorities around services for homeless people? Maybe it will mean engaging with local churches, fostering a culture of welcome where there’s been competition and mistrust? Or maybe working into schools around this culture of welcome stuff... helping young people to listen to those who are ‘other’ more, to resolve conflicts. Maybe it will even mean changing jobs for some people... if the job I currently fulfill is essentially inhospitable, is this congruent with a commitment to hospitality? Maybe it will mean engaging in local or national politics around ‘immigration’ - if that isn’t about hospitality, what is?! We could go on and on with this...

...and that’s just a brief dream/scheme around hospitality, of course. I wonder what would emerge if we began to dream/scheme our life together around creativity... or prayer... or justice? Where might a commitment, an intentional community life together wrapped around these things take us? Who knows what becoming more missional with our creativity and prayer and justice might constrain us towards?

The beginning.