• Archive of "intentional community" Category

    A Tribute to Mark Lau Branson

    January 29, 2009 // 4 Comments »

    By way of one of Fuller Theological Seminary‘s podcasts through iTunesU, I was reminded of Mark Lau Branson the other day.  Mark was an incredibly influential professor for me while I was at Fuller.  He was one of a few professors that, with great humility and patience, gave me a new vision and vocabulary regarding the Church.  He is not a huge name in the missional church discussion (at least in popular circles), but his influence (through Allelon and the Gospel and Our Culture Network) is broad and unmistakable.

    Whereas most of my education and training related to missional ecclesiology stems from Fuller’s School of Intercultural Studies, Mark is perhaps the central figure imparting this to Fuller students who study exclusively in the School of Theology.

    One of his most frequent refrains is,

    “God’s missional imagination is among the people of God”

    and he wrote a book built on this premise, “Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Change.”

    Not only did Mark expose me to some helpful ideas and authors, he shared out of his own deep experience of living in intentional community, his commitment to truly incarnational models of Christian witness, and a radical commitment to the formation of the people of God.

    I find that in life and work I have all these ideas about church and ministry and when I stop to think about it, the vast majority of those ideas stem from or have been shaped by what Mark passed on.

    If you’re Mark… thanks.  If you’re a student at Fuller, don’t you dare leave without taking one of his classes.  If you’re not Mark and you’re not a student at Fuller, move to Pasadena, enroll at the school, and take Mark’s class.  For starters, enjoy the podcast below.

     Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

    • Share/Bookmark

    Posted in Fuller Seminary, books, church, intentional community, missional, spiritual formation

    Missional Suburban Living Meets Poor Urban Intentional Community

    September 8, 2008 // 2 Comments »

    My friend Matthew beat me to it, but a few weeks ago he, his intern Ben Kaplowitz, and I traveled up to Philly together. We were there to take part if a day-long seminar on what a missional engagement of the suburbs is all about and it was a helpful discussion. Contrast of contrasts, we had the good fortune to stay with Chris and Cassie Haw who live as part of an intentional community in one of the shadiest neighborhoods I have ever been in in Camden, NJ. Added bonus – Chris co-authored Jesus for President with Shane Claiborne and as I was just finishing leding a group through the book, we had some good discussion. Be sure to check out Matthew’s post on the trip.

    • Share/Bookmark

    Posted in intentional community, missional, suburban

    A Place to Lay My Head

    July 18, 2008 // 2 Comments »

    After 4 months of getting to know Memphis, living with various people and in various places, and living out of a suit case, I have found a place to hang my hat – at least for the next year.

    front of house
    here for more pictures (not my stuff in the house)

    Here’s what metropolitan Memphis looks like

    Downtown Memphis is actually to the west of “the loop” between the Mississippi River and 240.  Inside the loop is generally referred to as midtown, though it has more specific designations in certain parts.  To the east of the the loop is Germantown, Cordova, and Collierville.  Piperton, where our church community has purchased land for some future use is a little more east than Collierville.  I considered living in virtually all of these places.

    Living subversively in a suburban context is something I care deeply about and feel like a good portion of my life will probably go to, but for a smattering of reasons, it doesn’t seem that now is the season for that. I mentioned a slew of factors in the decision making process in my post about being scared to live in the suburbs and I don’t really think that any decision I would have made would have been THE right decision, but here’s why I am pretty excited about this place.

    1) Location.  This house puts me within walking distance (less than 1/2 of a mile) of coffee shops, restaurants, shopping, the largest park in the city, the playhouse, and the only theater I am aware of in Memphis that shows Indy films.  Here’s a little map I started to put together of all the stuff I can walk to easily.  There’s a ton more that is easily within biking distance (1-3 miles) such as the YMCA where I’ll work out and my bank.

    2) Set-up.  The house is perfectly set-up to invite others to explore intentional community.  There are 3 huge bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms on the 1st floor as well as a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment with its own kitchen and a separate entrance on top.

    3) Neighborhood.  The neighborhood is both racially and socio-economically diverse and by virtue of living here I will be part of the “Tucker-Jefferson Neighborhood Association,” an active group which aims “to maintain and improve the dignity and integrity of the residences and businesses in the area, to preserve the diversity of the area, to insure orderly an compatible land use in the area, to encourage homeowners living in the area to improve their homes, and to work together on problems and issues of certain concern.”

    4) Opportunity.  Living Hope is a primarily white, affluent, suburban church that is asking God how we might engage and be a blessing to urban Memphis as well as to where we are.  Having more people move into urban parts of the city will inevitably be a big part of that.

    I am truly grateful to have found this place and am really looking forward to having a context to engage on a more constant basis.

    • Share/Bookmark

    Posted in decisions, intentional community, memphis, suburban, urban

    A Primer on Intentional Community

    July 13, 2008 // 14 Comments »

    I have been sitting on this post for a while, but thought it related enough to the previous one to go ahead and throw it out there.

    Recently, some friends here in Memphis have been discussing the possibility of moving towards engaging in a lifestyle of intentional community.  This is an unfamiliar topic to most, so I thought I would offer some word of introduction.

    Intentional community is not new, hip, or faddish.  It is an old practice, but largely lost within our Western framework of individual autonomy.  One type of intentional community goes under the title, Neo-Monasticism, but there are many varieties of it.

    Across the board, however, I would say these varieties share a few things in common.

    1) It is a means to an end. The point is not community in and of itself.  Rather, it is one way of practicing community (something we all, created in the imago dei, are designed for), so that…  And while the “so that’s” may vary, there is always a “so that.”

    2) It is a means of spiritual formation. Sharing the totality of our lives and the experience of whatever the “so that” is – is spiritually formative in many ways, but especially in that it is a true opening up of ourselves to others.  An intentional effort to say, “I refuse to allow my life to be about me – it must be about us.”

    3) It makes life both harder and easier. As my friend Matthew has commented, if we move into intentional community and our lives don’t become less hurried, less stressful, and less overwhelming while also becoming more exciting, joy filled, and transformative, we have missed something, missed the point.  At the same time, it is not easy to open your life to others, to depend on them and have them depend on you.  This is a foreign way of being for a great many of us.

    Stepping into Intentional Community as a way of life is also not without its risks.  What if it’s not what we expect?  What if some who make the initial commitment bail?

    While some will consider moving into the same neighborhood to more easily share life with others, there are also those who might embrace communal living, where those of various seasons of life – singles, couples, those with children, actually share the same living space as an expression of intentional community.  For these folks, there are of course other risks.  What if an affair happens?  What if a kid gets abused?  What if people simply can’t get along and the experience becomes awful?  I think we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t own up to the reality of any of that.  Which is why the whole process ought to be bathed in prayer, discernment, and wise guidelines.  However, to a certain extent, the “What if…” questions, while important, are akin to those we could ask of nearly any Kingdom enterprise.  If living Kingdom lives came without risk, then we’d do well to worship a savior known for anything other than his embrace of a cross.

    On top of that, we also need to consider the risks (though they be less evident) of not finding significant ways to live in community.  How many lives are torn apart, figuratively and literally, because their lives are so private that no one ever knows what’s going on behind closed doors and closed lives?  What about those whose lives of extravagance and luxury trap them into a seemingly endless cycle of greed and gluttony?  What about the millions and millions of Christians who will never engage their neighbors and neighborhoods in any meaningful sense because the task it just too daunting to take on alone?  What about those who, if only they had partners, would feel the freedom to engage the dangerous, violent, and dark parts of our world?

    Intentional Community as a way of life is an attempt to address these sorts of questions.  It is not glamorous, but living into the way of Jesus never is.

    • Share/Bookmark

    Posted in Jesus, community, intentional community, kingdom, spiritual formation

    Loving My Worlds… and Wanting Them to Collide

    June 9, 2008 // 1 Comment »

    My position at Living Hope has been enigmatic to say the least. I am a Young Adult Pastor, but my task is not to create or run young adult programs per se. Instead, I have spent my time relationally connecting with young adults and seeking ways to help them connect to the broader church community as we try and let what it means to be the church flow from that.

    Young adults fall into 3 general categories: singles, young married couples, and young married couples with kids. I have been fortunate enough to be embraced by communities of all three types and yesterday was a microcosm of those worlds for me.

    Yesterday morning I socialized mainly with my house group, which is comprised exclusively of pre-kid, married couples. We collaborated to help one of those couples move and then I spent the afternoon with one of the married guys, Zach, checking out various neighborhoods and properties as we think towards the possibility of intentional community (post on that forthcoming!).

    Then, I had dinner with a slew of my friends who are married w/ small kids. We were celebrating Clay’s graduation as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. This is a great time for me – getting to see how parents deal with kid stuff, trying to love on them myself, and embracing the mess that simply must be embraced if sanity is to remain.

    Finally, last night I spent with a bunch of my single friends. People were really just hanging out and talking. We played a game my friends from Ohio lay claim to, “… and a bottle of wine,” and it was a great time.

    Each of these groups is of course incredibly unique and I treasure my time with all of these folks in accordance with that uniqueness. I am thinking more and more about how to help others discover the joy of sharing life with those in various stages of it, but in the meantime, boy am I thrilled that it’s something God has orchestrated for me. It’s just good for my soul.

    • Share/Bookmark

    Posted in friends, intentional community, living hope, memphis, young adults