Intentional Community

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Dr. Jekyll

Dr. Jekyll

New Member
Last September, our congregation launched an "Intentional Community" program for young adults. We invited people between the ages of 19 to 30, to come live in a house beside our church for a minimum of four months. During that time they explored various spiritual disciplines, ministry leadership, community service, and community living. We didn't quite run at capacity (the house can fit 4 participants), but we're putting the invitation out there again and hoping to welcome a new group this September.

So we're still learning and finding our way. But I'm wondering if others out there have come across any resources or books dealing on intentional community or faith-based community of any sort. We have a small reading list, but are always looking for more opportunities to learn. We find each expression of intentional community that we've come across is so unique, so having a breadth of resources to draw on is important.

If you're interested in our project, visit www.norvalunited.ca/intentionalcommunity or www.facebook.com/norvalintentionalcommunity .
 
Dr. Jekyll said:
Last September, our congregation launched an "Intentional Community" program for young adults. We invited people between the ages of 19 to 30, to come live in a house beside our church for a minimum of four months. During that time they explored various spiritual disciplines, ministry leadership, community service, and community living. We didn't quite run at capacity (the house can fit 4 participants), but we're putting the invitation out there again and hoping to welcome a new group this September.

So we're still learning and finding our way. But I'm wondering if others out there have come across any resources or books dealing on intentional community or faith-based community of any sort. We have a small reading list, but are always looking for more opportunities to learn. We find each expression of intentional community that we've come across is so unique, so having a breadth of resources to draw on is important.

If you're interested in our project, visit www.norvalunited.ca/intentionalcommunity or www.facebook.com/norvalintentionalcommunity .
Click to expand...

This sounds excellent. I pray for much success for your community.

One question - why the age restrictions?
 
HI Dr. Jeykll - welcome to wondercafe2. I'm in your presbytery & read with interest about this initiative last year. I don't have reading suggestions, but kudos to your congregation for providing such an opportunity.
 
I was a member of Sojourners Community in the 90s, and my wife was a member of both Sojourners and Church of the Saviour intentional communities around the same time. She is now part of Rutilio Grande Community in Toronto. She's more of the intentional community community expert than I, but I'll talk with her and see if she can help with some resources. Meanwhile, here are a few links:

http://sojo.net/about-us/history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Saviour_(Washington,_D.C.)
http://www.catholicregister.org/home/canada/item/9202-house-of-faith-sharing-refugee-support
 
Talking about intentional communities, a founder of a successful intentional community, Stephen Gaskin, founder and leader of "The Farm" in Tennessee, died two days ago. His wife, Ina-May Gaskin, is a spiritual midwife and wrote a book on "Spiritual Midwifery". In 1982, Stephen and Ina-May and some of their followers planned to establish an intentional community at or near Lanark, Ontario (if I remember correctly). Does anyone know what happened to this community?

Margaret Trudeau, during her brief career as a TV interviewer, interviewed Ina-May Gaskin on CBC in March of 1982. Ina-May talked about "The Farm" in Tennessee, "The Farm" they were about to establish in Lanark Ont., and spiritual midwifery.
 
Thanks everyone!
Pr. Jae - The whole project came about because our congregation (like most others) lacks engagement from that young adult demographic. We've got lots of seniors, adults, children, and youth... but very few visible and engaged young adults. So this is a way for us to intentionally carve out some meaningful space for a segment of the Body of Christ that feels critical to linking our younger folks and our older folks. What we're finding is that by having a few young adults living in deep relationship with each other and the congregation, other young adults are becoming more engaged through them. So it's been really hopeful for us. We're also finding that young adults are a huge blessing to both our younger and older folks, but also that young adults have their own specific needs and challenges requiring specific ministry tools. They keep us on our toes! We've tried other things like mission/exposure trips to engage young adults, but the intentional community seems to offer the most promise of a sustained engagement that will transform our community in good ways.
 
Welcome, Dr. Jekyll

and your congregation's experiment sounds AWESOME and GREAT!

For idears, you might want to check out the Whole Earth Catalog -- that's pretty much the 'go-to' manual for intentional living (and never out of date)

Electronically, there are various sites, like lifehacker, where authors post their neet idears

Philosophically, Hakim Bey has the Temporary Autonomous Zone

People you might want to check up with (they answer emails!) for idears & they can point you to more resources are people like Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Jacque Fresco of the Venus Project (a REALLY big intentional community idear), George Dyson (one of the brothers of Freeman Dyson and who spent a portion of his life living intentionally in a tree house in British Columbia and learned to make his own things...brilliant guy...), AaronMcGallegos hippy extraordinaire & spirulina sufferer

You might also want to check to see if there are any communes in your area?

May many good things continue to happen to your cong's experiment
 
I Inna:

I too am impressed with the VENUS project. And I too still sometimes consult the Whole Earth Catalog.:)

I was involved with a few communal experiments in my life. From my experience, the biggest problem with communes always was that some people put in a lot of work, carrying those who just hang on. Those hard workers soon realize that they are better off by themselves, and the commune collapses. Collectives or cooperatives, where everyone works for themselves but the collective shares marketing, tools, etc., work better.
 
Hermann said:
I was involved with a few communal experiments in my life. From my experience, the biggest problem with communes always was that some people put in a lot of work, carrying those who just hang on. Those hard workers soon realize that they are better off by themselves, and the commune collapses. Collectives or cooperatives, where everyone works for themselves but the collective shares marketing, tools, etc., work better.
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yeah, it seems the whole 'fairness morality' is hard-wired into us? even wolves have it apparently

i think its helpful and saves a lot of time for people who are planning something like this can look at empirical examples of what people have accomplished before...things to avoid...like a permanent nudist colony commune in the mountains of the OK...owch!
 
A nudist commune in prickly pear cactus country is a bad idea.:)


In our tribal past, which was by far the longest stretch of our evolution, we all lived communally. We are a group species that has evolved around communal living. So why does it work so poorly now?

I think the ancient tribal ethic instilled in us a desire and pride to do our best for the tribe. In tribal society, power was not gained by the acquisition of personal property, as is the case now, but by keeping the tribe powerful. Tribal consciousness and conscience, tribal pride and loyalty, were the moral pillars of tribal society. That some members did more than others toward the common good was accepted, but doing poorly for the tribe brought low esteem, whereas doing well for the tribe was rewarded with high esteem.

The obliteration of tribal society, and with it the ascendancy of feudalism, capitalism, industrial society, and the nuclear family have ruined our tribal and communal morality. In capitalist society, it is every man for himself, and society as a whole suffers.
 
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