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Most of my recent experience with this has been in Cambodia, but before that, while I was at University, I lived in big student houses where we were committed to being intentional community. There were ten of us, and we also had street people and street kids living with us. Later on I worked for Te Ora Hou, and we took at risk youth into our house to try and model life skills and discipleship. Some of those kids were sent there by the courts of CYP’s, so I’m not sure it was really ‘intentional community’ on their part – actually quite involuntary sometimes! A few years ago Susan & I (along with the rest of the Cambodian team) did a 6 month stint as consultants for Tear Fund UK, evaluating projects run by missions all over Asia. This gave me the opportunity to observe other missional communities in action, and think about why some were working well – and others not at all!

So this is the experience I am calling upon as I talk about Missional Communities today. I also want to start by saying that there is a whole spectrum of models of Missional Community, expressing themselves with very different shapes, and widely differing structures. Some are very ‘tight’ in their organisation and structure and rules of life (for example, UNOH), through to Waiters Union in Brisbane which is much looser and less formal. I want to emphasize that there is no ‘one way’ or ‘right way’ of being a Missional Community. But I do believe there that there are important principles that will contribute to the success or failure of Missional Community, and its those I want out-line below.

I want to start by looking at the clearest examples of Christian community given to us in the New Testament : Acts 2:40-47 and Acts 4:32-35, and pull out some of the principles we see there.

1. Intentional and Covenanted. Intentional Missional Community is not something that ‘just happens’ or that you can drift into. These guys were baptised into it. There needs to be some sense of (and a marking of) our crossing the bridge out of our old ‘anything I like’ way of life and into this new, highly committed community. Initiations and rituals (so lost from our Western culture now) perform vital roles in intentional community. For us in Servants, working in Asia, the act of saying goodbye to all our friends and possessions and roles, getting on an airplane, and plunging into a new language and culture with your teammates performs this function very well! But I suggest for communities located back here in the West, you are going to need to use more deliberate and consciously chosen Covenants, Rituals and Initiations.

 

2. Commitment. The Scriptures we read said that the community members were ‘devoted’ to one another (i.e. putting others interests ahead of their own), to the apostles teaching (or, if you like, the community ethos), to the sharing of food and eating together (one of the most radically spiritual and socially leveling things human beings can do – which is why Jesus did so much of it through the Gospels), and that they were devoted to praying and worshipping together.

3. Relocation and Shared Space. They were all together and held all things in common. There is a geographic dimension to community! Community is shared space and shared time. Actually, many of those 3000 newly baptised had travelled from other parts of the world for the feast of Pentecost, and after being converted wanted to stay. They had left their homes far away, and so there was now a desperate need for those with homes to open them up to those who didn’t. What a great way to start off community – God knew what he was doing!

4. Shared Resources. Some sold houses, property and other goods, and they shared possessions. To some degree or other, true community is always a place of shared resources. But remember, these are all principles, not laws. If we turn these into laws, we move from intentional (voluntary) community into a cult, which is never a healthy place, or a place of healthful growth.

 

5. Meeting together and Worshipping Together. They were committed to spending time with each other and time with God. They had a shared spirituality (whilst still acknowledging the unique calling, gifting and design of each individual in the community). For our team in Cambodia, our Tuesday afternoon - that starts off with a shared meal, and then usually moves through shared worship, into a sharing of struggles and joys, and then into prayer - is our most important time of being together with each other and with God. It is very much the glue time that binds us together as a missional community. Every community will need to find these rhythms of eating and worshipping and sharing and praying that hold them together.

Other key components of community that I see in the New Testament and have experienced personally, are:

6.  A place of love, acceptance,challenge and forgiveness. Paul told the Romans community “accept one another as Christ accepted you” (Romans 15:7). That doesn’t mean our communities aren’t places where we uphold truth, and challenge falsehood (or false self), but that we acknowledge that we are all a little bit eccentric, that we are all a little bit damaged, and that we all need loving-kindness and grace from one another and God to make it through. (Actually, more often we experience the grace and loving-kindness of God through one another, rather than in direct mystical encounter with God). Community needs to be a place of asking forgiveness (which is really hard, as that means admitting when we are wrong!), or admitting woundedness, and of giving forgiveness.

7. A Place of Shared Submission. Paul told the Ephesian community to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”. Living in community always requires negotiation, compromise and some loss of autonomy (just like marriage!) – all of which most of us hate doing. No wonder community is such hard work, so few want to do it, and not many last.

8. A Place of Shared Accountability, Encouragement and Celebration. The writer to the Hebrews community said “let us spur one another on to love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as is the habit of some, but let us keep on encouraging one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25). We need to keep challenging and encouraging each other in the following of Jesus – his words and his deeds. Clinton and Clinton, in their survey of thousands of Christian leaders, tell us that only 1/3rd ‘finish well’ without falling or giving up. The main reason the 2/3rds fall (or give up)? A lack of mentoring and accountability. Christian community should provide each of us with mutual accountability and mentoring. Our communities should also be places where each achievement and milestone, no matter how small, is acknowledged and celebrated. Motivation to carry on comes from encouragement, not criticism, and we need to work hard at making our communities places of encouragement, inspiration and celebration.

9. A Place of Shared Vision. Every community has to have a galvanizing vision of what it wants ‘to be’ and ‘to see’ – a reason for its existence that is bigger than itself, and bigger than just survival.

 

10.  A Place of Shared Mission. Likewise every community has to have a galvanizing sense of what it is there ‘to do’ – its contribution to the world that is bigger than itself, and bigger than just survival. In those passages we read from the Book of Acts we read that their mission was “to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”. That’s a wonderful sense of mission.

[Written by Kristin Jack, Asia Coordinator and co-team leader of Servants Cambodia.  One of Servants 5 principles is Community.]