Living in Intentional Community

Generally the Hutterites have had some success at this form of communal living (in the Protestant context) but there's been problems even there. The best examples come from the convents and monasteries regarding communal living...and I think the Anglicans have some experience in the monastic tradition? I've read of monastic communities that have married folks in them..one that comes to mind is Little Portion in NW Arkansas...a Franciscan community formed by Catholic monk and recording artist John Michael Talbot... http://littleportion.org/

While these communal groups work at being self-sufficient they are armed only with the grace of God..time will tell if and how they would respond to raiders and predators....yet I would love to be in such a community..Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican...

I would see the primary unit to be the family, followed by community church. By community church I mean a much closer fellowship that is seen in modern westernized churches. A bit of "undergroundness" to it because once you get this dedicated to God and the word the world starts to hate you to the point of strong persecution. Back to the catacombs and street preaching.
The sharing aspect would be secondary to the needs of the individual family units. Voluntary sharing and community meals. Meetings would be held in the homes of pastors and deacons.
Oh yes - once the community church fellowship is achieved, that is communal living, then you will enter the status of a cult. Mainline churches and members will turn on you. You are a threat to them.
In the secular world of psychiatry, a cult is one that does not tune in with the accepted faith denominations in that culture. Communal churches would be included in that cult status because of unacceptable economic, social, and educational norms.

In 1973 we started a Christian communal house we call the "Redemption House." My aunt died and left me a piece of change which we used as a down payment on a two story house in the small community of Surrey ND. Most of us were actually in the USAF stationed at the Minot AFB. You may recall this was during the Jesus People movement in the US. It was good, but alas as with all military communities people came and went and eventually it broke up.
Could have been great... but we were all young, from 19 through 25ish. One married couple. We were all to immature both spiritually and mentally. Wish I could go back. We needed adult leadership.

ShoshanaUK said:

Hi. This isn't necessarily specifically about prepping, but I thought this forum would be a good idea to ask about living in Intentional Community, along the lines of the way the early church pooled their resources to help each other in Acts 2:44 as it seems like it might be a good way to work together to prepare for every eventuality and make sure that nobody in the church suffers unduly while others live in luxury.

Do any of you live in community?

Would you consider it?

Do you think it's a good idea, or desirable? Is it workable?

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Hi and thank you for this! I'm new here as of 1 hr ago! I just created a thread entitled "Intentional Communities" before I saw this thread. I have 5+ years of prepping experience/living it out. Please refer to that thread. Thanks.

Just to throw these random thoughts into the discussion:

The New England colonies had an interesting history. From what I hear (I am old but I wasn't there), after that harrowing journey in the Mayflower, they tried a type of communal living then realized that it had to get a little more independent as people were not all equal in their commitments to each other and it made survival risky. Being a product of some of those hippie commune times (and they've continued to be around ever since the Mayflower) and a person who enjoys serving, I've noticed through my decades that the more some people are served, the more they decide to sit there and enjoy it. I'm not sure why that is, but it gets in the way of a thriving communal life-style.

ShoshanaUK said:

Yes, that is interesting. I have visited secular and religious communes. The secular ones were regarded as being just a little bit kooky, but the religious ones were definitely viewed as cults or verging on becoming a cult. However, that does not seem to apply in the same way to monastic groups. So I wonder what is the difference? Is it perhaps to do with authority? Monastic groups come under the umbrella of recognised church authorities, whereas independent communities don't?

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Monastic communities are made up of adults who choose that way of life after a sort of probationary period. Closed religious communities, not necessarily cults, are often made of adult members, children, and adults who may or may not have had a viable alternative. This is not always the case but is part of the difference between the two.

SavedByGrace3 said:

I would see the primary unit to be the family, followed by community church.

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Generally, my day to day life follows this pattern, but I see it as a practical default, rather than a biblical imperative. Indeed, the Gospel shows a very different order of priority.

Greengardener said:

Just to throw these random thoughts into the discussion:

The New England colonies had an interesting history. From what I hear (I am old but I wasn't there), after that harrowing journey in the Mayflower, they tried a type of communal living then realized that it had to get a little more independent as people were not all equal in their commitments to each other and it made survival risky. Being a product of some of those hippie commune times (and they've continued to be around ever since the Mayflower) and a person who enjoys serving, I've noticed through my decades that the more some people are served, the more they decide to sit there and enjoy it. I'm not sure why that is, but it gets in the way of a thriving communal life-style.

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You have a great sense of humor! I do agree with you about the unequal commitments for sure (experienced it myself when we did the off-grid homestead thing.) I think that most people are very selfish.

I invision more of a semi-independent idea... like a communal neighborhood, so to speak. We all have our own modest homes and identities but we share life skills, teaching and learning, help each other with tasks (EVERYBODY doesn't need their own lawnmower- type thing.) I see times getting ROUGH real soon and the best thing I can think of to do is band together. Maybe our country/the church just isn't ready for such a thing?.?