our dreams for community...coming true

My last post apparently sparked a lot of requests for "more information," and it was then that I realized I haven't really explained a lot of what Team Winchell has been up to lately.

For over 2 years, Jason and I have been talking, praying, agonizing, and longing for more community in our lives. Our year-long isolation following Orilus' bone marrow transplant served as a further catalyst for reading about community (from Bonhoeffer to secular models of "co-housing" that are growing in popularity in Europe)...and as further convincing that isolation is NOT how we humans are meant to live. During that year, we were surrounded in some ways by community (mostly on our Care Page), but in many ways it was a lonely year, as we were not allowed to have guests in our home, and our mutual social life suffered (only one of us really could go out at a time). This year, I have realized just how "isolated" we really were...we went from a rather openly hospitable home (we've had lots of foster children over the years, and many small groups meeting here, and friends-with-house-keys, and friends who never knock) to having to get used to a social calendar, and a bustling house again. Maybe someday I will find the heart to write about how difficult this transition back-to-community was, and how telling it was of how much we had suffered without it.

And so our dream of community has only grown in the last year as we have returned to "normal" life. We very clearly see the ways in which our life continues in "isolation," as do the lives of most people we know. These include (but are not limited to) the duplication/waste of resources (ie we have power tools, as does our neighbor next door, as does our friend...and so we have all spent money on tools we use very little, rather than giving our resources to people who actually need it), the duplication of energy (I make my boys' lunches each evening, as does friend with kids down the street...both of us taking time away from our families to do the exact same activity), the extravagance of most of our single-family homes (the statistics on the escalating home space "needs" of suburban American families are alarming, especially given that the majority of the world lives in homes with far less space, or no homes at all), the lack of extended families nearby (though we feel a sense that we are supposed to be in Lynn, we see that our family suffers without extended family living with/near us, and we think the next-best-thing is to create a secondary family of friends).

Most significantly, we see the way in which the way our current life hinders--and does not enhance--our spirituality. We send our boys off to school, go to work ourselves, and then return home to a single-family home in which we spend 2-3 hours each night mostly alone as a family, doing homework alone, eating dinner alone, going through the bedtime routine alone. We DO cherish family time, of course, but we are realizing that our spiritual lives--our own spirituality, and the faith journeys of our sons--would benefit more from the (difficult, messy, and beautiful) work of creating and keeping community with others. In short, we see how we say that following Jesus isn't a solo journey, but our daily life really doesn't reflect that supposed belief. And to a great extent, I think that we are not going to grow in our faith without embracing all that Jesus has to say about relating to others (which is most of what He had to say, after all).

Which brings me to another thought: the more and more I have read on Christianity (from Bell to Claibourne to McLaren to Yancey to Chesterton to the Scriptures themselves) the more a third "Way" of faith is opening for me. It is becoming apparent to me that the call of Christ is not just a personal call--Come, experience me--but also a communal/societal/local call--Come, be restored. And at the heart of our own hunger for community is a growing desire to engage our city with others, and for others. I think this is fundamental to what being a "Christian" really is--to bring justice, and healing, and hope to people of all faiths, to restore streets and neighborhoods and families. "Pray for the peace of the city, for if it prospers, you, too, will prosper." We want our life to be that prayer, a life of engaged and thoughtful "shalom" on our city's behalf. And we know we can do this only with others--others of faith, others in our neighborhood, others in our school district...with anyone who has a vision and heart for peace, and change.

So our vision began as an intentional living community. In fact, before our transplant year, we had begun gathering a group of friends in Lynn who were also interested in this idea. The questions we were asking each other were, "What would it look like if we merged a co-housing model with faith? How might we in proximity to each other, and grow in faith? How might our community be committed to a neighborhood, and to our city?" The group changed dramatically during the transplant year (and after)--my sister and her husband moved to a New Jersey to be part of an exciting urban ministry there. Another couple moved to Philly for grad school. Another couple moved to Maine to begin their dream of directing a Christian camp. In one year's time, in fact, it seemed that God had done a great work--giving many of us the dreams of our heart, and narrowing our group to those who were destined to remain in Lynn.

And so now our living community has 2 committed participants--us, and a dear friend we met through church years ago. Our plan is simple: to sell our house, to purchase a multi-family, to condo the multi-family, to sell one condo to this friend, and to prayerfully consider others who might be interested in renting/owning with us (there are a number of people who are apartment-hunting and/or house hunting and who are people looking to be intentional about life and faith here in Lynn).

In the meantime, during the fall, another "community" came into being in our lives. Now termed "Soup Group," this is a group of (some old, mostly new) friends in Lynn who meet once a month (in our home or in another friend's) for prayer, for discussion, and for soup! Our vision is to encourage each other in our faith and in our engagements with the city of Lynn...we are all people of faith committed to positive change to benefit all Lynn-ers (we are teachers, non-profit directors, CFO's, Board members of all kinds, students, refugee workers, real estate brokers...in short, an amazing synergy of really cool people doing really cool stuff). This group is becoming a sort of justice sounding-board for us, a wider circle of people with whom to dream, and to practice loving (Jesus, each other, and our city).

And...finally another, and more surprising community has been birthed during the last few months. In December, Jason and I were shocked by a sudden revelation in each of our minds and hearts. We were literally sitting at our dining room table, going back and forth between talking and praying, and it was like suddenly we knew that we were supposed to leave our church...and to begin a house church of our own. The story of how we came to know about house churches is a crazy one (I first encountered "house church" as an actual term while in South Africa last summer, though of course I have heard of such a movement in countries like China), and then we were suddenly hearing a lot about it throughout the fall. So we started reading about it (some prefer to call house churches "organic churches," which I think is a better description of the heart of a house church--a desire to be an organic, unorganized--in the sense of a governing religion or organization--gathering of faith people). And in the words of our (now former) pastor, the church that we dream of does not exist in our city...and perhaps, the only way for it to exist, is to create it.

So what is this church we dream of? A group of a few people (enough to fit in a living room, or around a dining room table) who have committed to exploring the Christian faith together. A group that is committed to living faith, especially as that applies to our neighbors--all of our neighbors--in Lynn, and worldwide as we have opportunity. A group that becomes genuine friends with one another, recognizing that true and honest friendship is a hallmark of spirituality, and of Jesus. A group that can pray together. And eat together. And question, and doubt, and cry, and laugh together. This, for us, is "church"--the body of Christ are His people, not the buildings, not the programs, not the committees--and so we decided to start a small and simple group of that sort, a house church.

In January we stopped attending "church" (funny how even our language implies that the meeting place, and not the people, are the church), and began reading the book of Genesis with our sons at home, making time each weekend for a discussion about a chapter, and allowing our boys to lead, to question, to dialogue. Sometimes we sang. We always prayed. And three weeks ago, we began inviting some of our friends to attend. So far, three friends are joining us on Sunday mornings (because this is the best time for a friend of mine who works 364 days a year at her restaurant) around our dining room table. We eat breakfast together. We read aloud a chapter (we are discussing the Abram narrative), talk about it. We always end with 2 questions, "God is the main character. What do we learn about Him here?" and "How might this reading change my life this week?" We share our needs, and we pray together. We catch up on our weeks. We call each other during the week, and send emails, and drop by each other's houses. We are, in short, a simple house church.

So these are the seedlings of community we are growing here in the home of Team Winchell. Perhaps in my next post I will have more time to write about other thoughts...relational tithing, the future of Ripple Effect, and so on. Stay tuned, especially to God's good spirit building community in your own life.