How then should we treat each other?

We had a School for Conversion last weekend, and we read a list of the “one another” statements in the new testament. It was really encouraging to read, so I thought I’d share them with you. God bless.

Mark 9:50 Salt is good; but if salt has lost  its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.
John 13:14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.“
John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Romans 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.
Romans 15:5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Jesus Christ
Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Romans 15:14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
Romans 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
1 Corinthians 6:7 In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not wrather be wronged?
Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.
Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Hebrews 3:13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another– and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
James 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.
1 Peter 4:9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1 Peter 5:5 Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another , because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1 John 3:23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
James 5:9 Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving each other as brothers.
1 Thessalonians 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
1 Thessalonians 5:13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
Philippians 4:2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Galatians 5:26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Corinthians 12:25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
Galatians 5:15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
1 Corinthians 11:33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.
Romans 1:12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
Ephesians 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Philippians 2:3-5 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

“They were all of one mind and held all things in common.”

“The job of the Church is to be the womb through which God can bring His children into this world. Now the early Church was willing to become pregnant. But I think the trouble with God’s bride today is that she either has passed the menopause or she is on the pill.

Or perhaps even worse, the Church has gone a-whoring.

It could be she has sought other husbands to impregnate her, and generally when a woman goes a-whoring and gets pregnant she hopes the offspring will favor her rather than the father. It’s not that we are failing to beget children-we are. But they are not bearing the image of the Almighty. They are bearing the image of false gods! Mammon is one of those gods the Church is a-whoring with. We are begetting children, but I wonder if they are not bearing the image of their true father, Mammon.”
- Clarence Jordan

 

Something is becoming increasingly clear to me: If the point of the community I feel called to plant and be a part of is to be an effective biblical witness in Southern California, it is most likely going to be based on economic sharing and radical generosity. 

In the go-go-go, me-me-me rush of the Southern Californian lifestyle, it makes sense that a lifestyle built around sharing, self giving, and a de-emphasis on productivity would be kind of peculiar. Not only is it peculiar, but it’s a way of life that we’ve been set free to live by the resurrection of Christ. And yet, as the Church, we’re not really receiving that life as a gift. We’re rejecting it by most standards. We need to repent together.

Just a thought.

Skinny Love

I haven’t typed for a while because I gave up my computer for a bit. I was on it too much and wanted to be present here. It worked. kind of.

So…

I went to a Bible study here on campus the other night, and I learned one of the most beautifully disarming things in my life.

We’re going through the new testament together… and there are people who are vastly different places in their walks with God and who have vastly different understandings of God. One of the people is just becoming aquainted with Christianity is asking a lot of good questions. He doesn’t yet consider himself a Christian, but he’s taken to reading the scriptures and he’s seeing the movement of God in his life through hindsight and reflection. He’s in a good but fragile place.

The man (Jerry) who was leading it  had stated in a previous meeting that he takes Jesus at his word…completely and 100 percent. He made it a point to say this.
Then he started bringing up some beliefs he has about Native-American spirituality (he’s half Native-American) and talking about the “spiritual realm” and how Native American’s tap into it and how the Phoenix flies as the red sun rises or something (I’m using hyperbole- he didn’t say that, but you get the picture).

I was immediately anxious. Even kind of mad. Definitely concerned. I raised my concern:
” Jerry, I really don’t like this language of “the spiritual realm.” and then kind of defended my stance and what have you, and he defended his and so forth, and then I asked ” Well okay… you say you take Jesus at His word..but you have these extra beliefs. You maybe comfortable with that and all, but do you think introducing people who are seeking and asking questions about the Christian faith to these ideas is something that’s wise?” (the subtext in my statement was obvious- i didn’t think it wise at all).

There was some back and forth and then other people started chiming in. A lot of things were said about ‘different paths to God’ and I even heard people saying a lot about conspiracies they’d heard about how the Bible may not even be legit because of the way it was put together and so we can’t even really trust what we’re reading… 

I had a lot of objections…and I was angry. The things people were saying (and what they weren’t saying) was grating on me. Hard. I did my best to defend Orthodox Christian thought. I was really rubbed the wrong way.
I’m at a Christian community! If people aren’t here because of the teachings of Christ then what the hell are they here for? 

after more discussion the meeting dispersed, and not on a sour note…my anger was held in, i didn’t explode or anything, and everyone seemed to be at peace with one another. I left kind of fuming, really worried and with a lower view of some people because of what they’d said- especially with someone who is seaking and asking questions about the faith in the room.

Then I had a discussion with a few people who had been there, and I realised something: I felt really superior the whole time I was in the study. I read a lot, I try to understand the scriptures as well as I can, and to follow what they say. I felt superior because I knew what i believed, why i believe it and i could articulate it fairly well. I felt superior because I had my mind rapped around some important truth that has set me free. And I was so very proud that I was not these other people.

And that’s when i realized that I’m a really big asshole. 

I know some right things. Maybe not a whole lot, but some. And I really really believe them. I cling to these things. I remind myself of these things.

And my intellectual assent to them has not enabled me to love my brothers and sisters in Christ any deeper than before.

Christ didn’t say “They will know that you are Christians by your theology.” or “They will know that you are Christians by your orthodoxy.” He said “They will know that you are Christians by your Love.”

And I just haven’t let that concern me too much. I’ve been shielding myself from having to do that with all the right things I’m learning. I want to be a Lover, not a scholar. I want show the love of God, not regirgitate Yoder or Barth or Bonhoeffer. And I need to repent.

I don’t feel like I’ve failed God or that I’m a huge piece of shit or anything… I actually feel pretty grateful that God would want me to know this. I think he wanted me to know this because God is about redeaming me. And every person in that Bible study. and this revelation is a testament of that to me.

Maybe I’m a bad “lover” of people. But God is not.  And I want to be more like God.

and that’s just where I am with that.

Oh Boy

My apologies for not blogging for the past week. I have been so very exhausted. I haven’t had much energy to think alone, much less post thoughts in a blog.

I’m used to working a nice 15 hour workweek and…being pretty lazy. Not here. I think being in the sun all the time is part of it, but mostly it’s the manual labor. Farm work is hard, but it is so liberating to do hard manual labor. I’ve felt more productive in the last week than I have in the past 4 months of my life. It helps to know that the work you’re doing is actually benefitting the community (and not just putting money into the pocket of a corporation). If each person didn’t do their assorted jobs, the whole community would suffer. It’s wonderful.

Well, where to start? Millard Fuller (who started and Habitat for Humanity and Fuller Center for Housing) died last monday, and they buried him here on the farm. I helped dig his grave. It was an odd experience. I’m really sad that I never got to meet him ( he was going to do a workshop with my intern class) but the man’s life story is quite inspiring. Google him.

Speaking of death, I’m due to slaughter a goose soon. I’ll either become a vegan after the experience or have a better appreciation for meat. We’ll see.

So, the farm is very much about sustainable living, permaculture, and re-using just about EVERYTHING. There’s even a composting toilet. If you don’t know what that is, just know it has something to do with using your own poop to fertilize the farm. There are a lot of people here who are ALL about sustainable living- and I feel i have a lot to learn about their convictions.

To be honest I don’t plan on sharing their convictions. I see the evils within the pastoral system, farming corporations, etc. but I’m here to focus on the community, not the farming. i dont think i have enough energy to take up the cause of sustainable farming (not in Long Beach, no less) on top of feeling called to plant a community without knowing where to start. i barely have energy to think about either as it is.

I do think that God is going to use this time to draw my attention to a lot of places in my own heart that are hindering me from following Him more closely (amen!). Things have been a bit dark spiritually for me for the past few weeks, and I haven’t been understanding a lot of my own feelings or actions. I could really use some prayer. and guidance. It’s hard leaving a system of mentorship and accountability that had been so healthy and life-giving. I suppose when you commit yourself to relationships within a community (Grace, in my case), there must be expected repercussions when you leave those relationships behind, even for only a season. If you’re reading this I love you all very much.

My roomate’s name is Blake. He reminds me of my old friend, Jared Freitag mixed with the white guy from Half Baked. He’s an interesting dude. It turns out we really know how to make each other laugh. really hard. Other than that we haven’t had any really beefy conversation so i can’t say I really know him, but I’m enjoying living with him.

I talked with a guy who lives here named Nash, who’s aobut 53. He’s a ‘peace clown’. He went to Patch Adams’ school and everything. He and I started brainstorming about what a community could look like in Long Beach and it really really got me excited. Communal living can take so many different forms, and just brainstorming was warming to my heart. It was a small but important first step in forming a vision for the future community there. I need to start praying a lot more about it. all in time.

I’m exhausted and don’t even know if anything I’m typing is making sense, so I’m going to stop. But please, be praying for me. Pray that I would experience rest and peace (as I’ve been quite restless lately) and that God would be giving me direction.

thanks
Drew

Pecans and Goats and Beards, oh my!

Super-Bowl Sunday. Day 2 at the Koinonia Farm. Before I go into detail about the farm, let me catch you up on what’s transpired since my last blog:

I finished up my hospitality weekend at Church of the Sojourners (and I really really liked it there a lot). I got to attend a “Community Discernment Meeting” with them and see a process of bringing up points of interest, discussion, and got a better general sense of how they stay healthy and in dialogue as a community. It was a huge blessing. It makes my heart sing a little bit to see people moving toward each other with Grace and love (and not in a fake way) and being intentional about continuing to do so. Great Great stuff there. God is good and i really hope I get to be a part of that community for a while.

After leaving Sojourners and swinging back by Long Beach to pick up all my things (witch is all crammed into 3 heavy heavy suit-cases), I flew back to St. Louis to see my family for a week. Or at least that’s what they plan was. My old friend Kristin was going to pick me up from the airport and I was to spend a day with her, then I’d go to my family’s place and surprise them (they didn’t know I was going to come this week). 

I ended up getting snowed in at Kristin’s place for 5 days and I only saw my family for about a day and half. 3 inches of ice and 5 of snow will really keep you in one place for a bit. I had a lot of fun with Kristin and her family, but I missed my fam a bit. Oh blah dee oh blah da.

My family took me back to the St. Louis airport yesterday and I flew to Atlanta, took a shuttle from Atlanta to Columbus, and was picked up form Columbus by two of the members of the Koinonia community- Brin (the internship coordinator) and Amanda. They were very nice ladies. We grabbed some taco bell and I slept most of the way to the Farm.

We got here and they showed me to my room and then let me be alone for a bit. I’m staying in one of many houses on the farm campus. It’s called the Jubilee House. There are 4 seperate apartments and 1 studio in this house and I’m in one of them. It’s a one bedroom 1 bath and I have my own kitchen, but the dining space is what connects all the apartments. 

About an hour after arriving one of my worst fears was realized. I had been sitting on the floor of the living room checking my email and my phone rang, so I got up to answer it and, as i usually do on the phone, I started pacing around as I spoke to my friend Gretchen. I glanced over to where I’d been sitting a moment before and THE BIGGEST SPIDER I’VE EVER SEEN IN REAL LIFE was crawling out from the couch I’d been leaning against. It was AT LEAST the size of the palm of my hand. 

I freaked out. 

I have really bad arachniphobia (or some other spelled way). My first instict was apparently to scream the F-word at the top of my lungs repeatedly and jump on top of chair in the kitchen. I guess the spider had seen this move before because it (very slowly and very deliberately)  crawled from its position under the couch right up to the leg of the chair that I was jumping up an down and screaming on. I had no shoes on and there was nothing in reach to hit it with.

After a round of hyperventillation and asking myself if this was really happening, I jumped from the chair into my bedroom and grabbed a shoe. After catching my breath and cussing out the spider for being so big and freaky, I got close enough to it to swing my shoe. I hit the thing, but it did not squish. It exploded. All of its legs went everywhere and goo was all over the floor. I had to clean it up. It was as if I’d run over a small mammal with a car. this thing was huge. Then I found a live lizard under my computer desk. had I not gone out for drinks last night with some of the people here I would not have been able to sleep. Thank God for Blue Moon and Guinness.

So I woke up around 11 this morning and went for a walk around the farm. I made friends with goats here already. There are about 10 of them, and two can’t be more than a couple of weeks old. I realized today that I really want to own a goat someday. Anway, I found some old paths back in the woods and roamed around. The woods here are beautiful.

Every male I’ve met here has beard. The kind that they just forgot that was there apparently. I’ll be bathing frequently but i may end up forgetting to groom myself until i return to civilization. so If the next time we meet i have a fat beard and much longer hair, just know that the company I’m living with presently inspired me to stop being so damn vain.

There’s so much more i could say. I’d like to tell you about some of the people I’ve met and some of the more interesting conversations I’ve had thus far, but I’m really tired of blogging.

Til next time.
 

2 Cor. 13:14.

I miss the crap out of you guys. Christ is with us.
Drew

My first post! (live from San Francisco)

Hey kids!

This is my first time blogging in a very long time, and my first time blogging with the intention of it actually being read by a group of people. If my entries suck then so be it.

I arrived yesterday around 5 to Oakland airport and Dale Gish picked me up. Dale is the apprenticeship coordinator for Church of the Sojourners, the commune I’m hoping to land a year-long apprenticeship with starting this August. We had some good conversation on the way to the house I’m staying at (the community is made up of 4 houses and 1 apartment that they own/rent).

I arrived and had dinner with Dale and his wife, Debbie and there two wee daughters Rebecca(4) and…umm…I don’t remember the 3 month-olds name. but she’s soooooo cute.  I 3 of this years apprentices, two young ladies about 21 or so and Colin, who’s 25th birthday is actually today. I walked into his room and saw his bookshelf- loaded with all of my favorite books. We hit it off immediately. He’s going to be a teacher of some kind i believe. He showed me that he’s been brewing his own beer for the past 4 months or so and said he could teach me if I were interested. We had some. it was AMAZING. barleywine. yum.

I went next door (to another one of the communities’ houses) for Colin’s birthday party and met some more members of the community. Some of the them were upwords of 60, some in their 40s and 50s and most about 25-30. It just felt like a huge family. We played some games and had some beer and i got to meet a lot of people.

I actually met this guy named Tim Otto who co-wrote a book called “Inhabiting the Church”  about taking a 3-fold  benedictine vow that has been really helpful and impactful on me in the past 4 month or so. He’s an elder in the commune and I ended up talking for an hour or so with him, and it was very exciting. He asked for my number and we’re supposed to grab coffee or dinner before I leave. He told me that the kinds of question that I’m asking are why they created the apprenticeship in the first place and he’d be excited to have me around. He made me feel good about taking the steps I’ve taken to be here and to go to the Koinonia Farm (where he’s actually been a few times and he loves and respects the community there very much). It was affirming.

So I come home last from the party and sleep and wake up at 630 (we have daily prayer and teaching time at 645 am) and went into the kitchen. Colin was reading at the table and i ask “is it cool if i have a banana?” I didn’t want to steal anyone’s bananas.
He just looked at me kind of funny and said “Eat whatever you want, man…it’s a commune.”
and i realized that those bananas didn’t belong to anyone, but everyone. i liked it.

I went to prayer and teaching after that (lead by Tim Otto) and had a really great discussion about the suffering of the cross and what shape that actually takes within the Church. We talked about what is and what is not “cross suffering” ask defined by John Howard Yoder.

I think i’m going to love it here.

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