This coming October will mark one year of my family living in some form of intentional community with other believers. The term, "Intentional Community," refers to a group of people that live together for the purpose of experiencing Koinonia. Koinonia is the Greek word from which we get the English word "Community," which basically means to have everything in common (See Acts 4:32). This word is used in several places in the New Testament, especially in connection with the early church.
It is interesting to me that, although this idea seems to be a direct result of a common desire to pursue biblical community and how that points us closer to our Father, most of the intentional communities out there right now appear to have a drastically different goal... mostly due to the fact that most of them don't really seem to be interested in Jesus. (You can look for yourself on the Fellowship of Intentional Communities website).
Allie and I experienced this first hand a couple of weeks ago when we visited The Farm: one of the most famous IC's in the nation. The Farm was founded by Steven and Ina May Gaskin in the 70's as a commune, but had to digress to an intentional community in the early 80's because they're were like $100,000 in debt. It was basically like the mecca of hippy-commune living before reality caught up to them. Now it's just a regular neighborhood, except it's spread out on a big farm and there's a rigid membership process. We did find some people our age, that actually cared about living in community, but even that was more based on a common interest of natural living and organic farming rather than enjoying the fellowship of living with others.
So my family and I have lived in intentional community for almost a year now, which means that it has been almost a year since we have had a home to ourselves and frankly, I hope we never go back. Needless to say, we've learned a lot in this past year. Probably the most important thing we've learned is that community doesn't work unless you want it to. And it takes no small measure of desire for it to work either. You have to want it more than you want to be comfortable, which is inherently antithetical to the typical American lifestyle. The only way community can work is if you're actually in community with the people you're around; this means spending time with them and you guessed it: that time has to be intentional.
Believe it or not, you can live with someone for a long time and never spend time with them. I had several room mates in college of whom I knew nothing about! Intentional time with brothers and sisters for the purpose of community means turning off the distractions, avoiding any kind of maintenance or logistical talk (which needs to take place but in it's own time... it's of much lesser importance) and just sitting with each other and talking. It's fine if you start off with small talk as long as your intention is to pursue community through quality time spent together. Eventually it'll lead to sharing your heart. It will lead to love expressed through the admiration of the Body of Christ. These talks are not about interests or hobbies, those have their place as well, but these talks are sometimes uncomfortable and always rewarding. These talks are sometimes messy, but always redeeming. It's sharing the things you usually don't want to talk about because you care about community. It's opening the door of unity with your family for the sake of having everything in common. Common Unity.
And guess what! This applies to all relationships! The most important tool for marriage, we learned through living with others. If Allie and I don't have these talks on a regular basis, we break....which brings me to my main point:
We need this time with Jesus.
Time.
He is our perfect picture of community, because He created it! We were created for community with Him! Not to discuss theology or logistics. Not to ask Him for things. Not to try to figure out his plan for our lives. Although these things are very good and need their own time, we need time to just to sit with our Father. We need time to ask Him what He wants to tell us and the give Him the time to do so.
You know why we need this time with Him? Because He's worth it. Maybe you have never just sat down somewhere without distractions and didn't open your Bible or notebook but just asked Jesus to come sit with you....if you haven't done this then you must! This incredibly simple act could change your entire life! If that sounds dramatic, think about who you're inviting to sit with you! The star breather, the artist of time, the musician of nature. He's the one who crafted the Matterhorn out of nothing. He's the man who braided a whip to drive out the businessmen from His temple of worship. He's the man who lifted the hearts of the downcast so they would be certain that He loved them fiercely.
That one.
He wants to be with you continually and if you just take the time to sit with Him and listen to what He has to say, He could tell you something that could drastically change the course of your life.
Spend this time with Him.... it could literally change everything.
-Trey
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