Meeting Notes: June 8, 2006

General Thoughts

1. The blog is the best way to communicate between meetings.
2. We received an email about another’s experiences as a married couple living in community. This email is posted on the blog.
3. We’ll use other’s experiences as resources, scripture as our foundation and literature on the subject as tools to help us build this community.

Discussion on the First 5 Chapter’s of Acts:

Nick: Every time I read this, I find something new. I realized that Jesus speaks mostly of “the kingdom” and not salvation. (Acts 1:3) I feel I have been missing out by following the “normal path” and the American Dream. I want to love people the way that Jesus Christ loves people and I don’t think I can do this in isolation.

Ian: Living in community brings the kingdom to earth

Clint: I feel that there is a competition between the risky/scary/Acts life vs. the religious life. We think and talk about it but don’t really live like that. Just as we are tempted by material things, so Satan tempted Jesus saying “All this could be yours.”

Ian: We’ve all had these dreams [of material success] since we were a little child. We were programmed that way. Community can help keep the lust of our eyes in check. In acts, Jesus spends 40 days living in community with the disciples. (The great commission was not the end of Jesus’ teachings.) He tells the disciples “Don’t go anywhere; stay here until the Holy Spirit comes” This community [that Jesus and disciples were living in] was organic [growing and developing naturally] but with structure to it. It is here that Jesus preaches about the kingdom in the intimate setting of community. [One of the benefits of community is that it is an ideal place to teach and learn.] In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes and makes a mess and Peter is activated, urging people to “get out of this sick and stupid culture.”

The disciples were committed to:

1. Teaching of the apostles
2. Life together
3. Common meals
4. Prayer

And the people were in awe. Do we regard these [as important]?

A danger that we should avoid is focusing inward. This will kill us. In Acts 3, supernatural things start to happen [perhaps as a result of living in community] and the blessing spread to the outside community.

Megan: You have to truly know Jesus so that you can heal people. I want to know him that way.

Clint: But we have to choose. The way we live now can be like serving money. And we can’t serve both God and mammoth.

Group Thoughts

- Some of us have a fear of pain. What would it be like to live without insurance? Others of us have fears of many other things. Living in community could help to disarm those fears by providing solutions to our problems without the World’s help.

- Sometimes we forget that there is a COST to following Jesus. The church does not teach on this. We are told that salvation is free. Yes it is free, but following Jesus is not.

- It is vital to have continual accountability from the outside. The disciples were devoted to the teaching of the apostles. (We need to ask ourselves whether we believe that the teaching of the apostles is a doctrine that was written down or whether the term apostle is a title given to those in charge.)

- If we submit ourselves to the authority of an outside group, we will be blessed, even if this outside group is lacking or makes us come up short. The idea that others cannot be our authority because “they don’t know because they don’t live here” is not true. Even those outside our group should be able to give us insight into our situations.

- The world (and our own instincts, instilled in us by the world) may tell us to walk away if it gets tough. “You’re number one” the world will say “Look out for yourself”

- We could use community as a tool for many things from eliminating fear in our members (which will free them to be used as God’s instruments) to church planting. Community should be an alternative way of living within the church. Although it should remain a small group, it should never be detached from the church because “Lions attack those by themselves.” If we have many small communities and try to merge them into a larger community, we have just recreated organized religion. People should be able to come and go as they please if they want to leave for whatever reason. We should bless and support those who leave. The bigger that we get, the more we will concern ourselves with money. The circulation of people and ideas is important.

- Community is central to the Holy Spirit’s power. Repent means to change.

- You are free to do what you want with your life. The scriptures give us questions to ask ourselves and each other about our lifestyles.

- We should embrace the process of brainstorming and forming the community and let this natural process bring us to the goal of living together.

Practical Things For Next Time

- Keep reading Acts

- We need to think about what % of our income we will put into our community purse. We are currently at zero percent. The disciples lived at 100% community purse. We need to adjust slowly and make regular evaluations as a group. In this way we can keep away from the shock that may damage and/or disable us from living together as a community.

- We need to start thinking of practical ways we can use our resources better. We all have our “Starbucks” factor. Those little luxuries we indulge in on a regular basis. If we cut back on a few of those and used that money in a practical way, we could begin to live more frugally. An example of this may be creating a wall of “adopted” children’s pictures. Instead of buying our little luxuries, we could use that money to support children abroad who need help. Think of other ways we could start using our money more resourcefully. We think that projects are better than just “saving up” to give to charity because they help us manage our resources.

Quotes and Thoughts from Individual Members (Jessy to update later on…)