Members of the Bruderhof Communities will convey some of the lessons they have learned through the recent unsettled times and find similarities with the historical context surrounding the Bruderhof beginnings in Germany, 100 years ago.
Read morePart 3: Called to Community Webinar- Englewood Church in Indianapolis
Members of Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana will tell their story of how the 125-year old congregation has found new life over the last 25 years- going from a dwindling mainline church to a vibrant neighborhood based congregation with a strong community development flavor.
Read morePart 2 : Called to Community Webinar- Hope Fellowship in Waco, Texas
“The Cost of Discipleship in Community: God’s Upside Down Blessing.”
This week Fernando Arroyo, Ruth Boardman-Alexander, Nancy Gatlin, and Joe Gatlin will share their personal experiences of both the cost and the blessings of life in Hope Fellowship, an urban, bilingual community of about 70 people in Waco, Texas.
Read morePart 1: Called to Community Webinar - Eden Community in Abilene, Texas
This is a video recording of the first Called to Community workshop featuring Eden. Entitled: “Joy Fueled: Four Stories That Form Our Life in God Together”
Read moreAbiding in Christ during a Global Crisis
Matt Porter is on the leadership of Hope Fellowship (pictured here with encouraging signs for their neighborhood).
A novel coronavirus has brought great suffering to thousands and will eventually reach us all, and many of our communities have or will soon reconsider many of our practices of gathering together and sharing communion in various ways. We live, love, feel and worship in our bodies, and we are becoming keenly aware that we are putting these bodies at risk by our proximity.
Read morePandemic Love
15th-century image by Jacopo Oddi from the La Franceschina codex depicting Franciscan monks treating victims of the plague/leprosy in Italy
The Avian flu, the Swine flu, Ebola, and now the Coronavirus with the possibility of a world pandemic. It’s in the News everywhere, it is unnerving, markets are shaking, people are scared silly that it will strike them and their loved ones.One has only to recall history to realize that global killers have plagued human civilization. But, surprisingly, history also tells us that where death looms large so do acts of love.
Read moreLove for Lent
During Lent, when we remember Christ’s death, let’s not forget that the Roman Empire executed Jesus as a political threat. As we face into an election year in the U.S., we need to recall the political witness of Jesus, whose central teaching is, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
Rather than giving up something small like sugar for Lent, let’s take up Jesus’ political witness.
Read moreA Rhythm of Wholeness
My journey in community has been a quest for wholeness and connection, a desire to belong to something beyond myself, and to seek to live a life that is in touch with the Spirit, with my fellow humans, and with the natural world. I believe that we come together in our longing for the wholeness of one another and of all of creation, that everything belongs.
Read moreCommunities Celebrating Advent
Many of us have individual and family traditions that we practice in advent, but how do communities celebrate this season in their life together?
This month we wanted to highlight how different communities celebrate advent.
Julius Besler: Advocate, Co-worker, Schemer of Good Deeds, and Prophet of God
Julius in the Clearing Household around 2014. He is in the middle with a red sweater.
This is an excerpt from David Janzen's upcoming book Seven Radical Elders.
I wake up this morning with both a heavy and a grateful heart because my compassionate friend, faithful mentor, best advocate, inspired co-worker, unstoppable imaginer of new projects Julius Besler, is dying.
Read more"Community First" in 21st Century Austin
In 2013 David Janzen in one of his Nurturing Communities missives reported on his visits with several Texas communities. Steven Hebbard, a young, “energetic and creative community organizer,” had taken him outside of Austin and showed him plans for a a new, model community for more than 200 formerly homeless people and volunteers.
Read more"Valle Nuevo" in El Salvador
Just how difficult can it be to transition leadership of a community from one generation to the next?
Pastor (that is his Spanish name, not his title) is always respectful of the youth who have begun to emerge as leaders in this rural community of campesinos in northern El Salvador who had to flee their country in front of government death squads during the civil war…
Read more