Christian communes

[seaglass27]

What are your thoughts on these? I always thought it was neat how the early church pooled all their resources and now I find out that there are modern-day Christian communes. I think it would be awesome to live together with other Christians in mutual support.

[K. Ayato]

Until one of them says "I want my stuff back".

[Rusty Claymore]

I agree that there would be lots of benefits to holding stuff in common, and could definitely be considered Ideal.

I don't think it could trully work for very long today. It takes a [I]lot[I] of deep christian character. I don't believe I'm there, that's for sure... >_<

[seaglass27]

Yeah, the reason communes fail is because of selfishness. It's important to find the right people to join up with.

[Atria35]

Communes are interesting, but the other problem (besides selfishness) is the lack of interaction with other people. People that come out of these communities tend to be... a little strange. It renders them more susceptable to cult thinking because they're more closed-off and can make it harder to interact with those that aren't Christian because it also creates a mindset of staying apart and not interacting with them.

[Dante]

I actually just thought of a functional modern commune (from the old days). Monasteries.

Those of us who are monastics lives a simple, disciplined life focused on God. All aspects of monastic life are structured to allow us to make faith the focus of our lives. We order our lives in such a way that we can focus our energy on being open to God’s re-creating, transformative power. We live simply, in community, sharing all our resources and creating structured, consistent time for prayer and contemplation.

So there are healthy communes out there, but if you're under the age of 45, don't go running off to join one. When you're young, you know so little about yourself. At your age, I was going through a communist kick and naturally, communes sounded awesome (What you're describing is essentially Christian Socialism).

As I got older, however, I realized that unless I was strong enough to set up the structure myself - I would never be the right kind of person that was strong enough to live in such a structure. Instead, I came to the following conclusion. If I believed in a certain lifestyle as an important aspect of my ethics, I should reflect that lifestyle with my actions. Then the system wouldn't fail because of others, it would fail because my ideas were wrong (giving me valuable insights) or because I failed to live up to my own ethics (always accept that you may be a hypocrite).

So if I felt communism was important, nothing stops me from creating a business and then splitting the profits evenly among all of my employees (treating myself as just another employee). In fact, as long as I can make the money to pull it off, nothing stops me from creating my vision of paradise for all of my employees.

You could also try living together with friends. In my own life, working hard to buy a house (while the market is low) so that my friends and I would never have to pay rent while enjoying each-others company has always been a personal dream of mine. That's also a kind of commune, and given that it's shared with people you hopefully love, it's far more likely to succeed... but not guaranteed (I already realize that I'm going to have to prepare for A) different lifestyles and B) drama). You're not isolated in such a living style either - you just share many of the different costs of living to make room for the more enjoyable aspects of life for all of you (Your parents used it all the time, it's five living for piratically the price of one). You also build dependency upon one another, which builds trust and love and other fond wonderful emotions - but you have to love them too to ever hope to gain these rare treasures.

Finally - if that doesn't work - many people start families, using the love of their husbands/wives/children as the foundation for their own little commune. After all, whether we realize it or not, the homes we grew up in as children are still communal environments, where multiple people share the same household.

[Nate]

That sounds like socialism, Jesus don't take kindly to folks like you, and neither do us God-fearing 'MURICANS.

[seaglass27]

@Atria Yes, I would definitely want to join one with a huge emphasis on ministry, being in the world but not of it.

@Dante The school I'm in is already a bit like one. We basically share everything.

[Iconodule]

Christian communes, by that do you mean an exclusive community for Christians? Christians have always lived in communities composed of different people and typically it was only the monastics who lived in such communes to focus on spirutual development.

I don't think theres anything particularly wrong wtih the idea, its not encumbent on anyone.

[seaglass27]

Yes, a community exclusively for Christians to help provide for one another and to grow spiritually together.

[Makachop^^128]

I think its a sweet idea, but I don't know if it would work in the end, also I think God wants us to live among the world to be a witness, not just hide away.
But I do believe Christians should work together to make their community better, but not exclusively just for Christians.

[AdriTan]

I think its a sweet idea, but I don't know if it would work in the end, also I think God wants us to live among the world to be a witness, not just hide away.
But I do believe Christians should work together to make their community better, but not exclusively just for Christians.

This. All the way. You can't witness to people if your locked away in your little bubble of "perfect." I went to a church that was kind of like this, and the thing is they are so cult like that they still to this day keep making people want to just leave. That doesn't help people and it doesn't help them either. If Christians are going to live in this type of community, they need to get out to other types of communities. There are people out there who will never know the love of God if we all just sit and knit. Sorry if this comes out harsh, I just feel a passion for those who don't want to or cant go to churchy surroundings because of where they live. (I.e. villages of natives throughout the world.)

[Hugo Bernhardt]

Sorry, I know this thread is old, but i just found it.

I live in a Christian commune, and I'm not sure I would want to ever live differently.

Communes can be a place to have a more intense discipleship training - with maybe a core of people who give spiritual direction to young Christians who stay for a while to learn and then move on.
Communes often practice hospitality - giving a place of refuge to those in financial or emotional distress.
Some get together to do missions together (the one I'm in started as a traveling evangelistic team). Others exist to be a place of support to Christians doing various individual missions/pastoral work.
I've heard of some that emphasize prayer.

Few communes that I know of fully share personal resources. Some do communal meals, some function more as boarding houses, which each member paying a certain amount of rent.

Feel free to reply or PM if you have more questions.