A week after arriving back from our stay at the Bruderhof Christian community in Darvell, East Sussex, I’m sitting in my brand new home office, created from our recently-completed loft conversion. The office is exactly as I planned and dreamt: timber lined (for that modern, cool work atmosphere), birch ply work desk, shelves perfectly placed for my office HiFi, plants dotted around the room, map on the wall and a comfy wing-back arm-chair for my moments of “pondering”. With plenty of interesting work in my schedule, I should be absolutely chuffed. But in this moment, I’m not. My stomach is in knots; I can’t think or work properly. The things I usually like and enjoy have lost their shine. All I can think about is the community we departed from a week ago. In this moment I realise that something very deep in me has shifted, and become conscious again of the many aspects of my life that are centred around what I want, rather than what God wants from me.
The roots of my faith and belief in Jesus run deep, and extend to taking every word of the Bible seriously. Giving up on any prioritisation of what I want no doubt sounds extreme and foolish to a non-believer, and may even be argued against by some believers. “God surely wants us to be happy”, some Christians might say. One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy, and it is absolutely God’s desire for us to experience it - a deep, pure and full joy. But the path to this joy is not chasing or achieving the things that most of the (Western) world chases. It is found, I believe, only in full submission and obedience to Christ. It is good to remember Jesus’ words to his disciples, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Matthew 16:25). I, along with my wife Jean, are committed to being “all in” followers of Christ. We know that Jesus does not call us to be half-hearted followers of the Way. These words are as convicting to me as they might be to you, because examining my life truthfully and honestly doesn’t reveal a life that has been “all in” following Christ. I do serve God faithfully, especially through busy and active service in our local church, but I feel God calling me to a higher level of submission and obedience. To me, being an “all in” follower of Christ means making God’s priorities my priorities.
A passage of scripture that I have been meditating on a lot in the context of this deep “pull” that I feel towards the Bruderhof, is the part of Jesus’ sermon on the mount talking about salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16), along with Jesus’ teachings in John [15 and 17] about being “in the world, but not of the world”. There is a valid argument from these scriptures against being part of a community where many of the members are less in the world than I am in my current life. But those members, and the community as a whole, are also significantly less of the world than I am. I might still say that the ultimate is pursuing in without being of, but I have always had this aim in my Christian journey, yet have been stuck a long way short for a long time, and do not have any sign of immediate progress. The one unique aspect of a community church like the Bruderhof which can redeem individuals being less in the world, is the idea that a community as a whole can be a very bright “city on a hill”. The potential for this seems significant and real to me. The further our societies drift from a Christ-centred value system, with symptoms of ever-increasing division, depression, poverty and inequality (to name just a few), the more the Bruderhof communities stand out as a highly compelling alternative to the “normal” way of life. Need I remind you, the reader: at the Bruderhof there is no poverty. Relational and marital conflicts still occur within the Bruderhof, but you are surrounded by people who love you and want to support you and your family back to full health and unity (which is especially successful when done with the values and perspective of the author of marriage, family and relationships).
I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not making an argument that a community-living Church like the Bruderhof is the only valid type of church and that all Christians should consider leaving their conventional churches to join one. In fact, I believe that would be a backwards step for the advancement of God’s Kingdom here on earth. I mentioned already (in Part II) the example of Dave and Katie Fawcett making God’s Kingdom priorities their priorities with the charity they founded. And I’m certain that there are many more people implementing God-given ideas with the support of local churches, and others of those same local churches who are shining and sharing God’s light in the world around them. These people are playing their part of bringing the hope of the gospel to their world.
But for me, it is my responsibility to assess my life, choices and priorities honestly, and listen to how God is calling me to live. If I believe that being part of a community-living church is going to enable me to live closer to the way He is calling me to, then I have to seriously consider it, regardless of the sacrifice. That sacrifice may seem significant, and indeed it is, but when I consider the sacrifice of Paul it seems less so. We are not told how wealthy Paul (then Saul) was, but as a noted member of the Pharisees it is very unlikely that he was poor. Yet we know that whatever wealth he did have was given up for the cause of Christ. He writes to the Corinthian church, “I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.” (2 Corinthians 11:27b). Life as a part of the Bruderhof may involve sacrifices, but it is still very comfortable compared to Paul’s.
A central feature of the Bruderhof communities mentioned in Part 1 of the blog is that of having no private property. Resources (including money) and possessions are administered collectively and shared among members of the community. This “feature” is without doubt the one that triggers the strongest reaction - often objection - from those learning about this kind of church, and the basis that objectors will often use to slap the “cult” or “sect” label on it. Out of interest, I looked up the dictionary definition of “sect”, which [from Oxford Languages] is “a group of people with somewhat different religious beliefs (typically regarded as heretical) from those of a larger group to which they belong”. The thing is, to join the Bruderhof would not require me to change any of the core Christian beliefs that I have held for the 20-odd years that I’ve been a professing Christian. The thing that would change is the expression of those beliefs. Everything that I’ve seen (experienced) and read about the Bruderhof so far affirms their deep desire to follow the teachings of the Bible - the same Bible that I read - and without any intention to shift or twist those teachings. John 17:22-23 says “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” I have read this multiple times in the past, believing absolutely that God calls us to “perfect unity”. But I have not expressed it in the way that it can potentially be expressed in a church community.
So if the core beliefs are the same, they cannot be a sect. As Jean and I have started to share this journey with people in our world, both close and not-so-close, there has been a mixture of responses. Both support and encouragement, (including from our current church family, to their great credit!), along with caution and outright objection. Some of this is natural and expected - there have been scores of failed intentional communities over the years, and I’m sure there are some which are unhealthy, even dangerous, but still going; Christian in name but certainly not in nature. Anyone with wisdom will agree that it is wrong to tar them all with the same brush. As for the Bruderhof, 100 years old and still growing in size and spread cannot be ignored.
In regards to giving up all possessions, as I sit and ponder all of this, looking around at all the great “stuff” that we have, I feel only a sense of the “weight” of all of the possessions. They are tying me down in place and situation, and I have a sudden urge to be free of that weight. I have read stories from people who have given up everything for this kind of life, describing the “lightness” of having no possessions of their own (which is not to have no possessions “full stop”). Giving over ultimate authority for what is provided to you has the obvious potential for exploitation, and I’m sure that exploitation of this nature is, at least in part, what has caused the implosion of many other intentional communities. If the motive is power or control, then a community could rightly be called a sect - this motive is the opposite of Jesus’ teachings. So long as Jesus truly remains front and centre of community life, there appears to me the potential to experience the joy of sharing all things, remaining confident and comfortable that the needs and desires of community members are a priority for the leadership team who administer these.
As I continue to ponder I get a brief sense of this “lightness”, and I am eager to experience it more. Whilst I am having these feelings, I’m aware that God may not call all believers to this particular expression in their Christian life. A number of years ago my wife Jean received the prophetic words to her, to “travel light”. The simplicity of this phrase belies its significance to us. I know it was from God as it has regularly been brought up into my consciousness, but I have pushed it back down as we have been busy getting settled in a “conventional” life. But if we jump in boots and all to community living, has all the effort of building our “conventional life”, with our just-completed house renovation, been a waste? As well as being confident that we have been living and serving God where He wanted us over the past 9 years, I have the realisation that we need to have achieved our major dream (in the conventional-living sphere) to be able to give it up and commit to a new path in life without looking back. If we were to commit to community life for the long-term and we hadn’t experienced a full measure of our “conventional life” dreams before-hand, then in the challenging times (of which I’m sure there would be plenty) we could suffer much more easily from the debilitating temptation to look back and think that [sticking with] conventional life would have been better.
All of this might sound like I am ready to jump in and make a lifetime commitment to this church and community life immediately. But I still have questions, moments of doubt, and things that I potentially fear. In the couple of weeks following our visit, Jean and I spend a lot of time re-reading scriptures in the New Testament and praying for God’s direction. Before long, we start to believe that our encounter with the Bruderhof has been divinely planned, and that He is leading us in a new direction to this community, despite aspects of this plan that still don’t make complete sense, and that challenge aspects of our faith as we currently live it. We are taking our steps to this new and radically different life very cautiously. We have asked to stay with the Bruderhof community in East Sussex from January of next year. For exactly how long is yet to be determined, but we will be listening closely to God’s voice, and continue to follow His leading. While I don’t know yet if God’s plan for us is a short stay, extended stay or lifetime membership, I know that He is leading us there, and that we will follow. And if it is God’s plan for us to be at the Bruderhof for the long-term, then it will be my goal to play my part in making the light of this “city” shine bright, and give the world every chance to see it.
I'll be back!
For everyone who is interested and following our journey, both supporters and objectors, I will make a firm commitment to follow up within a year (or sooner if appropriate) and report back honestly and candidly on our time in the community. If you are interested in finding out more about life in the Bruderhof, you COULD watch the doco which is still available on the iPlayer (called, Inside the Bruderhof), but I would more strongly recommend their book, “Another life is possible”. While the BBC documentary gives a snapshot of their lives and way of living, it doesn’t communicate as clearly the “WHY” behind their lives and church, and also makes the community appear more isolated than what we found it to be. The book is a balance of outstanding photography, combined with people’s stories about how and why they left their previous lives behind to join this Christian community. For anyone interested, it is available here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Another-Life-Is-Possible/9780874863161
No comments:
Post a Comment