I had lunch with Shane Claiborne today, one of the founders of The Simple Way in Philadelphia. By way of brief introduction, Shane’s group in Philadelphia is one of hundreds of intentional communities scattered throughout the country which believe that the Gospel gives us the great gift of living with other people, in community and mission. When Celina was getting ready to leave for Reba Place last month, I started toying with the idea of possibly systematically visiting various communities all over the nation, to see how different places do this thing called community. I’ll keep you posted on that, but after visiting with Shane, I was reminded that yes, this indeed is something I want: intentional community.
Not roommates, not people to share bills with: community, which helps us all actualize the great gift of having our chests pulled open and our lives transformed by encounter with one another, in prayer and in reality.
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The varieties of Christian community are as wide as the coastlines, and let me hear none of that crap about them all having to look the same. I’ve been in dialogue with some folks as of late who are convinced of the absolute validity of a particular form of church, and I’ll have none of that here. For the church to be church, it must be responsive to the transformative Word, which enters a situation from within and blows off the doors as to what it can be in response, incarnating the Gospel in new and stupefying ways. I dare them to live among the Bruderhof, the Catholic Worker, the Mennonite communities, the peace churches, and to tell them that their encounter with Christ in the world is insufficient.
In our lunch, I was surprised that for the first time in a long time, I was not inspired.
I was not stirred in my soul as to the possibilities.
I was not vaulted into the third heaven with mystical dreams of what could be.
Partly, I wasn’t inspired because I’ve heard this all before. Hell, I’ve even done some of this before. The issue is not with being given creative reorganization of my existing world, nor with needing a kick in the pants to restart the engine.
Because, frankly, I’m tired of being inspired. I am ready to be transformed.
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Whereas inspiration resides primarily in the reorganization of existing furniture, transformation means that a new moving van is coming in, one that you recognize, but importing new furniture that fits the house more appropriately than you could have ever concieved. It is, in the language of Jurgen Moltmann, the gift of the future, the gift of that life which is coming to meet us from beyond ourselves. I’ve had enough of being inspired to clean up the house, to wash the dishes, and to straighten up the shelves. I’m ready for the house to be gutted and outfitted with new pipes, new wiring, stripped floors and ceilings–functional, sturdy, able.
Inspiration is the lighting of a soul for a moment; transformation is the creation of a new soul altogether, one which we could not dreamed of before seeing. What Shane and those like him present the world with is not inspiration, and let us not cheapen their example by calling them shuffled cards; what they present us with are transformations: new things which were not, new ways which could not have been, brought into being by faithful response to the God who is always beginning and forever renewing.
Thanks, Myles. You’ve given me something to think about.
Comment by Ann — September 12, 2006 @ 2:22 pm
Five years of working in Christian retail gave me a lot of fodder to think over along this line as I continuously surveyed (and straightened) the abundance of Christian living books. I wafted between making jokes about them with some of my coworkers and a perceived need of reading them for myself – after all, it is what much of the non-seminary trained go for. I love your focus on transformation, but I wonder how to achieve it. How do we make analyzing the nuances of the Greek article for a paper we have due in three hours something that is as transformative as simplifying? I don’t think they are mutually exclusive. I think transformation is possible in the everyday, mundane, complicated chaos in which we live. It has to be. Community happens wherever people are – in simplicity or in complexity. Thanks for pointing out that the varieties of Christian expression are as boundless as God’s mercies.
Comment by Daryl — September 12, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Thanks for giving it some concreteness that I haven’t been able to.
I saw a study in today’s USA Today about perceptions of God that came out of Baylor. Interesting stuff…
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060912/1a_cover12.art.htm
Comment by Ally — September 12, 2006 @ 8:03 pm
I devoured Shane’s book. I think for an obu girl (or anyone who grew up in Christian education) the idea of intentionally living in this manner is so appealing. I’ve been threatening to run away to the Rutba house for awhile. Thanks for the thoughts.
Comment by lani — September 12, 2006 @ 8:56 pm
so, are you looking to this “intentional community” to transform you? are you thinking that this “having our chests pulled open and our lives transformed by encounter with one another, in prayer and in reality” is going to catapult you beyond the hollywood hills of inspiration and into the ghetto of gut-wrenching transformation? if you are looking towards a lifestyle or communal address to transform you, you will end up sadly uninspired and, well, the same.
i realize that you said this form of community “helps us all actualize the great gift” of transformation, but then you go on to say of shane and co. “what they present us with are transformations.” i am nit-picking your language here, not your heart.
and not to be preachy, but romans 12 says that we must “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” this is a spiritual act, not a lifestyle act. the new testament – especially the book of revelation – is chock full of attempts at lifestyle transformations. true, paul begins such a section by encouraging us to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (whatever that means for a given person in a given moment of a given lifespan), however, paul says this after laying a strong foundation for the power of salvation through Christ alone – not works, not efforts, not circumcision, not new forms of lifestyle – but through Christ, His Spirit and, what you labelled here as, the transformative Word.
i am all for you living in “intentional community” because i know it jazzes you out and you see the gospel there. hell, i’ll even help you move and buy you a kitten calendar for the wall. you know that i do not feel this thing the way you do. i see the value of community and Jesus being uplifted there, but there is nothing inside me that wants to move in. and i am content with that. what i am not cool with is a thought that “intentional community” will draw something out of you, or others, that only the Holy Spirit through the Blood of Christ can draw forth: a new creation. i know you know this, like i said, i am nit-picking your language here; but the wording of this particular post puts a great deal of saving grace power (of new furniture) in the hands of a community (a new residence and lifestyle) more than Christ’s. i do not think you really want to communicate that. i know you do not really believe that.
nevertheless, i do appreciate your distinction between inspiration and transformation. daryl’s comments is one of the best i have ever seen on any of your posts to date – excluding seanboy’s random-ditties.
Comment by hamster — September 12, 2006 @ 9:33 pm
i absolutely believe that ultimately, it is the Spirit encountering a person that transforms them, but I can’t separate out the ways and means. The church is a gift, and the transformation that occurs there is a gift; I’m not saying that God can’t change my heart on a mountain side by myself, which has happened; I’m saying that the gift of the community is more than just inspiration–it is the vehicle of transformation of the Spirit.
it’s the mystery of the incarnation, that neither the human nor the spirit can be done without.
Comment by myles — September 12, 2006 @ 10:10 pm
totally. and that is why i nit-picked the vernacular in your post. the words just seemed – to me, perhaps to no one else – to weigh a little heavy on the glory of the community side, which i know you see as one Spirit vehicle towards transformation, as a gift to aide in realizing transformation. like i said, i was not nit-picking your heart one bit.
i appreciate you saying the church is a gift. say that again. say that often. the amputated body needs the stitches you say there.
i do like the emphasis you are putting on “the ways and means” as of lately. i appreciate that you see a plethera of paths to one destination. i also appreciate your angst towards minds set on one particular path. i’m anxious to see more of that here.
a message on my machine as of recently hints that you may have a great deal more to say – or say again – about a certain wynona rider film showcasing a fiasco with credit cards and psychic hotlines. i am still not convinced the masses are as convinced as you are convinced they should be. so hop to it. all of it.
Comment by hamster — September 13, 2006 @ 6:59 pm
[...] Along the line, this week I read a posting in the blog of someone I went to college with. The entry is here. Myles talked about meeting with someone who lives in an intentionally simplified community, and how he (Myles, not the intentional community guru) was surprised that he was not suddenly urged on to seek out this kind of community as he had in the past. [...]
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