1 thought on “Young Christians prepare to spend ‘a year in God’s time’ at Lambeth Palace”

  1. ‘Intentional communities’ are back. TEC has given seed money to dioceses interested in hosting one for several years, but interest in the program risen sharply in the past few. Not far from where I am summering, the firehouse left behind by a once iconic, now defunct ’emerging’ congregation has been bought by a Reformed congregation with a passion for youth work. Soon eclectic young Christians who already read eg Wendell Berry, Stan Hauerwas, Dallas Willard, Shane Claiborne, and Brian McLaren will be opening fresh copies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together in their apartments over the high bays. Why?

    Over lunch, the Reformed pastor of the acquiring congregation looked me in the eye and declared, “Youth are not the future of the Church.” A veteran preacher, he paused for effect. “They are the present of the Church. The research from Barna and Pew make it clear that the old way of doing church is not going to continue. The Millennials are not going to inherit what we inherited, nor will they want what we have.”

    The view of an aging pastor with an unusual interest in ministry to youth? “When [the emerging church closed] I talked it over with [the executive for Reformed churches in the area], he made some calls, and we all agreed that this very creative community was too valuable to lose.” This is a time when idealistic fifty-something clergy can worry about losing the wisdom and experience of those who are twenty-something. “If we want to understand the new patterns of church in the twenty-first century, we need to be in on the discovery of them.” In this way, today’s intentional communities differ from today’s fresh expressions– both reach out to the young, but intentional communities seem especially mandated to find, not just a style of presentation, but a new pattern of relationships. Whether in a firehouse or a cathedral close, these communities are residential because they are not so much about reaching out as about reaching in to test new forms of community.

    This agrees well with the view of those likely to inhabit those apartments in the old firehouse. One who already does had me upstairs for coffee. A social worker influenced by Taize, the Catholic Worker houses, and even TEC, she imagines a Christianity that is far less docile than that of people sitting in rows facing an ordained talking head at the front of the room. “I like using the word ‘anarchy’ for this.” She means by this that members should initiate ‘missional’ groups and projects with a certain boldness that she finds lacking in congregations where ideas for action only come from or through one expert, as though nobody else could read a book or attend a conference. And while the word ‘anarchy’ could only be used ironically of the intentional community in Boston that resides by the TEC cathedral and lunched with one bishop or another about weekly, its members were similarly empowered to find a project worth doing in one of the city’s parishes or non-profits.

    The synergy of the best known conferences with missional gatherings they inspire in myriad communities continues to rival the older denominational hierarchy of parish councils, local deaneries, regional synods, and national conventions. Indeed, the emerging church at the firehouse officially submerged because a faction among them preferred closing to having an association with any denomination, including the one that initially paid their pastor and financed their building. To their credit, intentional communities like the one in Lambeth Palace and those in TEC have diverse residents who thrive on the challenge of hammering out a way of life with those of different Christian backgrounds.

    “Have you heard of ‘good disagreement’ in a conflict?,” I asked. No, she replied, she hadn’t. Thinking it might be useful, I explained.

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