Bechurch…

This post represents several new beginnings for me.  First, and most simply, this is my first post to this blog.  There are, however, several other and more complicated beginnings that I am experiencing.

This week marks the first time that I am living outside of New Jersey. So, I am beginning my life away from New Jersey.  I am having mixed feelings about this particular new beginning.  On one hand, I am extremely excited to be following God’s call to Haverhill, MA and to be partnering with Farrah, Melissa and Ben in this new ministry.  This should be quite an adventure, and I can’t wait to dive in head first.  On the other hand, I will be leaving behind my family, friends and the place I called home for my whole life.  I will deeply miss all of them, and a piece of me will always still be with them in NJ.  To all of you back home who are reading this post: I love you and miss you.

This week is also the beginning of my life in intentional community.  That is supposed to be the main focus of this post, so I should probably say a thing or two about it.  This new beginning is also one that I have mixed feelings about.  It has been difficult trying to explain to friends and family that I will be living in intentional community where we will be sharing common food, belongings, prayer life, and even finances.  Usually I here the reply, “So, you are joining a commune”.  I typically don’t know the best way to respond to that, so I laugh and give up on trying to explain any further.  This type of conversation tempts me to second guess what the four of us are getting ourselves into.  I want to try to come up with reasons why it is a bad idea or why it won’t work.

There have also been times where I have felt like moving into intentional community means sacrificing my personal time, space and possessions.  In a way this is true, but I believe that my feeling like I am losing something valuable is due to my cultural conditioning.  Even as we have been setting up the house, I have had moments where a voice deep inside me is throwing a tantrum saying, “I want to hang my pictures one whatever walls I want in my own room.  I want to put my stuff where I want.  I want the temperature and lighting and sound exactly how I want it.”  But the truth is, these are not the things that I really want.

What I want from intentional community is a spiritual life that I share with others on a daily basis.  I want to sit down around a table for meals and have conversation with good friends.  I want to share the possessions that I have been blessed to receive with others, so that others might be blessed by them as well.  I want to have my life ordered in a way that helps me to stay more connected with God, with others, and with myself.  I believe that living in intentional Christian community is the way that I am being called to fulfill all of these desires.

Well, I have to say that it is hard to believe this time has come!  The four of us have been talking about living in community for quite some time and we now find ourselves in the midst of it.  Matt and I officially moved in as of Saturday evening and the space is already transforming into our new home as a community!

Leading up to this point, I have been thinking about what it would actually be like to live in intentional Christian community with Ben and Melissa.  After all, I’ve never done it before and no-one I know has ever done it before either.  When I shared with others what the four of us were planning to do, I received mixed reactions.  Some people were very excited and offered words of encouragement while others were concerned for us on a practical level (will we have enough money to live on?  what happens if we get into a fight?).  Even though this is unknown territory for me and I heard some words of caution, I believe this is an irrefutable calling that the four of us have heard together.

I expect in this venture among the four of us, we will encounter times of dispute, times when we want to retreat to another room on the far side of the house, times of confusion as to what course to take next, etc.  However, I also anticipate times of deep joy, times of discovery and growth, and times when we are incredibly appreciative of the gifts one another brings to the community.

Living in intentional community is something that we will all be living into, and I believe it will grow richer with each passing day.  We have no idea how God is going to work in our lives and hearts in these coming months and years ahead.  It is exciting to think about the endless possibilities and to continue to dream dreams together.  I hope that we will always keep our hearts open to the moments that will take place in this community as well as the people who will walk through our doors.

So, here we go into unknown territory.  As we go, I’m reminded of a verse I randomly came across recently from Hebrews:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  It’s time to take this exciting leap of faith with the hope that God will work through each one of us to touch each other’s lives and the lives of those we have yet to meet.

Matt and Farrah moved their stuff in last Tuesday and themselves (officially) in this past Friday!  Here are some pictures of the move…

For a few more pictures, check out the pics on Facebook.  Enjoy!  Let us know what you think…or if you have any decorating tips.

After talking and dreaming for the past couple years, the day is finally here - when everything that we’ve prayed about and talked about is becoming reality. Matt and Farrah are moving in with Ben and I today to begin this wild and crazy new ministry in the city of Haverhill.

I expect it is going to be a lot like getting married all over again. New likes and dislikes to get used to, new habits to figure out, new ways to parse out the chores, new fights and irritations and annoyances, but also new joys and new times of laughter. I expect things will be rough at times, but I also expect that through our times of prayer that my own spiritual life - and life in general! - will be deeply enriched by living with Matt and Farrah. I’m looking forward to getting into a prayer routine with them - morning and evening prayer - and using that as the foundation for my own daily devotional life (or more honestly, jump starting that part of my daily discipline).

(several hours and a day or two passes…)

We moved Matt and Farrah in and I am still just so excited to be in community together.  We haven’t quite yet experienced it - they’re off visiting their folks and cleaning their apartment in NJ, but they’ll be back Friday night.  I’ve got some pictures from the move in that I’ll be posting within the next couple of days!

The house isn’t too much of a disaster; we committed to making the living room habitable and the kitchen functional before calling it quits late Tuesday evening.  Ben and I are in the midst of painting the room that will be our bedroom; we’ve finished all the trim work and finally settled on a cranberry color for the walls.  The room should be mostly ready to move into on Friday night (or Saturday morning…aiming for tomorrow night though!)

More to come in the days ahead…

Matt and Farrah are about halfway moved in; and so as we begin our new ministry together, we’re all going to take a post and talk about our dreams and expectations for what it will mean to live in community together.

For me, it’s been an odd experience talking to people about our future plans during these past couple years of preparation. The majority (a slim majority, but a majority) of people, when we tell about this new ministry, get excited, are encouraging, and tell us that we can’t wait to see what they and the church can learn from it.

However, when we mention the intentional community, their face takes that unmistakable  “they’re just young and naive” expression, (f you’ve ever been young and idealistic, you know what I’m talking about!)  and they feel it their duty to caution us, explaining “you’re going to argue a lot”, “how are you going to make a budget?”, “living in community is difficult”, “how are you going to find alone time?”, etc.  In many cases, the subtext is this: don’t get too attached to this idea, because it probably won’t work.

For a while, I found, that in my haste to convince people that yes, I did have two feet (or at least one foot) firmly planted on the ground, that I would automatically add provisos when introducing our intentional community, “yes, we’re living in community and we know it will be tough; yes, we realize we’ll get on each other’s nerves; yes, we know that it’ll be tough figuring out living space”, even before people began asking questions.

This past week, I realized that I’m tired of apologizing for wanting to live in intentional community. I’m tired of people considering it a mark of my naievete. I’m tired of people thinking it isn’t possible to live in a way that, in fact, most humans have lived over the course of our history as a species.  And so, let me officially state: I am genuinely looking forward to this! Here are a few reasons (out of hundreds!) why:

1) The richness of our spiritual life together – I’ll be living 24/7 with other Christians, will practice spiritual disciplines with them, held accountable by them, and pray with them twice a day.

2) Shared resources/chores – Less money required for entertainment, for resources such as food or household supplies, less time required for chores and household maintenance, more time and money to spend in the community, blessing people’s lives.

3) A common purpose – Anyone who’s ever been on a mission trip, served on a team for a big project, or participated in a political campaign knows what I’m talking about -  a common purpose doesn’t just drive you forwards, it binds you together with others who are journeying with you; as Alan Hirsch might say, it’s communitas, not community.

4) I like the people I’m living with (a lot!) – Obviously, I’m a big fan of Melissa; but I must say, Matt and Farrah are simply wonderful people. I admire and respect them, love hanging out with them, and am looking forward to getting more involved in their lives!

- Ben Y-D

A poem from my sermon on Pentecost Sunday

Do you burn?

With grief? With anger?

With worry? With despair?

With joy? With hope?

Do you burn?

For standing firm in changing sands?

For closing eyes in future times?

For your hope for a better tomorrow?

Do you burn?

For people? For progress?

For the church? For the un-churched?

For committees? For community?

Do you burn?

For love and peace to explode,

like fireworks,

         in the darkness?

Do you burn?

Or has your spark gone out

Blowing wind on a thousand tiny embers

Glowing briefly in the dark?

Do you burn?

Or are you sitting, dry or damp,

Kindling in the forest,

Waiting for the first falling match?

Do you burn?

Does the Word light your way?

Do you stare into the darkness

Like at midnight

        Waiting for the Light?

Do you burn?

Hot with fresh fire;

Like a torch

So all can see and follow?

Do you burn?

Steady and simmering;

And light a room on a cold night?

Do you burn?

Does your love for God consume?

Does it enfold your step?

Infuse your breath?

Do you burn?

Like child for parent?

Like parent for child?

Like lovers at the first kiss?

Do you burn?

Burn up your time?

Your money? Your words?

Your job? Your life?

Do you burn?

Spirit-spark catching hold of your heart?

Being remold, remade, reused, renewed, reinfused?

Do you burn?

With a fire, reflected from the sky

Refracted from a million voices

Speaking one Word?

Do you burn?

So you can be consumed and be made new?

Ben Y-D

We just sent out our first monthly newsletter yesterday, a big first for us as a group. We designed it with two primary considerations: first, not to waste people’s time (after all, how many of us get at least 20 overly long newsletters in our inbox every month?); secondly, to encourage interaction by directly asking for feedback and help from our readers.

It’s only been a day since we sent it out via e-mail, and I have to say, I’m fairly pleased so far, as we’ve had a couple really thoughtful responses.

This type of response, as church planters, is as good as gold.  We need the perspective of people outside of our Haverhill-church-plant bubble, and quite honestly, we also need the encouragement. When we hear back from people, regardless what their response is, we know that we’re important enough to them that we merited them spending one minute (or even ten minutes) to respond to us.  

So please, respond to our newsletters, send us e-mails, and write comments our blog – we need your perspective and it’ll probably make our day!

Thought you’d all like a sneak preview of our first newsletter, coming out via e-mail in a couple days. Tell us what you think!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the inaugural edition of our monthly 5 item newsletter letting you know what’s happening with us! If you don’t remember signing up for this, it’s because we took the liberty of adding your name if you’re otherwise connected with us- if you’re not interested, just send us a quick e-mail to bechurchne@gmail.com and we’ll take care of it.

We also see this newsletter as an invitation for interaction. After you’re finished reading, please just take 30 seconds to respond to our request for feedback, to help us out, or to forward this along to other people who might be interested. Thank you all!

1) This Past Month: It was a busy month for us as we begin the final preparations for the beginning of our ministry in Haverhill, MA. We’ve begun weekly round table meetings to check in with each other, discuss and develop benchmarks and timelines, and set the groundwork for our July 1^st start. We’ve also been making more contacts in the community. This month in particular, we had a great conversation with a local green real estate agent about how to make Haverhill more eco-friendly, the leader of the most effective community organizing group in the city, and with the director of a Christian-based pregnancy care center that serves around 700 people from Haverhill.

2) A Story: Goodness Happens When You’re Not Looking:

On our visit to Hot Metal Bridge, we visited with a homeless man who hangs out in an underpass near Heinz Field, where the Pittsburgh Steelers play. It’s a good spot to be: tailgaters will often show up at 9AM in the morning and leave a lot of leftover food when they go to the game. We learned that one particular Steelers football player, who is a devoted Christian, often comes over after games to hang out, sign jerseys, and give them the leftovers from the players’ postgame buffet. He doesn’t advertise that he does it, matter of fact, he tells people to keep it quiet, but you could tell that the person we talked to had all the respect in the world for him, and carries this player’s jersey in his backpack everywhere.

3) How you can help? We need jobs! This church planting habit is expensive, especially when you need to be bi-vocational to do it. Do you have any leads on part time or full time work in Haverhill, or work that could be done remotely (e.g. telecommuting, consulting, etc.)? Let us know by e-mailing us at bechurchne@gmail.com.

4) Tell us what you think! In your experience, what is the most effective way you’ve seen a church engage with its community? Did this outreach lead to community members coming into deeper relationship to the church?

5) Coming This Month: A new website, graduation, and preparation for Matt and Farrah moving.

Blessings,

Ben, Matt, Farrah, Melissa

www.bechurchne.org

July 1 is coming sooner than I thought!  It seems a bit surreal; we’ve been talking and dreaming about this ministry for so long that the fact that we have only a few short months to wait is surprising - and a bit shocking.  There’s a lot of work to do and so very few days to do it all in…

One of the things I’m looking forward to the most is the community life.  Sharing prayer together, resources together, meals together — life together.  It’s such a “new” vision of what community can be, so countercultural in our American consumerist me-and-my-own society.  Some people say we’re crazy.  However, most people resonate with this piece of our vision, recognizing the value of deep community formed through intentional living.

I’m about to start reading Bonhoeffer’s Life Together in preparation for the four of us living together.  We want to go in with our eyes as wide open as possible, realizing that in many ways, it’s like we’re getting married all over again.  There will be joyful times, messy times, frustrating times, annoying times, fun times, and happy times.  This is what life is made of.  But I, for one, am looking forward to it!