But What About Acts 2:44?

I wrote a few weeks ago about our experience at the Spring Valley Bruderhof Community. Don't worry, I'm not in the process of joining the Bruderhof. But the experience was so much better than I expected. And it continues to prompt a longing and imagination. Would you (re)watch or read the transcript of this video from a couple weeks ago?

I guess I just want to chum the waters, to see if it means anything for us in X242. ​Specifically, if Acts 2:42 (X242) inspires us with a vision of how the first believers "devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer," are we also moved by Acts 2:44 that "all the believers were together and had everything in common"? Or rather, are we moved to do anything different about that? 

I asked the question in my July 7 blog, but here's the question again. Are you drawn to it?

TRANSCRIPT
Last week we spent several days at a Bruderhof community (bruderhof.com). It's German ish, or German, I'm not sure, for place of brothers. It's what we might call a Christian commune, but I don't think they would refer to themselves as a commune. They're a community that lives in Christian brotherhood. 

They live having all things in common. They have a common purse, they have common work. Where we were, at the Spring Valley community it has 230 people there. Seventy or whatever would be kids. So it's people of all ages. The oldest person there is a 94 year old lady, I believe. And they all live in community. They each have their own little apartments, but they're connected. Different buildings and all that. They do their own vegetable gardening. And what they grow they eat. If they're not growing it, they're not eating it. Then they also go outside their community for things like chicken or whatever. 

They have a common work, they have two factories: one factory at the Spring Valley and then just across the way at another community, the New Meadow Run, is another factory. One is the Rifton factory. They make equipment for people who are disabled. Go to rifton.com. They have this state of the art factory where they do injection molds, they make their own molds, they have CNC equipment and all that, and that's downstairs, and then upstairs they have assembly things and everyone just works. And from this it generates an income and that provides for the community as well as for other communities.  

Across the road at the other one, they have a woodworking factory. Community Playthings is the name of it, and they make daycare equipment and stuff, which is really cool. Same sort of concept, everyone does something.  

Everyone works. As you get older, you don't retire, you just change the level and quantity and duration and stuff of the work that you do. And so they were saying, like, the 94 year old lady, she used to work all the time, just like everyone else. But at this stage in life, she shows up. I think they said [she] helps out in the kitchen for an hour a day, and that's her community. And they said that that's not even something that has to be [required]. No one has to work. Like, they don't police it. That's where you have community. And so the whole place values it. And if it's valued, people do it.  

Anyway, that's the setup of it. Bruderhof. It's Anabaptist.  

A friend of mine said, "Boy, it sounds like communism." Not at all. The difference would be that the Bruderhof is Jesus centered. It's voluntary. People opt in. It's a pledge. It's a lifelong pledge, but they opt in and they can get out. It's not a violence based political system like communism would be. And so it's totally different. Think more "monastic life," but in an Anabaptist sense, (more) Protestant and Anabaptist than Roman Catholic. Think more monastic than communist.  

Man, when we went to it, I had no idea what to expect. 

Someone within our network of micro churches that I connected with, he told me about the Bruderhof. And I like, I didn't even know what word he was saying. Bruderhof. And I looked it up and I found out that they are very open to visitors. And so ta da ta da ta da -- I saw that we were going to be going near one [in our travels] and I reached out by email. 

They're sophisticated... I always said I would love to be Amish as long as I could have electricity and my cell phone and my car and wouldn't have to dress funny and stuff like that. I mean, I always meant it as a joke, but there's something that I sort of romanticized about the Amish life, uh, except for the stuff that makes them different than us, that protects that life. 

So I've always said it as a joke, but the Bruderhof would be kind of along those lines. They're not Amish at all. But it's sort of like the best of both worlds maybe? I don't feel called to be Bruderhof, but I definitely am loving what I experienced there and am chewing on what that means for us. 

Acts 2:42 is our theme verse that organizes how we do it with X242, our network, where it says the early believers "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer." You read down the next verse 43 says that, that everyone was in awe about the wonders and the signs that the apostles performed. And then verse 44 says that everyone held everything in common. No one believed that their possessions were their own. They held everything in common. Jump over two chapters to Acts 4:32, and it says something real similar. This sense that no one claimed that they had any possessions of their own, but they held everything in common.  

Now -- and that's where the Bruderhof gets this. And I've been [asking], how do we live out that? Because I don't feel called to communal living at that same sense where no one has any possessions. But the Bruderhof, they are living a radical (not "radicalized" in the way that we might say it) application of Acts 2:44 and Acts 4"32. Radical application. And I believe it's good what they're doing.  

But, as you read down in Acts 4, it also says that there were no needy persons among them because from time to time, people who owned houses, sold the houses or property, and brought the proceeds to the apostles and laid it at their feet to be distributed however they wanted to, to those who had need. And so as I look at the scriptures, the early believers didn't live in this radical sense of community where they had no possessions. They still had possessions, but they gave it away freely to everyone who had need.  

Okay. So I've got some more to say about it, but my question: Are you drawn to it or not? Are you drawn to that kind of community where you live in close community?

They've got 200 acres or so, 300 acres, with a couple hundred people on it. Farm the land, do their work, live in close proximity. And yet [they] honor each other's need for alone time. They aren't up in each other's face all the time. They actually get plenty of alone time. But they also share lunch together every day, Monday through Friday. They worship together Sunday mornings. They have additional Bible studies on, like, Monday nights and Friday nights. And all that. They live close together.

Are you drawn to that? Because I'm drawn to it.  

I think I have romanticized the notion of small town, rural USA, and I think there's something to be said for it. Where we live has some feelings of small town. Sarasota has some feelings of small town, where, when I go places, I know people. And they know me. And...I love that. But, you know, amp that up. Boil it down. And it becomes the Bruderhof communal living.

Are you drawn to that? Cause I am drawn to that.  

I've been thinking about what would it look like for us to live in community. Is there something that could still be achieved like that doesn't require a "giveaway all your possessions" other than as you want?

So like my thinking would be, you still have possessions where if you see someone in need and you can sell something to help them out, you do it because your heart has already decided to. And so rather than a vow of poverty, it's a vow of humility and simplicity and generosity, which really should be a vow that every Christian takes, regardless of how they live it out. 

So I've been thinking about it. Would there be any interest...in living communally as an experiment, where you live communally to live out the love of Jesus. It's Jesus based. It's scripture based. You get together and you do the X242 devotion. We open scripture together...like we live as disciples together.  

Would there be interested in doing that? Not that it's the only way to do it, but would there be interest in doing it? Does that sound attractive or atrocious? 

What if, what if we were to...to live communally? Is it attractive to you?
What tensions does it create?
What enthusiasms does it create?
Is it a positive?
Or what fear do you have?
Is there something in between a vow of poverty type commune like no possessions, communal living, and living in a village that is mutually encouraging, mutually supporting, rises up to help each other, relies on each other, depends upon each other, lives out certain things, like, "if a man will not work, he shall not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10) because we believe that, in that, is maturity.
Is there desire for something like that?
Or is that just way off the deep end?  

And that's what I'm thinking about. The conversations I've been having on this trip, the conversations I've been having are incredible. If you ever get a chance to visit a Bruderhof, do it. You can go for one or two weeks, I believe. You reach out to them. They'll put you up. You join in their work. You can ask them whatever questions you want. I asked them all kinds of questions. And they were forthcoming. There was no sense that there's this upper layer that you're not allowed to talk to. There was no sense that "Big Brothers' watching us" other than the government. 

If you ever get a chance to visit the Bruderhof, it is worth it. Just to learn something from them. One of the most friendly experiences I've had. Amen.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction to the Bruderhof Community
00:31 Daily Life and Work at Bruderhof
02:35 Misconceptions and Clarifications
03:09 Personal Reflections and Experiences
04:13 Biblical Foundations and Communal Living
06:09 Invitation to Reflect and Engage
09:25 Concluding Thoughts and Call to Action

Prayer

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. Tomorrow we leave Selah, Washington to spend four weeks in Oregon.

Here in Selah we were able to encourage people in the conventional church where my son, Josiah, is the worship pastor (walking in his proud father's footsteps). It reminds me what has been part of our conviction the whole time, that wherever believers gather, our heart says amen. Even if we choose a simpler church model, that is not meant to condemn more complex models. May God make every expression of his church fruitful. 

This being our third summer here, we actually have friendships developing, which is nice. Yesterday they baptized 14 people in the Yakima River. One profoundly beautiful moment for me was when a father was baptized, and then immediately turned around and baptized his teenaged son. Last year, my own son, Josiah, baptized that man's wife and other son, whom he's been discipling. I was gripped. What a wonderful thing for someone to enter the family of God by baptism and immediately turn and welcome his own son into the family by baptism. Amen. God is good.

I also connected with a man here last week who is in his late forties, was raised Christian, converted to Judaism, but has recently come back to a declared faith in Christ. He's not connected to any church. We started a friendship. He has a copy of my book, "Simpler Church." Please pray for Eric. 

In Oregon I have many meetings planned. Please pray for fruitful ministry there!