In response to an invitation from Reba Place Fellowship and Plow Creek Fellowship, 240 people from more than 40 communities and congregations--including many involved in Sojourners' "Sharing the Sojourn" network--gathered October 1-3 for the Shalom Connections Conference in Evanston, Illinois. They discovered that the Holy Spirit is lighting new fires, causing new communities to blaze forth in amazing variety and vitality, while older communities are gathering strength after a decade of struggles.
The "me first" decade of the 1980s was very hard on community values, and many of the Christian communities born in the '60s and '70s did not survive it. Community federations, such as the Shalom Association in which Reba Place Fellowship had a leading role, have fallen away--but the relationships and commitments have persisted, giving birth to many second-generation missions and ministries. And now, as the conference demonstrated, new groups are again springing up.
A great diversity of communities attended the conference. Some, like the Bruderhof and Jubilee Partners, represent a life of common work, table, and purse. Others, like Patchwork Central or Voice of Calvary are intentional neighbors gathered around common ministries and worship. Still others like Mustard Seed in Madison, Wisconsin, find their place within larger congregations, clustered in small groups for study, mutual aid, and accountability.
Again and again the Shalom Connections Conference was moved together by Spirit-filled worship centered unapologetically on Jesus. Jesus is the one who calls us to community, just as he called his first disciples, to become a living demonstration of God's justice and healing power.
Another theme of the conference was the paradox of communities' frequent failures and God's amazing power to redeem and sustain. The Christian community movement is filled with people who have discovered that God's love is astonishingly persistent, outlasting all our foolishness. This was a most empowering realization.
Conference participants heard testimonies from a number of international communities such as REMAR, a network of communities in 15 countries with 5,000 members who are helping marginal persons form stable and gifted lives; the Hutterian Society of Brothers, who told of a new Bruderhof community forming in Nigeria--with Nigerians and North Americans living in full Christian community; and from the community of "Joweto" in South Africa that is bringing together whites from Johannesburg and blacks from Soweto to overcome their painful histories and become one people in Christ.
Jim Wallis of Sojourners challenged us, out of his recent experience at the Gang Summit, to offer our churches and communities as places where alienated inner-city youth can safely express their hunger for love and redemption. Sally Schreiner of Reba Place Fellowship spoke to the conference, calling community "God's strategy for reaching the world--a way of not only proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, but demonstrating what the kingdom of God is to look like." Sally reminded us of God's ultimate blessing for these demonstration plots of heaven planted in history.
What a joy we found to gather with friends, both old and new, who are bonded in commitment to share this same blessing!
David Janzen, of Reba Place Fellowship, was coordinator of intercommunity relations for the Shalom Mission Communities when this article appeared.
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