Can modern Christian communities learn valuable lessons from the structure of hippie communes or even cults? Join us as we unpack this provocative question, drawing from the rich metaphors of the church found in Acts 2:42-47. We'll explore how shared meals, fellowship, and mutual support can help us build Christ-centered communities that mirror the heavenly community demonstrated by Jesus. We also reflect on Jesus' example with his disciples and how we can foster similar communal living today, despite contemporary societal challenges like consumerism and technological advancements.
From a generation that remembers a world without smartphones to the advent of CDs and home computers, Gen X has witnessed monumental societal and technological changes. We'll delve into the Peter Principle and the challenge of keeping pace with rapid advancements. Highlighting the importance of Gen X in guiding the next generation, we'll discuss fostering a communal life modeled by Jesus, leveraging technology, and achieving peaceful transitions of leadership. Our ultimate goal? To bridge generational gaps, transcend political and social divides, and bring the kingdom of God to earth as a united, Christ-centered community.
Can modern Christian communities learn valuable lessons from the structure of hippie communes or even cults? Join us as we unpack this provocative question, drawing from the rich metaphors of the church found in Acts 2:42-47. We'll explore how shared meals, fellowship, and mutual support can help us build Christ-centered communities that mirror the heavenly community demonstrated by Jesus. We also reflect on Jesus' example with his disciples and how we can foster similar communal living today, despite contemporary societal challenges like consumerism and technological advancements.
From a generation that remembers a world without smartphones to the advent of CDs and home computers, Gen X has witnessed monumental societal and technological changes. We'll delve into the Peter Principle and the challenge of keeping pace with rapid advancements. Highlighting the importance of Gen X in guiding the next generation, we'll discuss fostering a communal life modeled by Jesus, leveraging technology, and achieving peaceful transitions of leadership. Our ultimate goal? To bridge generational gaps, transcend political and social divides, and bring the kingdom of God to earth as a united, Christ-centered community.
Speaker 1:
Welcome and greetings to you. I want to talk today about our communal life in Christ and I apologize if you hear some roughness in my voice. I've been battling a cold all week, so I apologize. But we're going to start with Acts, chapter 2, verses 42 through 47. And this is what it says.
Speaker 1:
Apostles and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need and, day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their numbers day by day. And the Lord was adding to their numbers day by day, those who were being saved. What does it truly mean to be the body of Christ? There are different references to the church and what that means. The church has been referred to in Scripture with some of the following statements the gathering, which is the Greek word, ekklesia. It's been known as the body of Christ, the temple of God, the bride of Christ, people of God and the family of God, and I'm sure there's other references as well, but what does that indeed mean? What does it mean to be any of those references, not only in our relationship to God but also to each other?
Speaker 1:
Before I jump into this, I want to give a trigger warning. I'm going to be referring to hippie communes and cults in this episode, so if these are sensitive subjects for you, you may want to skip this episode. All right, here we go. Have you ever thought that hippie communes might have been kind of close to what the church is supposed to be? I'm going to say something controversial here, but even people involved in cults have lived in a way that seems closer to what the Christian community is supposed to be than what we do in this day and age. The difference is that a person is the head of the cult, not Jesus. Same with the hippie communes. For those, it's the ideologies or the substances that become the head, and not Christ.
Speaker 1:
What if we took the best of what those communities had, but instead Jesus was the head of them? Now, obviously, I'm not talking about substance abuse or personal abuse or the negative aspects of that way of life. I'm talking about the parts where they shared meals that no one was without necessities of life, like food and water, companionship and fellowship. But we added in the best of what Christian living is supposed to be like praying and praising God, learning from God's word, of course, continuing the sharing of meals and celebrating what Jesus did for us and ministering to those around us. What kind of world would we live in? What kind of world would we live in?
Speaker 1:
What if we really lived the communal life that Jesus had envisioned? Look at what he did with his disciples. He called them to follow him and they lived in true communal life. None of his disciples and followers went without. They gathered together, they ate together, which is what true communion really is, which is eating meals together and remembering Christ in our midst. It's not snack crackers and shots of wine. Anyway, they learned of God together and they lived together. They helped each other when someone was in need, whether it was inside their group or outside, if you can imagine it. They babysat for each other's kids, they raised each other's kids with a set of shared values and they went about sharing that with everyone. They came across this whole communal life. They went about sharing that with everyone. They came across. That's what communal life in Christ looked like Jesus, had many followers. His followers didn't just consist of the 12 disciples, they were also the disciples of Jesus Christ, and his followers didn't just consist of men, but of women and families too. He went about the area where he lived and he gathered some unlikely people together and he brought to earth what was already in heaven and showed them what the heavenly community looks like. As a side note, I think I like that term better than kingdom, although I have no particular aversion to the word kingdom. I just think that community represents more closely what I think is God's aim.
Speaker 1:
Continuing on. After three years, jesus commissioned his disciples and followers to go out and do the same thing that he came and showed them. The only societies that I know of that even remotely look like that today are tribal and indigenous peoples, and the problem is is that they are so self-contained we aren't even aware of them. So what should we do? We are so far from this way of life that I wonder with all my heart if we can ever truly reflect the community of Christ we're called to be, if we can't live in some form of communal life that reflects what Jesus showed his disciples. Not only that, but with everything going on in our Western world, with tribalism and politicism and consumerism and capitalism, agricultural manipulation, total reliance on everything, mass produced, big chain suppliers, amazon, google, greed, pride and the like at the helm, is there really any hope for us? Any hope for us? How, in this day of lightning speed, everything and remote, distant connections, can we even think about fostering true community?
Speaker 1:
With our technological advances, we have certainly reaped the benefits of those. For example, we can now be in contact with family and friends on the other side of the planet at any given moment. We have instantaneous communication. But we have also reaped the opposite of that Bot influencers that interrupt our critical thinking. We have artificial intelligence and generative AI that is storming the gates.
Speaker 1:
Now don't get me wrong even my podcast uses the benefits of AI. I don't write my episode descriptions and I don't write my podcast titles or even my blog articles. However, I do have the opportunity to edit them before I publish them, but the content for those is all me. What I'm saying is that in this podcast, it's all me. I'm writing it. I'm not using AI to record my episodes. I'm not using AI to edit my episodes, but once the episode is recorded and edited by me, the rest of it. Ai picks up like a personal editor and assistant, and it saves me a ton of time. Those are the benefits, or at least some of the benefits, of the technology that we have today and that which is to come tomorrow.
Speaker 1:
But there is far worse that is coming the nefarious side of things, where those with malicious intent use it to defraud and scam people and probably even worse people, and probably even worse. What about artificial intelligence or generative AI, faked pictures and videos to sway our elections or to get us to believe things that are not true? Okay, I digress. Why did I go down this small rabbit hole of technology? Okay, I digress. Why did I go down this small rabbit hole of technology? To show you that a whole other world, like Alice in Wonderland, is out there and is coming, and we are not ready for it Not really. And with all that's already here and what's coming our way, quickly, we are in need of being in true community more than ever before. How are we ever going to be able to protect ourselves from the nefarious side of things that is coming if we do not have support networks around us, made up of the community people that we live in and around with to help keep us on that right path? How can we use the technology already here and the technology that's coming soon to build the kingdom community instead of just continuing on with the same trajectory that we've been on? Is there a way to do that?
Speaker 1:
Let me get back to the church. Get back to the church when you boil it all down to the basics. The church, in all of its names, is a bunch of people who live in committed mutual benefit for each other. Does that mean that we all have to live together on a parcel of land, doing personal farming and water purification? It can certainly mean that, but I don't think it has to. Does it mean that we all have to live next door to each other or even in the same town? It would help, but it's not required either. I think it means that we have the people that God has placed in our lives and we live the way Jesus lived with those people. And from there, from that center, from our support network, if you will, we minister to those we contact daily, whether at work at the grocery store or wherever. Whether at work at the grocery store or wherever, we let the world see what it's like to live in a true community, so they can see what it feels like to belong to a family.
Speaker 1:
I am part of the community called the Bridge Church. It's a church that gathers in person and remotely using technology. It is not only an inclusive church, but a fully firming church, although, as a caveat, I must admit I wish we didn't have to use such language to describe it. I wish we could use the language that we are a community that lives Jesus out loud and makes a difference, and not have to refer to people's sexual and gender identities. But I digress. That's where we are in society today.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, what do I mean by inclusive and fully affirming? It's not what you might think. Yes, it does include what you probably do think, which is that there are people within the LGBTQIA plus community that are included, but it's much more than that. To me, inclusive and fully affirming means the whole congregation, whether they're gay, straight, trans, cisgender, etc. Basically, it means everyone and it means that they become a part of the communal life in full.
Speaker 1:
Everyone is allowed to preach if they are so gifted. Everyone can share their beautiful art. In our Visio Divinas or our Visio Lectios, which is written Everyone has a chance to be the emcee for our services. Everyone has the opportunity to lead our communion table. For those who are gifted in music and singing, they can share their gifts in that way. What I love most is the ability to have a Q&R at the end of the service where, like in Jesus' day, we can sit at the feet of the rabbi and ask questions, comment and learn. It's not the dog and pony show that we've been used to. It's not the entertainer on a stage with a gaping mouth, sleepy-eyed audience. It's much more fully participatory. It's much more fully participatory.
Speaker 1:
But even so, community life in such a diverse and dislocated congregation is tough. Those who are remote still feel a disconnect, and I'm sure the local folks feel disconnected from those who are not geographically co-located with them. Thankfully, texts and other technologies, like the WhatsApp app, help us to have daily connections, but it's still hard. The whole church is not connected the way they were in Jesus' day. So I ask of all my listeners how can we foster the kind of communal life that Jesus came and gave his disciples in this technological age? How can we live the life of Acts, chapter 2, 42 through 47, in this day and age?
Speaker 1:
I'm part of the Bridger generation and I was there when we didn't have cell phones and when we didn't have streaming services and playlists. By the way, the Bridger generation is also known as Gen X. The Bridger generation is also known as Gen X. I was there when we didn't even have parental supervision for most of our days, but I was also there at the advent of the computer, of tapes and CDs and cell phones, and I may not know what the future holds technology-wise, as I've gotten to the stage of life called the Peter Principle, which is you rise to the level of your incompetence. The technology has now surpassed me and I can't keep up. I will only go to the level of my incompetence and no further, since I'm not capable or called for such a time as that.
Speaker 1:
But I am called to help bring this next generation into their purpose and mission. I hope that by sharing these podcasts, the younger generation will step up and take the baton. It seems in our society today that some in the older generation are unwilling to hand the baton off. They want to keep control of the nations, politics and the church, and it's time that the Bridger or the Gen X generation steps up and starts helping the next generation take the baton if it's not handed off willingly Now. We don't do that through violence and we don't do that through, you know, non-peaceful efforts. But we do have to have a changing of the guards and I think it's my generation's responsibility to help usher that in.
Speaker 1:
All that said, part of the mission of this next generation is to bring us into the communal life that Jesus demonstrated for us, but using the technology that we have today and what's coming tomorrow as a mechanism by which to do that.
Speaker 1:
Of course, you know that's not the only way, it's but one way, but we have to start fostering community.
Speaker 1:
With everything going on in our world today, it is necessary for us to start pulling together, and not in our own tribes, not in our own sects, but across the aisles, politically speaking, and across streets, from one neighbor to another another. So my prayer and my hope are that the next generation, which is called for such a time as this, will not only rise up and solve these issues, but will also hear God more clearly than any other generation before them and to be bold enough to speak out and carry on their shoulders the communal life that Jesus showed us as possible, and basically that means bringing in the kingdom of God, jesus came to show us what it was like in heaven, and what it is like in heaven is a familial community, and I think that once the church arrives there, here on earth, in this time and age, I believe that we will then become the beacon of hope that we are called to be for the rest of the world to see.
