Drunken Mystic

This past weekend I went on a trip to Rose Creek Village. Adam R. went with me, and we went because they had a special day on Saturday, an arts festival called VillageFest.

A little background: While in India with Pastor Daniel, he shared with me the existence of this group, Rose Creek Village, who all lived together on this piece of land in Tennessee. It sounded interesting, but as we transitioned back to the States from Korea, it was one of the many things put on the back burner.

A few months later, Daniel visited us in Atlanta, sharing a DVD made about the Mercy Homes by Rose Creek. He and I spoke even more about this community that has so supported Pastor Daniel’s Mercy Homes, and he encouraged me to go and visit them sometime.

Almost a year later, I got an email from someone about a conference to be held at Rose Creek Village where Pastor Daniel would be speaking. My love for Daniel is deep, so I endeavored to go, trying to get a few others to go with us. Ultimately, only Becca and I made it to this little village about an hour outside of Memphis.

The conference was wonderful, and so was our time there. Becca and I stayed in the village with a household (several families and individuals live per house) and were able to really visit and talk to many in the Village. Seeing that we were interested in moving more towards an idea of shared life, we witnessed and heard much that encouraged us. That was in June of this year.

During the conference, we heard about VillageFest and desired to return. Becca’s pregnancy makes it difficult to endure long trips in the car, and Micah was pretty exhausted from our beach trip, so Adam R. and I went down Friday night and returned Sunday evening for house church.

I was probably more ready to learn about what Rose Creek was about than others might be. Pastor Daniel, a man I highly respect, vouches for them, and I was already meditating on how to share more life among believers in the US, even in seemingly radical ways. Despite my openness, the skeptic in me also had my feelers out, spiritual discernment and all that, but probably not any more so than if I were to visit a more neo-traditional fellowship locally.

Much of what I witnessed over those two weekends impressed me. I have written a book, The Better Way: A Case for Love, that will be self-published soon. They live many of my conclusions in that book, if not all of them in principle. Their story is unique, as all stories tend to be, but love among the brethren is their goal. They do everything together. One of their sayings is, “We share everything but our wives.”

They have brothers and sisters to talk to, mentor, be mentored, confess, forgive, and mediate conflicts when they occur. Boys have a community of men to have deep relationship with, as do girls with the women. One twelve year old boy (the kid who gave me his bed for two nights) initiated a hug with me and Adam after we encouraged him for doing well in a play earlier that day.

One of the most amazing thigns I saw regarded the teenagers in the Village. As a high school teacher, I can be something of an expert on them. The teens of the Village were very involved in the festival. I felt tired just watching them. Amazingly, however, I saw no flirting among the teens (or young adults, for that matter). They danced together and worked together, but no batting of the eyes or love taps or any of the like. Their relationships seemed very pure and appropriate … like they were siblings and friends instead of potential suitors.

The kids were all encouraged to be creative, and you could see how the Village supported what the kids were interested in: whether it be hand art or Chinese puppetry or dance or music or drama. The kids were not hurting for options of constructive things to do.

One of the “founders” (although he probably wouldn’t like that term) said to me, “People comment on how great and talented our kids are. I tell them its amazing what happens when you don’t let them watch TV.”

Although it sounds idyllic, and in many ways it is, there has been a rough road to get there. They’ve been mocked, reported to the authorities, kicked out of houses promised to them (by Christians), lived in tents and buses and barely ate at times. Not to mention the personal denial that must occur for such a close knit community to have survived so long, and it continues to grow. There are approximately 260 people living in the Village now.

They wouldn’t claim to be perfect, but to them, that’s kinda the point. They came together because they needed one another to grow and be complete, not to start a community but to be the family they believed the Church should be. They desired to fulfill the prayer of Jesus, “that they be one as We are one.”

I feel I still have much to learn from Rose Creek and will try to keep up communication and relationship. But my goal is not to copy Rose Creek. I admire much of how they have grown, and take what God has taught them seriously, but just as no two trees are the same, whatever God will do through us here in the Atlanta area will have its own organic eccentricities.

For those of you rolling your eyes and inwardly mocking a “Christian commune,” I challenge you to visit them. They will welcome you with open arms, love you with mercy and grace, and ask when you’ll be coming back when you leave. They wil ltreat you like family and give up their own beds to house you. They will give and ask nothing in return.

I believe all of us need to learn a mountain of that.

Peace.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 1:03 pm and is filed under shared life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.