A year ago, in the February issue of The Post-American, we focused upon the charismatic renewal and speculated hopefully about the potential of new relationships developing between some of those who had been active in charismatic movements and some of those involved in the radical evangelical consciousness of the last few years. Many radical Christians who have been acting on their social and political commitments were being led into community and coming to understand the work of the Spirit in building community as foundational to the prophetic impact if the church in the world. Similarly, others in the charismatic renewal had also been drawn into community and were seeing from scripture that the coming of the Spirit will produce an active commitment to social and political justice. Starting from very different places, it seemed that some of those in both movements were being led to many of the same conclusions about the nature and structure of the church and its prophetic and pastoral mission in the world.
The editorial from that February issue projected:
“Should the community of radical Christians at large begin to integrate the strengths of this [charismatic] renewal movement into the renewal of social consciousness among themselves, the new synthesis could cause one of the greatest spiritual explosions in the history of the church.”
We went on to suggest that renewal movements need each other to hear all that the Spirit is saying to the churches. A keener awareness and deeper experience of worship and the work and gifts of the Spirit seemed integrally related to the building of community, ethical and political discernment, and the shape of active involvement in the world.
Also becoming clear was the organic connection between genuine charismatic spirituality and worship and a radical social and political commitment in the world. The editorial expressed the hope that communication would grow and create a climate of mutual respect and trust which would enable us all to nurture and sensitize one another while together discerning the directions we should go as biblical people. In the same issue, Clark Pinnock concluded:
“Let us all pray that the worldwide charismatic renewal will become prophetic in the face of the needs of the world and so attain the end God has for it, and that the new evangelical movement will be charismatically renewed, equipped with all spiritual gifts, and enabled to act in the power of the Spirit. When this happens, there will be a healing and reconciling community in the earth such as we have never seen before.”
The events of the last six months give evidence that those prayers and hopes are beginning to be fulfilled. Some members of our own community spent time this past summer at the Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas, an Episcopal parish that has experienced significant renewal and is a leading community in the charismatic movement. New relationships were established and experiences shared. For most of a week in late August, Graham Pulkingham (the former Rector of Church of the Redeemer) and myself spent many hours deepening our own relationship, sharing together about the radical renewal of the church, and beginning to discuss a new relationship that might be possible between a number of communities from diverse ecclesiastical traditions and social origins who were coming to share similar commitments and directions. It soon became clear that the leaders of the other communities were being led in similar directions and, when the suggestion for a gathering to explore the shape of a new relationship was offered, the response was immediate and enthusiastic.
An initial gathering of representatives from about a dozen communities from around the country was convened at Detroit’s Church of the Messiah, a racially mixed inner city community. Comprised of those who serve their own fellowships in pastoral leadership, this circle of discussion, prayer, and corporate discernment has since reconvened at Reba Place Fellowship, a fifteen year old community in the Anabaptist tradition, and most recently, at Voice of Calvary, a mostly black community engaged in ministry with the poor of Mendenhall and Jackson, Mississippi. The feeling that “we need to be together” has been a recurring theme at these gatherings and a new sense of relatedness and unity with one another has begun to grow. Those involved are conceiving their relationship more as a “spiritual union” or an “organic unity” than as an organizational alliance or coalition of like-minded groups.
Several communities are involved in what is being called a “community of communities.” It includes Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas--a large community which grew up in a parish church and has a variety of pastoral and social ministries in their inner city neighborhood. The strength of Redeemer’s worship, household living and experienced pastoral leadership in building community are very evident. Also from Houston, St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church has established a household-based community and is especially noted for operating the Fourth Ward Medical Clinic in a very poor area of the city (see the Oct.-Nov. 1975 Post-American). Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Illinois, is familiar to our readers as an experienced fellowship of about 100 adult members, many from Mennonite and evangelical backgrounds, who share a common economic and spiritual life and are also beginning ministries in their urban neighborhood. Church of the Messiah is a growing community on Detroit’s east side which, in addition to other ministries, runs a neighborhood school.
The Community of Celebration, near Colorado Springs, is one of three “communities of celebration” which support Fisherfolk teams whose creative renewal ministry is described in the January issue of Sojourners. The Colorado community supports the American team and the Community of Celebration in Cumbrae, Scotland, supports the international team. Graham Pulkingham, presently leading the Cumbrae community, was instrumental in establishing this new circle of communities and frequently attends the gatherings. The presence of John Perkins of the Voice of Calvary brings the continual perspective of a poor indigenous church radically involved in the needs of the black community. St. Andrew’s-by-the-Sea in Destin, Florida and St. Peter’s-by-the-Sea in Narragansett, Rhode Island are both communities that have grown up in suburban parish churches and have developed into household living and economic sharing, establishing significant pastoral ministries in their areas. Christ’s Community in Grand Rapids, Michigan may be the only such community to have developed in a Christian Reformed Church and therefore has a significant ministry to that church as well as to many in the western Michigan area. Also involved is our own community in Washington D.C. which combines the mission of the magazine, related involvements in various political and theological initiatives in the church, and a quickly expanding neighborhood ministry--all deriving from a young but growing community.
Of the many and varied conferences, gathering points, and meeting grounds of people that I have been a part of these last few years, this new circle of communities and the real prospect of such a relationship expanding to other communities in the future is something in which I see most hope and potential for the prophetic and pastoral witness of the church in our own generation. The present group represents both high church and free church tradition; the various individuals serve urban, suburban and rural parishes that are situated in black, Spanish, white, and racially mixed neighborhoods. This particular “community of communities” has made a commitment to be together for a year and then to evaluate what has been happening, perhaps seeking to widen the circle and /or helping establish such relationships on regional or even more local levels.
Thus far, the conversations have been wide ranging, touching on the structure and life of each community, forms of common economic life and sharing, the nature and purpose of household living, neighborhood and community ministry, alternative institutions, pastoral leadership, intensive ministries of healing to people with serious emotional disorders, radical lifestyle, the church’s identification with the poor, problems encountered by communities in relationship to the legal system and the Internal Revenue Service. The next gathering in March will be devoted to a retreat together for worship and discernment focusing around the questions of nonviolence, social action, political witness and civil disobedience.
Each of the communities brings distinctive sensitivities and experience to the group. Together they hope to sensitize, nurture, support, admonish, and most of all, love one another as they grow together. Already there has been significant sharing of problems, questions, needs, callings, ministries, and financial resources between the communities through the forum that the regular meeting of their pastoral leaders provides. Beyond the commitment to minister to one another, there is a real desire to work together for radical renewal in the church and for prophetic witness in the social and political order. The reports of the meetings show a common commitment to “church renewal through the shared life of Christian community;” to “the Body of Christ as an alternate society to the secular order;” and to the biblical imperative that “the renewed church must operate with prophetic force upon the secular, economic, social, and political orders which surround it.” It has become increasingly clear to many of us that any meaningful action in the world on the part of Christians must derive from the experience of the fullness of the body of Christ in the local community of faith. Especially among those who have reached radical conclusions about the social and political meaning of the gospel, there has been an emerging agreement that the very basis of prophetic witness and mission in the world is the building of Christian communities. Without that foundation, there is little possibility of Christ being manifest in the world in the fullness and power of which the New Testament speaks. Increasing relationship and mutual support between the faith communities that are being raised up is therefore an exciting and crucial endeavor.
Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.
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