Communitas is apostolic missionaries living incarnationally in intentional communities to engage, love and reach the growing population in western culture who are beyond the reach of the conventional church.
Embodying the holistic Gospel, giving "flesh" to the words and truths of Jesus, Communitas is postured to serve, love, sacrifice and journey with our secular and often pagan culture. As people "taste & see" that God is good, smelling the "fragrance of Christ", we intentionally and unconditionally relate and journey with them towards Christ.
Purpose
Our goal is simple—to expand the Kingdom of God—and together we commit to:
- Partnering with our neighbors in transforming our communities
- Relating and sharing our pilgrimage with people towards Christ
- Creating fresh expressions of Biblical faith communities (a.k.a. church) that are culturally relevant to our contexts
- Empowering like-minded emerging leaders in fresh expressions and communities in our cities
How We Do Mission
For the purpose of accomplishing our task, we live together in a posture that embraces proximity, presence, powerlessness, and proclamation:
Proximity
By this we mean that rather than live our lives following God in programs, studies, church organisation, we live most of our life on “their turf”, on “their terms” and in “their institutions”. This means that we bring the presence of Jesus through participating in the community efforts to heal New Orleans from the devastation of Katrina, and to develop the poor parts of our community through community development and direct personal involvement in relational contexts with people already naturally in our lives. We don’t create a Christian sports league or Christian team; we join existing community teams. We don’t create a tutoring program, we participate in the natural existing system of our kids’ school.
Presence
We can be in proximity and not be present. While related, they are not the same. To be present, we spend most of our life in common life and direct ministry serving. We’re not in a church building or trying to bring people to something. We’re with them, in the daily routine, in the highs and lows. We practice simply being “here” in time, physically and in heart. We engage neighbours through being on the porch and being there so they can engage with us as they pass by. We spend times in the “3rd places” of our multiple contexts and touch points within our community. We seek to find ways to cross our lives with them.
Powerlessness
We are very conscious that a confrontational engagement with people, where we try and convince them of something, of answering questions that most people are not asking, of coming with “the right answers” when we are strangers does not work with the people we are targeting. We do not come as the paternal ones to rescue. We come as humble fellow pilgrims on the way, sharing our lives, sharing real relationships, dialoguing instead of arguing or telling. In the engagement who we are, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it comes out very quickly. This is ever more true when our neighbors engage our community, which has exponential impact compared to engaging one person who follows Jesus. Rather than a Fire Rescue Squad, we come as Dorothy and her odd crew on the way to see the Wizard. This looks very different and is hard to explain except by coming and seeing.
We do not operate from a posture where we see people who do not know and follow Jesus as “lost”, which connotes an absence of hope, and worth as they are. We rather embrace what we see in the biographies of Jesus’ life (traditionally referred to as the Gospels) in that they are first image bearers who Jesus misses and who are yes, sinners, but still worthy, still reflecting His image in who they are.
Proclamation
We state up front, after numerous questions and even indictments, that we hold to the historic orthodox creedal essentials in Jesus’ identity, unique accomplishments and the salvation He brings us.
We state without reservation that we are called and mandated to bring the Good News to those we engage. We read the Bible and discovered that we must bring the entire Gospel and find the 20th century reductionist Gospel as incomplete. Therefore in an attempt to explain the Gospel we bring, we bring the hope only Jesus brings in lives transformed, healed, and ever closer to our created intention. This is for here on earth and includes the entire creation, as well as our eternal future destiny.
In attempting to explain how we do this, we express three interdependent forms of Good News. These three interpret for each other, as well as further fulfill our emulation of Christ and obedience to His command of how to live. The three forms of the Gospel are...
- Gospel as Deed: When people no longer listen to the words that come from the church, the presence of Christ is all the more powerful. In our desire to bring mercy, blessing, sacrificial serving, we act out the Gospel illustrated in the Good Samaritan, as well as the example of Christ and the Biblical fathers and mothers in acts that make a real difference.
- Gospel as Sign: Our presence, modelling and example, catalytic impact of an entire community interacting with people, and our attitude, world view and posture of servants speaks very powerfully to help people understand the heart of God for them. Our simply being “here” makes a difference and encourages people.
- Gospel as Word: In telling people about Christ, the big story of God’s love and plan in the creation, we explain the poetry they’ve heard in our actions and presence. We can tell them the story of Jesus, and the transformation within our own lives. We can share the real Jesus with them, and dismantle the incomplete and often inaccurate understanding they’ve held.
The proclamation is predicated by the first three (proximity, presence, and powerlessness). These earn the right to speak and share our hope. These three help dismantle the obstacles to hearing and understanding the hope that we have.
Communitas as an Order
An order is a group of people who share life (common life rhythms, spiritual formation and mission) together, where a common call, values and ethos are the foundation to how we live. We more closely resonate and reflect the Celtic orders during and following St. Patrick’s mission in Europe, that spread across Britain and onto the European continent in the centuries following Patrick’s life. We also learn and integrate many great lessons from the other Catholic and Protestant orders we encounter.
We live this way not in a desire to be unique or “cool”, but rather because our submersion into a life of giving ourselves away so radically is exhaustive and as community living with this level of commitment, we are encouraged, formed, and grow in a shared journey together.
Our life as an order impacts how we assimilate and shape people exploring what we do and how we do it. They move through a journey of intern (exploration), apprentice (participation) and novitiate (integration and innovation) towards becoming sojourners with us. We know and intend that there will be exploration by interns and apprentices that will impact them, but not culminate in them joining us long term. This is our intent.
Our weekly and seasonal rhythms include strategising together in mission, living mission and common life rhythms together and spiritual formation weekly in our own liturgies and learning community.
Teams
Communitas currently has three teams serving in New Orleans — in the Audubon, Freret, and Faubourg Marigny neighborhoods and one team in Valparaiso, Indiana. Communitas plans to expand to other cities around the US.
