Book club starting March 19th!
Join us every other Tuesday at 1600 Pacific to discuss the six parts of "The Intentional Christian Community Handbook" by David Janzen;
I met author David Janzen when I was living in Camden, NJ, after my discharge from the Army. It was a profoundly moving experience for me to leave one intentional community that doles out violence to one that witnesses and sometimes experiences violence. At the time, Camden was the most violent city in America, and it definitely earned the ignominious title; one night, I listened to an altercation right outside my window that ended with a stabbing. When I rushed outside, a frail woman was bleeding profusely from her abdomen and refused to let me help her or call emergency services.
Military Service and is Intentional Community
I was not a full member of the “Camden Houses” community in Camden since I was not a permanent resident. As it happened, I ended up staying for over a year and even got married(!) in my tenure there. It was as I was living in Camden that I began thinking about the military as a community which, if you believe in the “All Volunteer” moniker, has its own kind of intentionality. Before I left, I knew intentional community could provide the structure, discipline, and sense of meaning that the military provided its members. In the years since then, I have heard from other veterans who left the military but couldn’t help but look in the rearview mirror occasionally.
Military families can sense the overlap between intentional community and military service, but how do we take only what is good to avoid recreating the bad?
Here’s the Deets
This book club is for folks asking those questions. Nobody has to be military adjacent to join us, but the voices of soldiers, veterans, and military Dependents will be centered in our discussions. If you think you may be interested, here is a list of the dates and subjects we'll be discussing:
Mar 19 "Yearning for Community in Context"
Apr 2 "Is Intentional Community Your Calling?"
Apr 16 "Before You Move in Together"
Apr 30 "The First Year of Community"
May 14 "Growing Tasks for a Young Community"
May 28 "A Mature Community Becomes Soil for God’s New Seeds"
Discussions will be held every other week on Pew Pew HQ’s Discord Server, Barak’s Room. If you’d like to participate, reply to this email or contact me directly; it will not be publicly accessible without an RSVP.