What if church wasn't just Sunday morning, but all day every day?
My vision for New Covenant House is a common purse, Christian intentional community, a sort of modern day monastery. As a beginning, New Covenant House is located in a small village in the Catskills region of New York, about 90 miles northwest of New York City. I bought this house almost five years ago with the intention of sharing it with others while avoiding the traditional transactional landlord/tenant setup.
The longer term vision is for a network of small largely autonomous, but connected communities sharing everything in common. The goal is a self-sustaining society freed from domination and committed to shared responsibility that everyone's needs are being met.
Like every other journey, it starts with the first step, the first community, the first member.
Who I hope you are:
Willing to commit to a vision based on a modern interpretation of Christianity.
What I hope you can help me with:
Commitment to collaborate. Everything is better together, so just about everything is a group activity. Working well with others is essential.
Strong communication skills. At this early stage, much effort goes into testing in real life, polishing and refining the vision to communicate it as accurately as possible to the next potential prospect.
Willing and able to contribute. The vision calls for meeting everyone's needs from contributions according to ability in the form of labor while avoiding wage labor as much as possible. The goal is to eventually become completely self-sufficient and to eliminate the need for money or its equivalents altogether. In the meantime, some monetary contributions for shared expenses such as food and utilities will be necessary.
Physical and emotional stability. At this early stage, with limited resources available, physical and emotional fitness is necessary.
Long term dedication. I understand and expect you to want to try out different communities to find the perfect fit before making a permanent commitment, but that should be your ultimate goal.
What you will get:
A 10x10 furnished personal room, shared bathroom, kitchen and common areas.
Food, shelter, clothing and personal care items will be provided out of a common purse subject to availability.
While regular labor contributions are expected without detailed tracking, the goal is to maximize leisure and personal development for the common good.
My hope is that your goals and mine are the same. Let us start a conversation.
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Hi Finn! Thank you for this blog post, and for what you are doing with New Covenant House. I would love to connect and collaborate with you. Our ministry has recently restored a historic church property into an intentional Christian living community called Big Faith.
ReplyDeleteBig Faith is a shared living experience for people who want real connection. It’s for those who are ready to build new friendships, make memories, and grow their faith.
We are a non-denominational, Christ-centered ministry. It's about participants fostering their own spiritual growth in a supportive environment. Participants learn and grow together.
We live together in the quiet Michigan countryside—sharing meals, creating things, having long conversations, laughing a lot, and showing up for each other in real ways. No judgement. No perfection. Just people learning how to live and grow together.
Sounds like you and I are on the same page! Would love to connect! You can find out more about Big Faith at Big-Faith.org. Email address to contact me is BigFaithMichigan@gmail.com. Would love to hear from you!
-TJ
(Founder of Big Faith)
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate that very much.
DeleteI'm not sure we're exactly on the same page. Perhaps more on adjacent pages. Either way, it's good especially if there are ways for us to collaborate. I would welcome that.
In the meantime, I have a few suggestions for exploring and possibly making other connections.
First, are you aware of Nurturing Communities Network (NCN)? Beside quarterly Zoom meetings, they have an in-person gathering in Kentucky at the end of September. Learn about that here: https://www.nurturingcommunities.org/.
Second, I meet with a small group of intentional community activists on Zoom every Tuesday at 7:30pm Eastern. It is not specifically Christian, but more open. You can learn about that here: https://cultivate-caring.community/get-involved/
Finally, the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) has an intentional community affinity group with quarterly Zoom calls. You can learn about that here: https://ccda.org/intentional-community/