9.3 Built for People
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Let’s start with an absolute. God cannot show Himself through many gathered together unless He is first showing Himself in, as, and through each individual member of any local church. God cannot come first unless people come first. Jesus said, “Whatever you do to the least of these My brethren, you do it to Me.” – Each one, especially the least.
After the children of Israel had watched God bring down the hard walls of that first, formidable enemy as they entered the land, they were defeated by the next opponent, a seemingly tiny little place called Ai. May I suggest to you that the second opponent for us in life together is the group.
The Group. As the enemy of “I-am-right” self-sufficiency falls, immediately there to replace it is the enemy called “the group.” “I-am-right” is obvious in its destructive power; “the group” is far more subtle, but just as dangerous.
NEVER do we sacrifice any individual for the sake of the “group,” something that actually does not exist. NEVER do we conceptualize or tolerate any form of “collateral damage” or “breaking eggs to make an omelet” or other such evils. At the same time, we do not re-assert “I am right” in order to stay away from an imaginary “group.”
You see, life together is something entirely different from the false dichotomy of individualism versus collectivism, a split inherent in the death of Adam.
Honor One Another. And the simple answer to both evils is the reciprocal honor we give one to the other. Everything we build for God, we are building for people. And everything we build for people, we are building for God.
Our consideration of God in the design of life together follows one instruction – build all things according to the pattern. And here is the deepest expression of the Pattern to us – “This is My commandment, that you love one another in just the same way that I love you.” Everything in life together is built for people. And as people, individual believers in Jesus, find the full sense of life and belonging in every aspect of Community, so Father is at Home.
Village Life. In the remainder of this lesson I want to talk about the natural spaces of the Community, the “rooms” both inside and out.
I am talking about village life. And please understand, I have designed and built or participated in the building or worked in daily life in the function of every aspect and element in the ongoing life and work of a village. And I have conceptualized every part of such a village working together as a whole, both in function and in presentation to the larger world. In fact, several years ago I attempted to create a website and a business that would showcase and teach every aspect of village life. The website (now non-existent) was called YGuide.
Functions of Village Life. Let me list the ten differing functions of village life that I included in the YGuide layout. 1. The Homestead. 2. The Farmstead. 3. The Herbarium. 4. The Garden. 5. The Wood Shop. 6. The Metal Shop. 7. The Healthy Home. 8. The Home Office. 9. The Home School. 10. The Home Studio/Gym.
As I said, I have designed, built, and worked in the functions of everyday life over many years inside eight of these ten categories inside of Christian community. (That fellowship once considered natural health to be of the devil and artistic work and sports to be of the flesh, so, sadly, the Herbarium and the Home Studio/Gym were not inside my community experience.)
Defining a “Room.” Let’s define a “room” in this context. First, by “room,” we mean a physical space, bounded in some way, in which a specific function of daily life takes place. And second, by “room,” we mean a social, occupational, or living space designed for each individual person as well as for several or all persons together. As we create each of these rooms, we design them to fit together as a functioning whole in the physical dimensions and layout as well as in the people acting inside those spaces. And as we create each of these rooms, we think in terms of building them rooted and grounded in Love and we think of them being filled as well with Father in action.
Our life together in the functions of daily life IS Father at Home and IS Father in action – energeoing all in all (1 Corinthians 12).
Wholeness. Let’s go back to Essence, that Salvation is wholeness. Here we are saying the full and final Salvation of God means a full wholeness of human life together inside this heaven/earth.
Now, no community should ever be fully sufficient in itself, for that would mean a disconnect from the larger area, from people not living in community or from other communities. Nonetheless, each community should include, as much as possible, each of the different functions of village life. Every child should grow up planting seeds in the soil. Every member of the community should participate at least a bit in the harvest of the fruit of the earth. Yet this does not mean that a community must grow all of its own food.
There is something inherently God-ly in a garden, something deep inside of God that can be known only by the living action of tending a garden.
Two More Functions. Now, I realize that I am bouncing around from one thought to the next, but that’s fine. There are two functions important to a Christian Community that are not in my list of the parts of the village. Those two functions are 11. The Community Dining Room and 12. The Home Church. Out from my knowledge of Christ in Community in a number of different settings, I would keep these two functions in the same room if at all possible.
Communion. Eating together and worshipping together are the two functions of the Community wherein we know the Communion of the Lord Jesus expressed in our communion together.
The central structure of any Community, then, is the Tabernacle, the name I would love to see given to the central building of every Christian Community across this earth through the Age of Tabernacles. In the main room of that building is where the entire community gathers for the functions of eating together and worshipping together. For that reason, the tables are moved out of the way and the chairs re-set in the order of worship or vice versa between each change of meals to service or service to meals. (Some smaller families might have one room with two areas, one for eating and the other for worship.)
Meals Together. Let’s talk about meals together. I cannot call any assembly the revelation of Jesus Christ unless all in the assembly share together at least one meal a week. Yet one meal a week together is only for a community that, for whatever reason, does not share the same property.
Initially, in my community experience, all meals were shared together in the common dining hall except for Sunday evening snack. But over time, most of the communities realized that, in order to honor the function of the individual family or household, it was better for a wholesome life to have breakfast at home. Thus my recommendation, that which I would prefer, would be to have at least twelve meals together each week. Yet for some, five meals a week together would be more fitting.
Services we will talk about later in the course.
The Tabernacle. The central structure in every community, then, is the Tabernacle.
Because it took so much to get a building built, during the most productive period of designing and building for me in community, the early 1990’s, I attempted to fit every function I could into the Graham River Tabernacle and then into the shop building at the Blueberry Community. That was a mistake which I will not repeat.
The Tabernacle will have, then, the large room that serves for dining and services, the large kitchen set up to cook the community meals, and an entry that would include a restroom facility. To those functions could be added some of the Homestead and Home Office functions.
Healthy Homes. Set in full balance with the Tabernacle, then, would be the family homes. I used the term “Healthy Home” in contrast to the very unhealthy environments created by using toxic materials as in most houses today. Yet what I mean now is the creation of very “homey” homes for each married couple or family.
Singles in a community should be fitted into a family household. Although young married couples should have a season of life on their own, most mature families in community should include space in their hearts and homes for single students or adults. There should be NO dormitories of any kind. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity (Psalms 68:5-6).
The School. The third significant structure in Community, after Tabernacle and homes, is the school. The school should be its own building, but it should be set in an agreeable proximity to the Tabernacle.
At the Blueberry Community where I went to college and then married Maureen and we started our family, the school and tabernacle were the same size and shape, identical buildings, side by side, with a drive and yard between them. That approach has much to recommend itself for emulation; these recommendations (even the “should’s” and “should not’s”), however, are guidelines only and not a binding form.
There is no greater blessing than a child growing up in a wholesome and God-filled Christian Community.
Rooms Inside and Out. It is in the interweaving, then, of these three structures, tabernacle, homes, and school, with all the attendant lawns, flower gardens, courtyards, and walkways, giving both boundaries and connections between and among these structures, that the principles of “creating rooms inside and out” are most important in the community design.
The remaining eight functions of a village are entirely in the arena of daily “work.” Some of these functions, especially “Homestead” can be placed in proximity to the living area of the community, but others are set at a slight distance, especially “Farmstead.” (No one wants a pig barn next to their house.)
In order to get a clearer picture of the daily work, let’s first discuss a fully self-contained subsistence community.
Self-Contained Subsistence. Although I do not recommend such an actuality for any community, the conception of self-contained subsistence is useful in seeing the full picture of the work functions of a village. (One reason why we would not choose to live this way is that self-contained subsistence equals poverty. Interaction with other entities outside the community creates both natural and spiritual wealth. Typically, such interaction is called “trade.”)
More than half of all labor in subsistence living is the production and preparation of food. Added to that for the men is the gathering of fuel and for the women the sewing and washing of clothes. All other activities are peripheral or supportive of these basic functions.
Homestead and Farmstead. Homestead includes all the work of home and kitchen needs, sewing and washing clothes, food preparation and storage, and many crafts related directly to home needs, including pottery. Farmstead includes working with animals, the barns, and the larger field crop production. The butcher shop and the root cellar find their places in-between Farmstead and Homestead.
The Herbarium could also be called the apothecary and is not restricted to the growing and use of herbs and essential oils, but anything to do with human health and restoration. I am convinced that Truth will demonstrate, before this thing is over, that much of modern medicine is perverted and horrific lies designed to create inordinate profit from the long and slow dying of humans.
Garden, Wood Shop, and Metal Shop. The Garden includes vegetable crops, berry fields, vineyards, and orchards as well as greenhouses. The two primary crafts in a subsistence community are woodworking which includes construction, and metal working, which includes mechanical repair. To woodworking I would add the woodlot and sawmill. And to metal working I would add the metal foundry. Yet beyond these, I have built an entire building devoted solely to the processing of honey from a large apiary (farmstead) as well as buildings for other unique crafts.
The Home Office includes community bookkeeping, postal communication, and the office part of home business. The Home Studio/Gym gives place to creative artwork and recreation.
A City on a Hill. A typical Christian Community will include aspects of many of these different areas of work. Every community should have some garden, and every community will have a mechanics garage. Both are just part of life.
Now, set against the concept of a self-contained subsistence community is the community labor for income which I laid out in Symmorphy III: Kingdom, Lesson 19.3 Among the People.
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:15-16).
Interactive Provision. Solitary self-contained subsistence is not the revelation of Jesus Christ, yet community is. In Kingdom, I suggested three ways by which a Christian Community can earn a living in connection with the world around, that is, as a light on a stand. Those three ways are a Teaching Community, a Hospitality Community, and a Healing Community. The truth is, most Christian Communities will have some aspect of all three, although the larger emphasis will be placed on only one of those three at any given community.
A Teaching Community could include a high school and college setting for outside young people and/or a craft school for adults.
Hospitality. A Healing Community could operate a natural spa and health center. And a Hospitality Community could focus on activities that visitors “on vacation” would love to participate in. Consider a busy family from the city, working in the office, taking a two-week vacation at your community. There is no question that they would find great enjoyment and restoration fitting into the ongoing activities of the community including tending animals or gardening.
All three types of community, then, would include an area of the property for structures, either fixed buildings or RV spaces or even campsites, that would accommodate economic visitors. This area should be slightly separate from the permanent family dwellings, but still allow for easy interaction.
A Room of One’s Own. I have one final consideration in this brief look at the natural layout of the structures and functions of the community. This lesson is “Built for People.” And the premise is that, as we honor individual people, so we honor the Lord Jesus.
I would recommend that consideration be given to providing every individual adult in the community with a space, a “room,” of their own. I’m not talking about a locked room that keeps everyone else out, but a “room” made just for them, for their own creativity or relaxation. For some it might be a side work-room in the mechanics shop or woodshop. For me it would be my writing office/library/study. For another it might be an art studio in a dormer of their roof.
Years of Much Thought. Personal solitude is as essential for wholeness as the reciprocal enjoyment of working together. Honoring each person with a room of their own is a key weapon against the imaginary but deadly “group.”
You can see that there is a whole lot included in the design of a Christian Community. And I have not only participated fully in all of it, both in living and in construction, but I have also given much thought to these things through the intervening years.
Yet all we are talking about in this lesson is the outward structure of buildings and functions inside of which community and family life takes place. In the next session, we will explore the fantastical contribution of each member to the Body of God – eating and drinking of Christ.