Several months ago I decided that I was not fit to be a leader of a community, and was going to give up on my dreams. Circumstances provided by God, I believe, helped me realize that I don’t have to have all the qualifications I thought I needed as long as I was relying on Jesus for help and guidance. Recently I have committed to creating a rule of life for myself which will be extended to those who are in the monastery part of the community described below. By having spiritual practices that help me and other people who join me to maintain loving connection with Jesus and each other, we can form a core group of people who can then as a team guide the larger community.

I pray right now: Abba Father, Holy Spirit, Beloved Jesus: Guide me as I write these words and infuse them with your love. I ask for wisdom as I continue on this journey, and you promise that you will answer this prayer. I surrender all to you, and if I am doing anything that is not in alignment with your Word and your will, just stop that thing from happening. I want this community to be a place where people can come, both Christians and non-Christians, to experience your love. I want this community to be a place where people will know we are Christians by our love for each other, for all of life, and for God. I know I can not do this without your help and guidance, and I thank you that you are with me always. Help me to listen better. In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Imagine a village where the center is a monastery where men and women who are passionately committed to Jesus facilitate the workings of the common house and common lands for food growing, recreation, and cooperative businesses. They engage the residents of the larger community in decision making and keeping the community well running. Because of their focus on practicing spiritual formation, providing spiritual direction as wanted by the village members, and facilitating daily events where residents can participate in spiritual practices as they wish, there can be a peace that passes all understanding in the village.

Practicing a day of rest from what we believe the Bible teaches as being the Sabbath, from sun down on Friday to sun down on Saturday, will be another way the monastics can serve the community with a wide variety of events such as singing, prayer, teaching, inner healing with Jesus using the Emmanuel Approach, cooperative games (including cooperative volleyball), swimming in the lake (and eventually a big pond to be built on the land), studying the scriptures in a way that satisfies all ages, eating a plant-based feast, telling stories around the campfire, folk dancing, and taking walks in the forest.

Our main rule of behavior towards each other, that we will not gossip but rather go to a person one on one when conflict happens, is inspired by the Bruderhof. Read about this conflict prevention and resolution policy here: https://wellspringcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/09/conflict-resolution-guidelines-2/

men and women people have stewardship over their city-lot sized parcel of land where they can do anything they want in accordance to the community land trust guidelines and the requirements of the law (which are minimal). Picture all sorts of homes being built out of sustainable building materials–cob, straw bale, cordwood, earth bags and more. Geodesic domes, earth ships, underground homes, and other interesting structures dot the landscape. Each “holding” is beautiful and unique. Some have food forests. Others are growing wild edibles, pollinators, dwarf fruit trees, herbs, vegetables and lots of flowers. People feel a sense of ownership because they know that as long as they stay within the parameters of the agreements which simply help the land, people and all of life be healthy–they will have the land and can pass it on to their heirs who can pass it on to their heirs.

“A Community Land Trust is Community land trusts – or CLTs – are democratic, non profit organisations that own and develop land for the benefit of the community.” Learn more at this site: https://www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/about-clts/what-is-a-community-land-trust-clt/

Then envision a small cluster of huts near the common house (which is already built) where there is a monastery of men and women who have dedicated their lives to help run this community and support all members to engage in decision making and cooperation. They supply physical support in the form of facilitating community meetings, doing physical work to help create self sufficiency, planning outreach and service to the larger community (Living Springs neighborhood, Madison County, Huntsville, Kingston, Northwest Arkansas, the Ozarks and the world) preparing meals, coordinating growing food on the common areas, and other things that help the community run smoothly.

They also help with spiritual support in the form of developing 24 hour prayer, leading services where maximum participation of all is encouraged, having daily events that foster spiritual practices, and having bible studies, worship meetings and so much more.

They are single and celibate, able to be free to help more because their lives are simple and they hold all things in common. They can help provide the things that house-holders have a harder time handling because they are raising children. They will help run the school, find people to start a holistic clinic, eldercare facility, rehab center and other facilities that will help people in need and fulfill Christ’s call to help the poor, minister to the orphans and widows, and in general be of service.

As in the olden days, when the monasteries would help the villages, this monastery will be similar. As villagers grow in trust and commitment, they can become lay monastics, and participate in the shared purse and holding of all in common as the early Christians did.

I have been very inspired by the Bruderhof when they discuss the importance of sharing all in common in order to follow Jesus’s sermon on the mount and to imitate the life of the early Christians. I am going to visit them in June for a week and I am very excited. I thought at first that I just needed to give up starting a community and just join one. but I realized that my commitment to veganism was really a stumbling block.

So the community will be a vegan community where people eat a plant based diet. Part of this is because we are trying to use the land most efficiently, and growing animals takes a lot of space. Another reason is that the original diet as taught by the Bible in Genesis was a plant based diet. I envision a community where we do our best to return to Eden–but not succumb to the temptation of mistrusting and betraying God.

The values that I have listed are pretty much the same. Find them here:

I really want to find people who want to utilize the upper part of the land which is near the road, and which can be easily connected to the grid–as village businesses including ones mentioned above and also a general store which can be similar to the old style co-operatives (my friend and former husband Cliff and I ran one back in the seventies for two years). A mechanic’s shop would be great.

Even without sharing all in common, we can cooperate in endless ways including:

A Tool library

Time banking

sharing the common house

sharing meals

community gardens, orchards and food forests

common recreational space: play ground, volleyball court, open space for play, trampoline.

I have an idea of a common business which would be sustainable and useful services. https://sustainableservices.wordpress.com/ People who live in the community and elsewhere can join this cooperative endeavor. A co-operative is a people-centred enterprise owned, controlled, and run by and for its members to realize their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations. Cooperatives bring people together in a democratic and equal way, and we would use sociocracy 3.0 to make decisions.

I’m excited about moving forward. I would love to hear what your thoughts are. People could come for a work exchange program if they are highly trustworthy since I still have to work outside the home to make money. However, there is a possibility that I will be able to have a lump sum in order to finish the common house. I pray that will be the case.

I am starting a new order of monastics where the beliefs include, according to the Bible, Christian Universalism (the doctrine that all will be saved eventually because God is both good, just and powerful) and veganism. I do not know of any Christian monastery that has combined these two doctrines.