Whining about Community
I found an email today from a person whom I knew years ago when he was in The
Word of God. We lived in the same house twice, and I can't say we got along
well. So now he has read my web site and
wants to get in touch with me. The reason is apparent from a link he gives in
the e-mail, which is to a 6-year-old article from the Washington Post that is highly
critical of the Mother of God community in
So I guess he wants to gripe at me about the community and try to get me to
agree with him. I've heard this before: former community members who want to
blame all their problems on covenant community.
I don't know much about the Mother of God community. If what the Post article says is true, the leaders
of the community seem to have assumed rather too much authority over the lives
of community members, and to some degree tried to usurp the position of competent
Church authorities. On the other hand, the article may exaggerate or
misrepresent the community's practices. It cites Steve Clark and Douglas Hyde
as inspirations for the Mother of God teachings, and misrepresents both, so I
have reason to be suspicious. I do know that the Mother of God community has
never been in a relationship with The Word of God or the Sword of the Spirit,
and that it went through some troubles (the nature of which I do not know) a
few years ago. These may have been related to the issues described in the
article--I don't know.
But I do have some experience of covenant community--33 years of experience, to
be exact. No covenant community is perfect; each is made up of human beings,
and many leaders of community have made mistakes in their teaching. In
particular, many have tried to assume pastoral authority that would better have
been left alone. In many cases, however, I think that what appeared to be
attempts to control people's lives were simply instances of holding up a high
ideal with a somewhat naive underestimate of the difficulty of everyone
following it.
I think that everyone who has survived in covenant community for any length of
time has had to come to a realization similar to the one I did. I saw clearly
that my relationship with God was just as good as that of any community leader,
and if I thought they were wrong, I could tell them where to get off. No one
can be part of a community in the right way who believes that his relationship
to God depends upon the community. Over the years there may have been a fair
number of people in covenant communities, some even in positions of
responsibility, who have not clearly understood this. In the long run, they
cannot be fruitful servants of God.
People who join a covenant community and put the community in the place of God
are looking for a cult, and may find one. They may find one, even if the
leaders take care to discourage this attitude. In earlier days of covenant
community, however, those in leadership were in many cases themselves fairly
young, and in most cases very enthusiastic, and were not likely to balance
their eagerness to share the vision that they had with the necessity for each
member to hear and understand God's will for himself. They were too ready to
mistake for a corroboration of their vision the quick agreement of an immature
person looking for a spiritual free ride.
I am happy to say that the leaders of The Word of God, and of Washtenaw
Covenant Community and other communities in the Sword of the Spirit, have learned
through bitter experience the perils involved in community. They are careful,
even while discussing the development of a way of life that characterizes
community, that they are not assuming any directional responsibility for the
lives of individual members. Nevertheless, I find the advice of other members
of the community extremely helpful, and I hope some have found mine likewise
helpful.
I am a member of a covenant community because I believe that it is a good way
to serve God. I believe moreover that God has called me to serve Him in this
way, although what good I do to the mission of the community is not apparent to
me most of the time. I believe that if I were not in community, a number of
things that I need to do in life would be more difficult. My salvation does not
depend on being part of the community, but being part of the community is an
aid to persevering on the road of salvation. Even if I were not called to be
part of covenant community, or I were called to some service incompatible with
being an active part of covenant community, I still believe that community is
performing a valuable service for the Church.