Remembering my experiences living in communities

When I was in the New Age cult in 1974 I visited several communes that included one that was on a farm, and 2 that were folks renting apartments in the same area and had an office space rented for workshops and offices.

When I was in the church based rehab in 1975-1976 they had bought many run down houses in a depressed neighborhood near an Episcopal church that was their home base. They renovated the houses in Montrose long before it got trendy and packed the renovated garages, attics and any room with lots of bunk beds. Some people worked at the church but did not take a paycheck. Some worked at secular jobs and brought the whole paycheck to help the household and some stayed at home to shop, cook, clean and watch the children.

I was there 18 months. The first half I was in intense recovery working at the church on the maintenance team with a few other men that did the janitor jobs. We had daily group counseling, quiet times, communion and work duties. The latter half I worked at a hospital and signed over all my check. If I needed a money for a haircut, birthday present or other I asked. There were just a few cars per household.  I could use a car if I needed but that was rare. 

They shopped at the farmers market and bought other items in bulk. They cooked giant batchs of dinners. Those who had secular jobs took sack lunches. So our food costs were tiny.

There were about 9 households ranging in size from 7 to 16 with a core leadership team at each household. Most of us could walk to church that was 4 to 8 blocks away.

We began the day in each house with prayer and Bible study.

We did outreach to the community that was mostly Hispanic. 

There was a Christian coffee house where members interacted with neighbors.

This was at the dawn of what is now called contemporary worship. It was revolutionary to have guitars instead of organs and pianos in the church services. The new songs were mellow and intimate. They had a tour bus that went around the country leading other congregations to worship in this new way.

When I arrived I was a basket case. My brain had been scrambled on over use of LSD. I went on too many acid trips. I was painfully shy socially. I did not trust anyone. I knew I had hit bottom and I needed help. That was a super prayerful community that was genuinely devoted to know God and obey Him. It was easy to get into those healing streams. 

http://www.celebratethewhole.net/Redeemer/memories.htm