The Jesus People

On Sunday Hadassah and I went with some friends to visit and organization in the city (click here). As far as I can tell, this is an organization that runs like a commune. Everything is held in common. They own businesses to support themselves.

This idea of enacting the Acts model of community is not new. Many Christian churches claim that they are implementing the Acts model. From time to time a group will decide that Acts points to a commune model. Sometimes communes work, sometimes they don't. I really respect the community that I we observed on Sunday. It has raised some questions for me to think about:

1) Is the 'commune' model a viable option in the world today?
2) Can a commune maintain true Christian community for an extended period of time?
3) Are communes subject to the same human foibles that plague human society?
4) Are communes really the best model of the early church?
5) Do communes tend to become isolationist (think Hudderites)?
6) Is it right to look for "the model" of Christianity or do we need to allow for many models of Christianity?
7) When is an Adventist going to start an inner city community/commune?

Some of these questions are no-brainers.
Hopfully I haven't misrepresented the community that provoked these questions. I really don't know much about them. But the questions are still intresting.