Daily Archives: August 16, 2017

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August 15, 2017 Updated August 15, 2017 4:35 PM

Are you an "elder orphan?" Also called unbefriended adults, they are people aging alone, without kids.

But now, they have a Facebook group with about 5,000users since it began last year. You have to be 55 or over, live without a spouse and not have children. Or, if you do, they have to either be estranged or live far away.

Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with the founder of the Facebook group for elder orphans, Carol Marak (),who's also a columnist and editor at SeniorCare.com.

On her experience with elder orphans

"It kind of hit me over the head. It was like, 'Oh my gosh.' My parents demanded quite a bit of care, and my sisters and I provided that for them, and once they passed on, I realized, 'Oh my goodness, all that time, effort and resources it took from us, who will do that for me?'"

On the Facebook group she started

"Well, first off, most of the members are very grateful to have found us, and realize that there are so many more like them, and we all share the same grievances, the same hardships and challenges. And so, we all visit it, most of the time every day, just checking in. We give support to people who are going into surgery or who have had an emergency or some sort of medical event, and I cannot tell you how supportive that feels for the people who are going through an incident like that."

On elder orphans not being able to rely on children as caregivers

"What's remarkable, just recently, one of my members here that lives in Dallas, she just had hip surgery, and you know, she didn't have any visitors. A friend or two stopped by, but no one to check on her at home, except her brother, who occasionally did that. So, it is a growing problem."

On the health care system's assumption of family support

"That's what happened to this one individual here in Dallas. She couldn't find someone as a matter of fact, when she was preparing for the surgery and she was talking with her physician's office, they didn't even ask, 'Do you have someone who can help you at home?'"

"What's so wonderful is that when you start a discussion, you're always going to have someone participate."

On advice for those aging alone

"Just recently, I moved from suburbia into a highly urban area, where there is a metro, you know, transportation, buses, public transit. I'm also very healthy fortunately, but I do walk. I run my errands via foot, so I kind of kill two birds with one stone there, stay fit and run errands. And I live in a high-rise, because I want to surround myself with other people. I don't want to live in a home, isolated. So, we have to think about those things, how do we plan for aging alone."

On maintaining a social network while aging

"I would suggest, first off, just reaching out to the local area agencies on aging. Then, I would also reach out to senior centers. Just go where seniors hang out."

On adopting a family

"Well, I mean, think about it. How many families are maybe without an older individual, or maybe they've lost their parents or they've lost their grandmother? Of course, it requires a lot of forethought, and even some help with legal matters, but I think it's an option."

On renting rooms to elder orphansand others

"It's happening a lot. Let's say, for example, I have a large home in suburbia. I can either rent out a bedroom to a college student, for example, and in return maybe not charge them rent, but in return, maybe that they would run errands for me. I could even rent out a room to another person my own age."

On pooling resources

"Yes, that's happening in the co-housing communities, where it's intentional communities that are being built, with everyone having their own homes, potentially, or maybe a high-rise and they have their own spaces. But they do provide a separate space for a caregiver free of charge, so that caregiver can then take care of them."

On other things to consider

"Make sure that you know that you stay fit, and eat healthy food, that you do not isolate, that you do have companionship, that you reach out to the community and possibly volunteer to help another person, have purpose in your life."

On what happens in the Facebook group

"[People are] mostly just sharing what they're feeling each day. We discuss transportation options, emotional things that might be affecting us, how are we feeling about not having children although most of us are grateful to not have children, because we have members who have been really estranged from their families, which is hard. So, it's just a great place to come and feel accepted, and find friendship and connection. What's so wonderful is that when you start a discussion, you're always going to have someone participate. And you can also pull it offline if you wish, and private message someone, and then take it from there. Many of us are breaking off and starting our own face-to-face groups, which is really, I think, the next step for all of us."

This segment aired on August 15, 2017.

More here:

'Elder Orphans' Facebook Group Creates Community For Adults ... - Here And Now

A record number of babies born!

Twenty- and 30-somethings move home at rates not seen in decades!

Small town citizens raise millions to reinvest in their communitys future!

These are all headlines from Greater Nebraska in 2016. The ONeill hospital, for example, reported 174 births last year. Communities like Albion, Stuart and Pender all have many more young families living there than they did 10 years ago. Dozens of Nebraska hometowns big and small are coming together to raise millions through their unrestricted endowments, providing support to worthwhile causes today, and paving the way to a brighter future.

This isnt the rural narrative weve grown accustomed to hearing, but that may be changing.

According to U.S. Census data, populations in many areas of rural Nebraska are stabilizing. The Nebraska Community Foundation recently surveyed 6,000 Nebraska middle and high school students about their perceptions of their hometowns. Only 12 percent said their town is too small, and the majority can picture themselves living there in the future if career opportunities are available.

What do places like Albion, Stuart, Pender and ONeill have in common? Each of these communities has focused on a simple, asset-based community development strategy for success:

Shared vision; distributed leadership; citizen engagement and building an unrestricted endowment and using it to create magnetic communities.

This four-part strategy works like a magnet to attract young families.

People attraction is the new community economic development priority for building an honorable future for Nebraska. Telecommunications are making it possible for people to live and work wherever they choose. Today, the economic development question isnt one of jobs. The better question is: Why here? Why do I want to live, work, and raise my family in this community?

Nebraska Community Foundation is working with over 250 communities across Greater Nebraska to help people answer that question.

Community foundation funds are playing a critical role in these success stories. They are identifying their communitys unique assets, unleashing talent and resources, making a case for investing locally and, ultimately, taking action. Perhaps most importantly, these leaders are having optimistic conversations about the future with youth and young adults.

Community success is not preordained. It requires constant attention by many people, committed to relationships, well-being, opportunity and a hopeful narrative about our future.

This quarterly column in the Daily News, Good Life, Greater Nebraska, will shine a light on extraordinary communities doing extraordinary things. It will aim to change misconceptions about life in rural America. It will examine statewide, national and international trends in community and economic development. It will explore how communities can be intentional about their future, take control of their destiny, and create the hometown of their dreams.

Editors note: The author is president/chief executive officer of the Nebraska Community Foundation.

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Good life, greater Nebraska - Norfolk Daily News (blog)

Christian monastic tradition stresses the importance of what it calls natural contemplation, or what other traditions might call nature meditation. This Christian tradition claims that one needs to learn to encounter God in all of creation, living or otherwise, if one truly is to grow spiritually.

For those of us living in todays society outside of monastery walls why might natural contemplation prove crucial to growing spiritually? For one thing I believe that creation itself serves as our monastery.

All too often we may think of monasteries as places where men or women go to escape from the challenges of everyday life. Monasteries would seem to offer a simple life where we can leave behind hassles, distractions, and troublemakers. The reality lies far from this simple view. Instead, living in close quarters with people with whom you work, eat, and pray for years on end offers countless opportunities for peoples shortcomings to rub up against each other, creating heat that easily grows into flames. These intentional communities provide a context where their members, guided by mentors schooled in the wisdom of centuries, must learn patience, open-mindedness, and humility among other things. They also offer guidance in prayer practices that help open their practitioners to the presence of God in all things, places and times.

Natural contemplation offers us similar opportunities, particularly if practiced with others. I remember dealing with the worst mosquito season in memory as I backpacked with an Opening the Book of Nature group in the Range of Light behind Yosemite. Swarms of mosquitoes attempting to bite every square inch of exposed skin provided wonderful opportunities for developing patience and learning to live graciously under difficult circumstances. Every time I face annoying gnats on my daily walk or irritating people at the office I remember the lessons I learned from the mosquitoes in Yosemite. Creation makes a wonderful novice master for those who would learn.

Contemplating nature also helps us develop what the monks call the spiritual senses, the ability to perceive a deeper reality or presence beyond what our usual senses present us. Jesus often said, You who have eyes to see, see. And you who have eyes to hear, hear. He called people to delve below the surface of things that they might encounter God there.

Its far easier to do this in natural settings where the distractions of our everyday life are few. Many people say they dont go to church on Sunday because they go out into nature and encounter God there. The woods are their cathedral. The Romantic poets like Wordsworth, for instance, point to this experience.

So, by contemplating nature we both learn to become more God-like and to experience Gods presence in all things, whether human or nonhuman. Like study abroad where one comes to appreciate ones own country by experiencing life elsewhere, we find that, by yielding ourselves to the discipline of the monastery of creation, we grow spiritually in our everyday work and home life.

Should you wish to learn more about our programs in natural contemplation, click on the links below. In a future entry Ill describe the book were working on to help guide people in this spiritual practice. So, watch for it in the next two or three months.

The Morning Email

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Nature as our Spiritual Mentor - HuffPost

[Article reprinted with permission fromOswego County Business Magazine]

A new Business Resource Center, the result of a unique public-private partnership knit together by and with higher education, now offers a broad range of services to entrepreneurs, startups and established businesses at the hub of downtown Oswego's east side.

Community partner Pathfinder Bank built out office space at 121 E. First St. for the facility, which recently opened as a productive outcome of forward-thinking collaboration among college, business and economic development professionals.

The building houses the Small Business Development Center, the Workforce Development Board of Oswego County, and the offices of the director and several other key staff of SUNY Oswego's Office of Business and Community Relations (OBCR). The Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce will join SUNY Oswego in this space as a complement to the collaboration.

Pathfinder also built out space for community-relations units within OBCR -- including Leadership Oswego County and the Oswego County branch of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. They now make their home at 34 E. Bridge St., in the Pathfinder Bank Building. An additional collaborator in this space includes the Oswego Bookmobile's administrative staff.

"SUNY Oswego has a long history of commitment to the Oswego community and this move downtown is intentional in deepening that commitment," said SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley. "The OBCR team's mission is to serve as the conduit between the campus and the community -- it makes sense that its offices are located at the most visible intersection in Oswego along with student interns, the Chamber and the Bookmobile."

Pam Caraccioli, deputy to the college president for business partnerships and economic development, said none of the partners gives up its own identity.

"It's a true partnership," Caraccioli said. "Yet we are all separate organizations. This is an opportunity for new interfaces, new synergies and it's an important piece in the revitalization of the city's east side. These spaces are simply an extension of our campus and we invite campus departments to also use this space "

'Makes it all tick'

The impetus for the moves and partnerships came from the need for the space formerly occupied by OBCR in Rich Hall, the home of the SUNY Oswego School of Business. After a study of all the options, President Stanley made the call to move the office downtown, Caraccioli said.

The decision to move OBCR downtown already had a strong foundation in SUNY Oswego's strategic plan. Titled "Tomorrow," the plan dedicates the college to engaging and partnering with local, national and international communities to make an impact through research, community service and economic development "for collective prosperity, equity, resilience and success."

The college put out a request for proposals in early 2016, and of those that came in, one -- that of Pathfinder Bank -- fit the criteria for what became the Business Resource Center and the nearby Office of Business and Community Relations.

Tom Schneider, the bank's president and CEO, said public-private partnerships such as this are critical to aligning resources to build momentum for economic development and a vibrant community.

"The commitment the college leadership is making to downtown and to connecting its students to the Oswego community is significant and appreciated," Schneider said. "It's a move we wanted to be part of. All of this, working together, is what makes it all tick."

Oswego Mayor William J. Barlow Jr. pointed out that the move of the Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce to the new BRC opened the way for a related shift: The city Office of Community & Economic Development will move into the chamber's current space at neighboring 44 E. Bridge St.

"It is incredibly valuable to the City of Oswego and especially the east side of Downtown Oswego for SUNY Oswego to have a presence," Barlow said. "It will be extremely beneficial to City of Oswego residents to have so many resources under one roof and truly shows we are a united community with many different facets of our community working together to move Oswego forward. I am proud to include the City of Oswego Economic Development office in this partnership as we all work to revive the Oswego business community and serve our residents."

Regional clout comes to bear for the Business Resource Center, as well. For example, the Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce partners with CenterState CEO, the independent economic development strategist, business leadership organization and chamber of commerce based in Syracuse.

"Whenever we have achieved success, we have done so by thinking strategically and acting collaboratively. The new Business Resource Center advances these concepts for the benefit of the entire community," said Rob Simpson, president of CenterState CEO. "Through this new partnership and shared space, we can provide more effective and efficient service delivery to the businesses of Oswego that will only enable greater opportunities for our region."

Katie Toomey, the local chamber's executive director, said the notion of efficiency resonated with her in joining the Business Resource Center partnership.

"You often hear the phrase 'one-stop shop.' The BRC is a perfect example of economic development professionals coming together to provide resources not previously available in one place in the past," Toomey said. "Through this new collaboration, these partners can now better serve the county and its cities in a more meaningful way."

Eric Constance, who directs the Watertown regional office of the Small Business Development Center and provides for SUNY Oswego's affiliate office of the SBDC within the Business Resource Center, called the BRC "a win-win for all parties."

"I think it's a great location," Constance said. "It's going to be exactly what the business community needs to have available."

Complementary roles

The Small Business Development Center, long affiliated with the college's Office of Business and Community Relations, is part of a nationwide network administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration. A major public-private partnership between government and higher education, the SBDC provides one-on-one services to small businesses and entrepreneurs, helping businesses plan and resolve organizational, financial, marketing, technical and other business-related issues.

"This move brings us closer to entrepreneurs and startups, and we also help existing businesses," Constance said.

The Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce provides its members opportunities to make businesses in the greater Oswego-Fulton communities more competitive through access to economic development support, advocacy, business resources, employee development. Through its relationship with CenterState CEO, the chamber accesses connections to nearly 2,000 members across the region.

"We want to be seen as the dot connector, a liaison, networking with and among member businesses," Toomey said. "We are currently reworking our entire small business offerings, making them more tangible."

The Workforce Development Board Inc. of Oswego County is a linchpin for identifying the workforce needs of businesses. It writes and obtains training grants for the private and public sectors, aligns training programs to meet the needs of the business community, and provides workforce needs assessments to area businesses.

As executive director of the college's Office and Business Community Relations, Chena Tucker also directs the Workforce Development Board. It's not only up to the partners to decide how the new center evolves and takes shape, it's up to those who need its services.

"I feel that as a brand-new business center, I'm also looking to the community to tell us what it wants these new offices to be," she said.

Tucker pointed with pride to features of both the BRC offices and the partnership's new community relations space, thanks to designers from Rowlee Construction of Fulton. The business center has a conference room that will seat up to 40 people comfortably, and the building retains an original stone wall along its southern wall. At 34 E. Bridge St., the conference room's feature wall in the conference room that, together with incorporating a vault evoking adjacent Pathfinder Bank, lends distinctiveness.

The Business Resource Center will celebrate its launch with an upcoming gala open house with representation from all of its partners and from business, government and community organizations.

For more information, visit oswego.edu/obcr or contact the Business Resource Center at 315-312-3493. The main community relations number for the college and its partner programs remains 315-312-3492.

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College's Office of Business and Community Relations moves downtown - SUNY Oswego

A reader sent me the following piece he wrote in response to the mens group at his church reading The Benedict Option together. I thought it was quite good, and asked him for permission to republish it here. It has been edited slightly for privacy reasons.I hope you find ithelpful. This is exactly the kind of thinking and conversation I was hoping the book would spark in congregations.

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. There is nothing progressive about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world its pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistakes. Were on the wrong road. And if that is so we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on. C.S. Lewis

I just finished reading The Benedict Option last week. The controversy surrounding this book is both puzzling and predictable. It is puzzling because Dreher is reiterating in laymans terms what Jesus, the apostles and Christian thinkers have said for centuries: that the church must remain the church and should beware of the wiles of the world, whatever the cost. The books controversy is predictable however because the course of action Dreher suggests to remain the church is so contrary to mainstream American culture, and even mainstream church culture, that any of us living in this mainstream are bound to feel the BenOp sting somewhere in its pages.

Its easy enough to say that the church must remain the church, and as long as say, [our church]continues to conduct worship services on Sunday mornings we may safely assume that we are remaining just fine. But when the suggested means to remain the church look quite different from how we actually do church, the implication can be unflattering, either for our church or for the suggested means. I felt the sting of Drehers words often, namely in my often thoughtless and increasing dependence on technology and the internet for so many of lifes necessities and, perhaps more troubling, the complicated dance I enact to sidestep revealing my Christian beliefs in the secular (and sometimes Christian) circles I inhabit. But despite the sting, I felt that I was reading a book I would have liked to have written myself. And, though not able to reach any final conclusions, I nonetheless found Drehers illustrations of Christian life painfully pertinent to our culture, and the consequent implications on how we do church in[our town] to be unflattering.

What strikes me most about many reactions to TheBenedict Option is the persistent supposition that its main thrust is the separation, retreat, and cloistering of the church. It seems that even those who I assume are careful readers of this book, like James K.A. Smith, nonetheless fall into the same misconception: that the book is about withdrawal from society. Similar accusations (though of much more gravity) were leveled at the early church by Roman authorities for their antisocial behaviorthat they wouldnt take part in civic celebrations and feasts in which pagan deities were honored. And if we as Christians seem maladjusted or separatist because wed rather not embrace certain practices of a transient, materialistic, sexually immoral and individualistic culture, then Id say theres something wrong with the culture and not the church.

However, I found the book refreshing because of its positive message: a call to the church to come together. In addition to a lot of railing and complaining about modern society (a practice I am quite fond of) Dreher gives many helpful and time tested examples of how to live differently. In every example given, whether in actual monasteries or in intentional communities, Dreher highlights the increasing need for Christians to resist the isolating individualism of our culture and to live our Christian lives more intimately with God and our brothers and sisters. I believe that if we who are squeamish about accusations of church isolationism were to even temporarily embrace some of the concepts in the Benedict Option we would find ourselves living much more socially and with time, much better equipped to share our faith with those both inside and outside the circle of our brethren. We must also ask ourselves if our fear of church isolationism is really driven by a concern for our non-believing neighbors and non-church communities, or by our own fear of intimacy with our Christian neighbors and church community. So to extend Lewis analogy above, Dreher is certainly calling for an about-turn in relation to our intrenchment in secular culture, which has led many to view the Benedict Option as negative and backward, but the books thesis is both positive and progressive regarding the church; that we must fulfill Gods purpose by strengthening our ties to one another and to God.

Im not sure if Drehers talk of small-o orthodoxy and traditional Christianity betrays a weak ecclesiology, or if so, that a stronger ecclesiological explanation of these terms would have changed his book very much. He acknowledges the inexactitude of these terms and defines them a little betterhere. But I found Drehers ecclesiastical ideas springing fresh from a view of the universe with the church at the center. He reminds us in The Benedict Options last chapter of Ezekiels vision of a stream of water flowing out from the Temple altar, spreading into a river, and that this vision was fulfilled on Pentecost, when God poured out the Holy Spirit on the gathered disciples, inaugurating a new era with the birth of the church. Through the churchthe restored Templewould flow the living waters of salvific grace. This church-centric view is one of the most radical claims of scripture and one of the most subversive to non-Christian cultures. Petersons translation of Ephesians 1:22-23 puts it nicely: [Jesus] is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world: the world is peripheral to the church.

This sharp divide between the church and the world is often portrayed as the separation of church and state which today usually means that the church can have its private opinions (just like the KKK or AntiFa can have their opinions) but ultimately the State decides on public policy and matters of real import. But this (mis)understanding of the separation of church and state does not represent the Biblical distinction between the church and the world. The Biblical view of the worldnot the creation or the material world, but what Paul calls the rulers, authorities, and powers of darknessis antithetical to the church, or as [our pastor] preached from James epistle this morning, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. And the church, namely us, is at the center of Gods plan for the renewal of the world and ultimately the universe. The Benedict Option seems to grasp this almost obscenely grandiose calling for the church and says, so lets start living like it! But, thats not entirely right, what it actually says is, Christians have lived like it for centuries, so lets learn from them! Meanwhile, we at [our church]are asking, Arent we living like it?

In his acknowledgements, Dreher praises the work of Ken Myers, who through interviews with Christian thinkers (including James K.A. Smith and Dreher himself) has sought to illuminate the problems of modern secular culture for decades. It was interesting to me to hear Benedicts name come up a few times in Myers most recent Mars Hill Audio Journal, quite apart from Drehers work. One interviewee, Philip Turner, an Episcopal priest and former dean of Yales divinity school was asked if there was anyone from the patristic era whose vision of the church might speak to our post-modern predicament. He answered: My great example of someone who anticipated in a remarkable way many of the things we now need to learn is Saint Benedict. He knew that to be formed in Christ you had to live in a community over time in which you subject yourself to various practices I think that he understood what I understand to be the major function of the Church; to become a community in which Christ is taking form. Both Turner and Dreher look to Saint Benedict for guidance in our current church predicament, and they commend not primarily Benedicts retreat from the surrounding culture, but his robust vision of Christian fellowship and community.

In this interview, Turner had some cogent insights into the decline of the modern American church. Turner was a missionary in Africa between the years of 1961 and 1971. To say that our culture underwent dramatic changes in this decade is an understatement (e.g. Vietnam, sexual revolution, civil rights activism, etc.) When Turner left America, the church still functioned as a chaplain to a culture that regarded itself as Christian. He said that one could travel from church to school to the town square without ever leaving a largely uniform culture. This was a culture where prayers were said in public schools and Biblical principles could be invoked in public discourse without controversy. Turner struggled in Africa to form a church community in a culture that was largely hostile to Christianity. Meanwhile he watched the American church from afar and saw that it too was clashing with an increasingly hostile culture, and consequently becoming more culturally marginalized. The American churchs reaction to this marginalization however troubled Turner. He observes:

I came to believe that the churches in the United States were addressing their changed circumstances in exactly the wrong way. They were expending enormous energies to maintain their social position, and in so doing they failed to realize the extent to which their previous attachment to social positions and cultural relevance had actually compromised their integrity. I came to believe that the most immediate calling of the churches is to form a culture in which Christ is taking form rather than to transform a culture.

I hope that it is clear from this passage that Turner is not lamenting the good old days when Americans could pray in school. But rather, in those tumultuous years he began to understand that the American church had largely failed in developing a strong enough individual culture to withstand increasing public hostility. I imagine Turner thinking to himself at that time, If thats how the American church reacts to hostility in America, theyd never stand a chance here in Africa. Again, given what the Bible says about the church, its marginalization within any secular culture is hardly an obstacle to Gods purposes. Consequently, when churches begin to obsess about public opinion it reveals weakness of character and misunderstanding of its identity.

How this applies historically to our church is probably better suited to some of our church historians and elder(ly) members. Our church being founded in [the 1940s]was certainly begun in a time of relative Christian American cultural uniformity. And it weathered the cultural changes of the 60s and 70s without too much consequence. We have seen many changes in our denomination and watched both liberal and conservative Christians duke it out for continued cultural market share in their parishes, the [national meetings of our denomination]and in our country. Meanwhile our church in [this town]has for the most part quietly gone about its business, striving to live peacefully and to proclaim the Gospel. We have sought to stay true to Scripture and not to fall into the traps of legalism or heathenism. We can deduce that as a congregation, we never formed inordinate attachment to social positions or cultural relevance (we never had much anyway) and thus feel no need to retain these things as public life becomes more secularized. To return to Lewis analogy, is seems that our church is on the right track and need only press on toward the goal. But it warrants asking (as we often do), what is our goal? And furthermore, what about this business of forming a culture in which Christ is taking form?

While its safe to say that we have a church culture at [our church]; i.e. we are not demonstrative in worship, informal but not loose in temperament, generous with food and money, preferring dry humor over boisterous humor, loving, humble, friendly but not smothering, slow to change, quick to eat, etc., one would still not claim that our church is the source of our daily lived culture. Id dare to say that our church plays a more supplemental role in most of our lives. And, Id say that most of us live more or less good, chaste, wholesome lives. Nonetheless, church is a part of our lives and not the center. This doesnt even mean that we dont regard church and God as the center of our lives. It just means that [our church]is not the most practical, formative, ubiquitous and influential source of our day to day experience. Should it be? If so, how?

It seems to me that we at [this church]inherited a liturgical rhythma way of doing churchthat is distinctly American and characteristic of the age in which our church was founded; those happy golden years when America was largely considered a Christian nation. This liturgical rhythm is not very demanding as most of us meet only once a week, and it functions very similarly to other social clubs which need not be Christian, who also have their roots in the era described above. This is perhaps justified if the surrounding culture is generally Christian and harmonizes with that worldview and sense of destiny. But Drehers book (and common sense) makes the case that this is not the world we live in, not even in [our town]. Its clear to me that our church culture is dictated more by popular American culture than by anything else, mainly because of the churchs marginal, supplemental character. This doesnt mean that we are all superficial, materialistic, self-centered people. It just means that we view ourselves as the ones who choose how and to what degree we outsource all the elements of our livesour health, vocation, education, entertainment, prophetic knowledge (news media), family life, and religion. Our church culture, both explicitly and implicitly, caters to and upholds this worldview.

As Ive been thinking about the differences between the Benedict Option communities and my own lifestyle, Ive been asking myself, maybe weve just never known what real Christian community is? But, I realized that many of us have had little tastes of living in Christian community, particularly if weve been to Christ-centered camps or been on similar retreats or mission trips. Many of us know what a transformative experience it is to wake early in the morning and have strictly imposed devotion times, followed by working or playing side by side with others, living if only temporarily under the care and authority of strong leaders, observing specific rules, sharing meals with brothers and sisters, learning about the Bible, developing relationships and capping off the day with worship and fellowship. Then you wake the next day and do it again! Even in that short time you sense that you are becoming a different person, and its likely you actually are. This is a great example of living sacramentally in an almost liturgical daily rhythm. Is this possible in our normal, daily lives?

However, on the final night of camp comes the inevitable mountaintop experience sermon that goes something like, this week has been an incredible week for us and thats great, but you cant expect life to be a continual mountaintop experience. What matters is how you live in the valleys, when you return home to your families and schools, take what youve learned here and make a difference in the lives of your siblings, your parents, your classmates. This message is also implied or flatly stated in our church too. In other words, all the external supports of this mountaintop experience will be dismantled on returning home, but take the internal reality of it into your secularly ordered life and make a difference. Now, sometimes this is exactly what we are called to do as Christians. We have to faithfully maintain the inner reality of our relationship with God when everything in our circumstances try to pull us away. But is that what Christian community is about?

Again, is it possible to live in a daily rhythm of fellowship, study, discipline, work, submission and worship, not just individually, but with other Christians who are doing the same thing and (heres the clincher,) can we do this in a way that is more potent and comprehensive than our participation in the surrounding culture, so that we can say with utmost confidence that we are no friends of the world?

Back to the Lewis quoteI do believe that we at [our church]are at an impasse. I dont know if its because we have taken a wrong turning, or because God has lead us here for some other purpose. And, I acknowledge our increasing wealth and membership and [our pastors]leadership as a blessing from God. But I dont foresee our church maintaining its saltiness as long as we attempt to function for all practical purposes as one cog in the wheel of our outsourced American lives.

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A Letter To The Congregation - The American Conservative