Consider: Pollution. “Development” that razes buildings and destroys neighborhood businesses without consideration or compensation. Big Box stores that sprout up at the edge of a city and suffocate downtown retail districts. . . . .

There is not a pattern. I live on edge of city where there is much low-income and undeveloped land in the same area. Every place and situation is unique.

The cohousing may or may come about. It may happen in different forms. I can't predict/prescribe exactly how the community develops.

This is part of why I stick with the 'relocation' word (at least as part of the picture). Most (not all) folks need to deal with the question about where God has them. This might mean moving. It might mean staying. But be somewhere you can genuinely love with the good news of Jesus–and nail your shoes to the floor until God moves you elsewhere. Live with the folks there and work it out.

A cohousing community does not exist by itself. It is in relationship. It is connected to the larger world. My issue is not with groups doing it different ways in different places–but being dishonest about the nature of the external relationships. You could go hard-core inner-city and create your own little cohousing ghetto. You could move to a mountain-top and drive a fleet of SUV's into the city everyday. I am exagerating–but only a little.

Would be glad to communicate. contact me a runwiththechariots (at) yahoo

Here is my struggle, and I ask for everyone's help. I want to establish a “cohousing” community (see Wikipedia and related article on “intentional communities”) in the South Hampton Roads region of Virginia, but should I do it in an urban or rural setting? Trying to obey St. Peter's admonition to the Jerusalem Council to “remember the poor”, and wanting to move beyond personal preference, is it better to relocate (draw physically and spiritually near to the poor) in an inner-city or rural area, or stay put in my suburban planned unit development, which is the antithesis of cohousing and intentional community? In other words, is the path out of poverty (am I the poor one?) and into the abundance of God's kingdom achieved better by going directly to the poor in inner-cities and feeding them via a community garden, for example, or serving the poor more indirectly by luring fewer of them to participate in a larger scale CSA farm in a rural area? In another context of social, environmental and economic justice, is it better to retrofit buildings for sustainable community in urban neighborhoods or to build a cohousing community from scratch on undeveloped land? There seem to be no easy answers to such questions. Your thoughts, please.

Let me add one comment to others made here about semantics. In a sense it is semantics–but in another way it is much more than that. It is theologizing. It is not theologizing in the halls of a university or seminary. It is theologizing by persons that need to do much more of it–bringing a laguage of faith to the life of faith in the streetsl.

I like the way Joanna you stated Proximity as a goal rather than a process. That makes sense to me a lot.

Natronic: thanks for calling me mushy! I totally am and it comes across in my writing. I used to get in trouble in grad school all the time for too much 'feeling'. oops!

Proximity means “nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, or relation.” Another definition is “the quality or state of being next in time, place, causation, influence, etc.; immediate nearness, either in place, blood, or alliance.”

To do what you write about means going beyond changing your location (or getting in closer proximity). It requires one more step: interaction. You chose a word that, for your purposes, means the same thing as the word you're seeking to change. Interaction that goes beyond nodding at the neighbor who you happen to see taking out their trash.

I suggest “intentional interaction”.

To be fair, it's rare that single word can convey a complex set of ideas. In “relocation”'s defense, it is an easily understood concept that implies that you intend on interacting with those nearby in your new environment. Otherwise, why would you be moving? Cheaper rent? Not in the context of Christian community.

The rich and poor will always be divided, but I hope as you do that interaction can somehow increase. Human nature is too selfish and corrupt, and as you hint at, sometimes the selfishness is justifiable (safety for one's family, desire for good schools, etc.). Even the Politburo in Soviet Russia, to give an extreme example of the hypocrisy that happens when leftist ideology meets human nature in practice, didn't exactly live in the apartments of laborers.

Intentional interaction with those from different economic strata is a good thing. More people should do it, and I hope more do. But I fear it never will catch on in large fashion. Look what happens when low-income housing is plopped in middle class neighborhoods. Poverty = crime = the more fortunate leave to build suburban moats somewhere else.

And “the poor will always be among us.”

I guess I'm just a realist on an idealist blog.

But I love the post because it is encouraging to a man who is trying to lead his family on a journey in Christ. As my wife and I have grown in our faith, it is definitely true that the “what to do” question seems to get answered for us. And it always seems to take us somewhere we wouldn't have ever dreamed we would go…but it always makes sense in His timing.

Thanks again -

I like it because it implies we often (not once, but often ) need to get up off our behinds and move ourselves.

It reminds us that when we move ourselves–we tend to land ourselves right next to the folks who are most like us–and virtually no one wishes to go to the 'end of the road' to the truly 'other.'

The ways we create and walk out relationships are many. I like your idea of proximity. I like incarnation. I like presence. I like connection. I like righteousness. I like justice. I like shalom. Different words help us catch different aspects of the journey and calling. Often we land on one word to summarize a quite rich journey.

Others will take that word and reduce it to a rule or a form. Then we need someone to come along and say, “No, we need a different word.” The problem isn't the word, but rather the need to speak freshly each day about a fresh day's journey in seeking first the Kingdom.

Wake up friends and sojourners. Our behinds may need to be moved this day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amor Ministries
amor.org/blog