Below is the first part of the paper I've determined will guide me in how I will live.  It identifies the problem my wife and I see in American Christianity, and introduces The Settlement concept.  The next post fleshes out The Settlement concept.

Moving past learning and talking about God, and living as Jesus’ disciples

After determining that the example of Christianity found in the U.S. and Europe did not resemble the life Jesus said we would live if we were His followers, my wife and I began a quest to find how that New Testament life could look if lived in 21^st century America.  We have selected six sections of the Bible that will provide the framework for our remaining years.  Along with the paper below which details “The Settlement” concept, we believe that if they are intentionally followed, they will satisfy our Creator, and in that process, satisfy us.

Six Scriptures to Guide Us: (Kind of like 'One ring to rule them all.')

It is easy to get distracted by the demands of daily life.  Hebrews 11:6 reminds us where our faith begins: “Anyone who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.”

Since we believe God will reward us when we seek Him, what steps must we take in order to find peace with our Creator?  The most widely known verse of the Bible sums it up.  In Jn 3:16 Jesus says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Then, in Mt 5:13-16, Jesus tells how and why His followers are to interact with the world around them:  “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.  You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

In Jn 15:4-5, Jesus makes it clear that our lives are like barren grape branches without His on-going presence.  Only when we live so closely connected to Him that His very life flows through us, will clusters of grapes (the fruit from our lives) begin to form on our branch.  "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

In Mt 28:18-20, Jesus states we are to join Him in changing the world: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Finally, in Acts 2: 42-47, we see that ‘one-ness’ among Christians caused others to believe in Jesus’s message. (See also Jn 17:23)  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…  All the believers were together and had everything in common… They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people...  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

The Settlement

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that the Christian church in America is not fulfilling the mission Jesus left us with.  We aren’t fulfilling the Great Commission.  We aren’t salt and light. People around us aren’t seeing our good works and giving glory to God.  We are not radically changing the communities around us... not even the churches in the Bible Belt! And this is nothing new.  After reading the New Testament, and seeing the impact the early church had in their world, my wife and I have for several years asked ourselves: Why?  Why are our lives and impacts such a pale shadow of the dynamic, purpose-filled, Kingdom-expanding Church of the New Testament? We started asking ourselves: What changes can we make that will begin to expand the Kingdom of God in our community?  

We have come to believe that the root of the problem is that Christians in America have accepted the American Christian Life as the normal Christian life. In it, we spend our resources of time, talent, and money building a life that looks almost exactly like that of every other American family.  We buy the best houses, cars, clothes, vacations, ‘toys’, electronic gadgets and retirement plans that we can afford.  We spend our “free” time watching TV / sports, surfing the internet, playing with the kids, and playing video games or with other ‘toys’. After all this, we are active in our local church as time permits.  To fund this lifestyle we have no option other than to work as hard as we can, for as long as we can, to make the most money we can.  The demands associated with building and maintaining our own little kingdoms are so persistent that we don’t have the time to follow Jesus’ example even if we wanted to.  What we end up with is a life that looks amazingly like every other American, only a bit cleaner and nicer… while the world around us sinks further into decay.  And of course when we die, our kids divide up our little kingdoms to add to their own.  

A life reordered around the commands of Jesus will look remarkably different.  In it, our focus will be on using our resources of time, talent, and money to invest in the world around us in ways that fulfill Jesus’ commands and follow His example.  In it, we will have the time and support system needed to know God, and to start living as Jesus’ disciples.  And of course, when we die, we will hear the words “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world!”

If we believe God is real, that the Bible is true, and that we will live with God eternally, we must change the way we live in order to reflect our belief.   The decisions we make and actions we take must testify that we believe our purpose in life is really to become more like Jesus every day, and to fulfill the mission (Great Commission) He left with us. The pivotal decision each of us must make is whet her we will continue to build little kingdoms for ourselves on earth, or whet her we will unreservedly invest our lives in building the Kingdom of God for eternity.

My wife and I have decided to move past the endless church cycle of learning / talking about God, and begin living as we say we believe.  We have decided to reorder our lives to begin expanding the influence of the Kingdom of God in our area.  Since almost everyone over the age of eighteen has already started down the road in the American Christian Life, how do you make the break from the American Christian Life to the normal Christian life?  As we discussed in the previous paragraph, we believe that it involves reordering the priority of our lives so they reflect what we say we believe. Our plan isn’t the only answer, (if you've discovered a better one please share it!) but we have a way to start.  

Our vision is for a self-replicating movement tentatively called ‘The Settlement’.  It will function like the Settlement referenced in the book “In His Steps”, and also like the early settlements that were on the American frontier.  Both of them were outposts of safety in ‘hostile’ territory. They were places where people lived a different lifestyle with different priorities than the world around them.  Both of them shared what made them different with the people they met.  They were places of community because each person depended on the others daily for support.  Both of them changed the world around them.  And that is what The Settlement will to do.