Pillow Talk: Intentional Kingdom Living

Last night Heather and I were talking before we went to sleep about how to solve all the world's problems. We got on the subject of where to buy a home and school systems. Through that discussion one of two thoughts that continually float around in my head, but I seldom verbalize came to mind. Today, I want to convey that thought for some to ponder.

What if we were far more intentional as a church about effecting our communities through being tied into them? What if we really put into practice community living? And I mean community in a two fold sense, the community of the local church as well as the geographical area and people surrounding where we live. This would involve, buying houses near one another, sending our kids to the same school as others in our neighborhood, living in our world while being sold out to the kingdom. This may not involve everyone in the church living in the same area. Take a church of 200 and divided it into 4 groups, 50 people intentionally living in 4 different communities! I know there are many schooling choices and some systems seem beyond repair, but here in the rural Midwest, there are still some great public schools and communities. What if a small group of members at our church collectively determined to live and educate their children in a specific community? Instead of just having one family in this school, and one kid and two parents, you have 3 or more families with children in the same school. That would give you maybe 6 children, 3 sets of parents. The ties and the influence could be tripled! All with the intent, of being lights for the kingdom. I am not saying that our kids would be our lights, (I do think they will be a reflection though) the parents would be the lights. In our community people notice when you live there and don't send your kids to school with their kids. They sometimes take it as a statement that you think you are better. It is tough in a small community to say you love your neighbor, and then say there is something so wrong with them as a teacher or with their kids by not letting them go to the same school. This was a much more fine tuned argument last night in bed, but this kind of thinking about the community of church and kingdom living excited me, but can it happen?