Our Life Together Vol.3 Nr. 18 May 6, 1975

This is a very short little issue. It is also one of the few issues in the 70s in which Ken Pagaard has no article. Ken was to lead a large team to England the following week so he was probably taken up with last minute preparations. Still it was quite unusual for an issue to come out with no article by Ken.

The church was quite involved in study. I have mentioned before the wide variety of Sunday school classes that were offered. We also had our School of the Prophets. In the cover article of this issue, Larry discusses Celibacy as discussed in the class of church history. We were interested in the history of the church. Celibacy was seen as a spiritual advantage in the middle ages, yet 20th century American protestantism saw this as abnormal. It was expected that a pastor would be married. I think that we actually grappled with this within the community. I can remember being involved in discussions with young people regarding whether or not they should move toward marriage. We saw serving God as the highest good. Celibacy was a viable option in life. Of course our cultural norm was actually played out in most cases as the young people matured.

Dawn Schmid wrote a nice piece about sandpaper. We used to discuss how we had the sandpaper ministry. Friction was almost inevitable when living in community. It is hard to live together over a long period without rubbing someone the wrong way. Once the hard feelings were dealt with. We would say, "It seems like I am always rubbing people the wrong way. I must have the sandpaper ministry."

Clay finishes out the ministry with an article regarding true righteousness. I think that we saw this played out in community. Our status, such as it was, wasn't based upon the principles that were played out in society. We really saw ourselves as brothers and sisters who were redeemed by Jesus Christ. We were not judged by the status of our jobs, education or past accomplishments. We just wanted to serve God together. As I look back on this I see it as a far simpler time. It wasn't perfect, but it was good.