Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 30 August 3, 1976

This lead article in this issue is a continuation of the interview with Graham Pulkingham on Community. The cover with the picture of the communion elements really illustrates the spiritual center of our Ministering Community.

This page of the interview with Graham is his lengthy response to the question regarding what happens when we resolve to live as a family. Of course, this was the most difficult part of the equation. When Linda and I moved into Westby House along with our two children, there were also the Pagaard family, the Woodend Family and the Pletcher family. This was difficult! I was fortunate enough to be sent on deployment to Westpac with the Navy, so it was my wife and children who had to make this difficult adjustment. By the time I returned, the Woodends and the Pletchers were gone. Still over the years, we had single parents, unaccompanied children etc. I think the parenting of children was the most difficult part. My wife really had difficulty with who ran the house -- the kitchen etc. Who was responsible? The philosophical issues weren't terribly difficult; it was practical living that was difficult.

The conclusion of the interview continues with how the idea of living with an extended family stretches our current understandings of living as a nuclear family. Most of us know how difficult it is to live with adult parents and grandparents -- but when the blood relationship disappears, there is another level of difficulty. To be perfectly honest, I had no problem with living in community 90% of the time. I really loved it. It was that 10% when things didn't go right that was the problem; strong emotions! Yes, I lost it a time or two -- as did most of us.

One of the neat things about OLT was the freedom that anyone had to write a little article and submit it for publication. Here we have three small articles by Janet Scott, Mike Lee and Ken Mays. 

This is a little Theology Lesson submitted by Larry Clark which really needs no explanation.

This picture of Jesus the Good Shepherd looks like Brenda's work to me -- but I'm not sure.

The article "The Other Side of Trial," by Judy Alsop expresses her feelings as she struggled to submit to giving up so much as she moved in community. Many of us can identify with the feelings whether we would express them exactly the same or not. Community life was great -- it was horrid -- it was difficult.

Of course, the issue ends with news of the "Family."

Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 29 July 27, 1976

The cover on this issue is one of Brenda Gire's (now Smith) delightful drawings of animals and plants rejoicing in the Lord. I personally always looked forward to seeing her artwork. Linda and I along with our family had the privilege with living with Brenda in the Westby household. When we moved out of the community household, Brenda went with us to our new home for a few months until she relocated. I understand that she is still very active in her artwork.

The cover article is an abbreviated interview with Graham Pulkingham published in Sojourners magazine. Graham was the Episcopalian pastor of Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas. This church (along with Graham himself and his writings) were very instrumental in the formation of our community. They didn't give us the idea; we were already on the way. But, they helped us to understand what God was doing and how we could have more structure. We had many teachings by Ken Pagaard about the idea of the church as a family  -- and our first priority. This article described not only Houston, but our understanding of what life in the church, or in community, was meant to be. The sad news is that Graham began to form other communities elsewhere and took most of the Redeemer leadership with him. Redeemer began to get weaker and weaker. Finally, Graham himself really went through some major difficulties. This is discussed in "Days of Fire and Glory; The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community" by Julia Duin. If you are interested in the subject, the book is a good read.

The interview of Graham Pulkingham concludes on the page and a report on the Westby vacation, written by Ken, starts. My wife and I are not campers, so we were not upset about the fact that we didn't get to go on this vacation. We had spent the month of June (along with our family) on a trip to Ohio to attend my cousin's wedding. The trip described by Ken sounds great -- but as I said, we aren't campers. I remember well the books recommended by Ken; "Prophecy" by Bruce Yocum and "The Primal Scream" by Janov. "Prophecy" was a great book. "The Primal Scream" was interesting, but I think it lead us down a real dead end as we incorporated it into our Inner Healing Ministry. It seemed good at the time, but it really didn't end that way. On another note -- this was the introduction of Bruce Blankenheim into Westby house. He was a neat kid and came to an untimely death within a few short years.

On this page, Ken's article concludes and one by Larry Clark on "Dancing before the Lord" begins. I remember Larry very well. He loved to do a little shuffle and jumpy dance while clapping when the music was joyful. I am lucky to clap in rhythm (which seems unusual since I was the choir director). I think I was just inhibited. 

Larry concludes his article on this page. The rest of the page is an advertisement for the West Coast Regional conference which was held at the Community Concourse. This proved to be a great event. Our music group, "The Hallelujah Chorus" was privileged to be a part of the worship team leadership. 

The next page is a short article by Clay Ford about the expectancy for revival. This was not only his conviction and hope, but it seemed to be confirmed from many sources. I'm sure that we will have more on this as we get closer to the upcoming Billy Graham Crusade.

Finally, Helen Fast writes about her twins, Misty and Cher. This was a major story in the life of our community, not just for Helen. I can't improve on what Helen wrote. This is well worth reading. I guess I will add that her discussions of the difficulties during the various hearings is an understatement. There were many ups and downs.

This page is the conclusion of Helen's article

Finally, the issue concludes with "In the Family."