Faith communities still in existence

[Guadalupe]

Robert's thread on Ephrata Cloister sent us on a hunt for whether or not there are still in existence some of these communities. Below is what we found.

It would be interesting to hear some points of view about these communities from Br. Ben and all.

Shakers (3 left but they have many visitors to their services)
www.maineshakers.com/

The Amana Church Society www.amanachurch.org/Home_Page.html No longer living as a closed society.

The Hutterites
www.hutterites.org/ All property held in common, seem to growing in numbers.

I've left off the Amish, Beachy Amish, etc as there is plenty of info about them and we want to focus on those colonies that were established to create a more utopian vision.

[Brother Randy]

Amish, Beachy's would not be considered colonies seeing how they all have their own places. They would be more a community setting.

The Hutterites, which we have a great many colonies in this part of the country are sad to say pretty much just religious anymore, not to say that there are not any believers amongst them because there is.
A group that could of been a great testimony for the Lord have a rather tainted name anymore.
I personally don't believe you can have a closed group like the Hutterites and maintain being a 100% Christian group.

[Guadalupe]

Can you give us more info on how their reputations have become tainted?

Is there any possibility for a revival or renewal?

[robertcolumbia]

Jul 18, 2013 7:20:12 GMT -5 Guadalupe said:

Can you give us more info on how their reputations have become tainted?

Is there any possibility for a revival or renewal?

One of the problems with many communal groups is the tendency to become cultish. Often times, these groups start with a charismatic leader who appears to be on the forefront of finding solutions and advancing the Kingdom of God. He's on fire, he seems to have the answers, and he's willing to stand up in a society where few will. People are flawed and soon the leaders start to go astray. If the organization is run like one big family all living on the same property and people are dependent on the group for their livelihood, it can easily become a "daddy knows best" scenario and boom, you have a cult.

A major reason why the Ephrata Cloister failed is that they became too extreme. Most people didn't want to be celibate and eat only one meal a day. The Bible doesn't say we have to. We can, if we want to, with the right attitude, but setting the benchmark way up there as a standard just won't do.