How

This section is supposed to give good tips on how to live a radical Christian life... but this is different for everyone so these are our ideas.

One way to live is in an intentional Christian community. An example of this is The Open Door. We lived there for 4 months and learned a lot about what it means to be a Christian. Living in community is helpful because there are others around to show you how to live and to challenge you in the way you live. We valued this experience, but are not sure that we could live like this long term. Living with 20 other people has its down side. There are a lot more problems and difficulties that must be overcome for this to work. Different racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds bring out a lot more differences.

Another way to live a radical Christian life is to live in solidarity with the poor. The Open Door does this well too. Seeing Christ in the poor and realizing that Jesus was poor has more meaning when you are closer to the poor. This does not mean we should all quit our jobs and live on the street, but we can make a choice to live a simple life and to surround ourselves with people who come from different economic backgrounds.

Being involved in activism is another way to live out the gospel in a real and radical way. We are called to redeem all of creation including our government and society. We are called to work against the fallen powers in our lives and in the lives of others. Where there is oppression and injustice it must be stopped. We are called not just to feed the hungry, but to ask why there are hungry people. And in doing this we will find that the rich will have to give up a lot to have a just system for all.

The one way in which we were living a radical Christian life before we left on our trip was through simple living. By living on what we need and not further exploiting our world's resources we can live better lives. By not watching TV we have more time for more important things. The limiting thing about this is it is just a personal change. It is a good change, but it is also important to have a societal change and change things that work for others.

The last way we can live more radical Christian lives is by being deliberate about our friends. We are influenced by those around us and living in community is one way, but we can also choose friends that challenge us, and friends from other economic backgrounds.

The following is a list of what we have done so far: We lived in an intentional community for 4 months, we went to the Word and World school, and we are getting involved in a number of organizations. Other things that we are doing are more simple living oriented. We try to compost and bike to care for creation, and we try not to watch very much TV.

We lived in a second floor apartment with no extra space let alone grass or a yard. This made composting a little more difficult. However, benefits of community living allowed us to overcome this obstacle. Our good friends Maria and Doug Rooks graciously allowed us to bring them our compost; they even bought us our compost pail. So, we kept it under the sink in our kitchen and then brought it over to the Rooks' backyard when it got full. We are still trying to find a way to put the compost pail on our bikes without it spilling. Biking is also difficult at times. Since Jon works in Grand Rapids (a 45 minute drive from Holland), biking is not much of a daily option for him. Deb, however, lives close to her school and bikes there (with her books and grading strapped on a rack) as much as she can. Aside from our jobs, we bike to church, to friends' houses, the video store, the library, and occasionally to the grocery store (although this is hard when we buy lots of stuff). We are not sure what will happen when cold and snowy weather comes. Stay tuned!

Check out these statements to give you some more things to think about.