A Decentralized Society

In contrast to what we see around us, as well as within ourselves, stands St. Thomas Aquinas' doctrine of the Common Good, a vision of a society where the good of each member is bound to the good of the whole in the service of God. To this end, we advocate:

A Decentralized Society, in contrast to the present bigness of government, industry, education, health care, and agriculture. We encourage efforts such as family farms, rural and urban land trusts, worker ownership and management of small factories, homesteading projects, food, housing, co-ops, and intentional communities-any effort in which money can once more become merely a medium of exchange, and human beings are no longer simply commodities.

Reba Place Church is such a place. Reba Place Church is a congregation centered on Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, rooted in an Anabaptist tradition, catholic in spirit, evangelical in conviction, charismatic in practice, and antiracist and non-sectarian in calling.

What does it all mean?

Reba Place Church is a congregation rooted in an Anabaptist tradition. We affirm the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective: Summary Statement as an expression of our faith for teaching and nurture in the life of the church. The Anabaptist traditions began in sixteenth century Europe as Christians attempted to realize the fullness and vitality of the church envisioned in the New Testament. By confessing that we are an Anabaptist church we are declaring our continuity with a Christian tradition focused on the church as a deliberate community of disciples practicing love, peace, and justice in the world.

We are catholic in spirit. The word catholic refers to the universal church. To be catholic is to recognize our membership in a worldwide church that is not bound by language, ethnicity, nationality, denomination, or citizenship. By confessing that we are an Anabaptist church that is also catholic in spirit we are declaring our commitment to listen for God's word to us through other Christian traditions. We acknowledge the importance and integrity of our inherited faith traditions and ethnic cultures, yet we seek to learn from others in order to further clarify our mission and extend our witness in the world.

We are evangelical in conviction. The word evangelical refers to the good news, or gospel, that is revealed in Jesus Christ. To be evangelical is to respond to this good news in faith and obedience, and to commit ourselves to communicating this message throughout the world. By confessing that we are an Anabaptist church that is also evangelical in conviction we are declaring our identity as followers of Jesus, saved by his life, death, and resurrection, and led by his Spirit to form a community of believers dedicated to demonstrating and proclaiming the reality of God's saving grace.

We are charismatic in practice. The word charismatic refers to the gifts of grace that come through the power of God the Holy Spirit. To be charismatic is to be baptized, filled, and gifted by God for engaged worship, empowered community, and energetic witness. By confessing that we are an Anabaptist church that is charismatic in practice we are declaring our dependence upon God for our identity, guidance, and effectiveness. The intimacy of God's presence in our individual and corporate lives is our greatest need and desire.

We are antiracist and anti-sectarian in calling. The words antiracist and non-sectarian refer to the necessity to oppose and stand against the demonic power of racial, class, and denominational division that is such a "stronghold" in US and Canadian society. By confessing our calling to be antiracist and anti-sectarian we acknowledge that a specific word to us in the 1990s focused our attention on the basic, timeless biblical message that evangelism and justice are inseparable. While we acknowledge that all oppression is against God's desire for humanity to be one loving family, we believe that this specific calling is God's path for our particular congregation to become a more visible expression of kingdom justice and unity in this time and place.

"A Planting of the Lord": Reba Place's Jubilee Year, 1957-2007

First, a word about our name. Reba Place is a street in Evanston, Illinois distinctive for its brevity (a mere three blocks), and for being named in 1837 after the daughter of a prominent Evanstonian whose last name was Poor!

How it all began. On a hot August afternoon in 1957 a small group of Mennonite Voluntary Service workers moved into a three-story blue house at 727 Reba Place. Their mission was to live and minister in the "city". Months of prayer, discussion, and research had gone into this "planting of the Lord" (Isaiah 61:3). Within a few months Reba Place Fellowship was born: an intentional Christian community, inspired by the vision of the early Christian church in Acts 2. Those early days were marked by gatherings in the living room at 727 for singing and sharing, for the enacting of biblical dramas, and the lifting up of the example of Jesus.

Reba Place Fellowship went through a time of dramatic growth in the 1970s, and soon the community was spread out around the neighborhood, gathered for the most part in large communal households. There was much outreach, spiritual growth, and healing. There was also brokenness and pain.

Reba Place Church is born. In the early 1980s Reba Place Church became a separate entity from Reba Place Fellowship, creating space for congregational membership for the first time (alongside the communal members of Reba Place Fellowship.) Growth in numbers continued, even as the household structures largely disbanded and small groups and clusters of small groups took their place. Sunday morning worship included more central leadership and more openness to neighborhood visitors and friends. Reba Place Church weathered several storms in the 1990s including transitions in leadership, decision-making philosophies, and mission. We tried to be more intentional about evangelism and racial reconciliation, and we successfully planted a new congregation (now known as Living Water Community Church) in a nearby Chicago neighborhood, Rogers Park.

Here and Now. Today Reba Place is solidly committed to the mission of God, the politics of Jesus, and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Today Reba Place is moving into its Jubilee Year, solidly committed to the mission of God, the politics of Jesus, and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We are transitioning to a new generation of leadership, and new configurations of the vision that God has given us. Reba Place Church and Reba Place Fellowship continue to be partners in mission in our neighborhood and the world. It is an exciting time to look back and celebrate and to look forward in anticipation of what God is continuing to do among us.

And to such a church I would chose to belong; neither catholic nor protestant, but Anabaptist, recognized as the third wave that holds as its principles the value of intentional living, lay witness, war and peace, economics, and the relationship of Christians and the state, all found in the person of Jesus the Messiah.

Copyright © 2007 Reba Place Church. Editing and additions found in bold italics are those of the blog author. They are not found in the original Reba Place Church documents, and while I believe they fit with the overall intent of the originals, they are not intended to show a lack in those originals, but are this one reader's understanding. Thank you Pastor Ric, Reba Place Church.