Appearing in every tabloid and broadsheet in the UK normally goes with having done something pretty bad. You're the luckless politician who couldn't remember the price of a loaf of bread, or maybe a member of the royal family who slipped up and did something actually normal – like having a baby perhaps.
But this time, I and the other members of my community find ourselves in the midst of a media frenzy. Not being a royal – last I checked – I'm fairly sure this is attributable to a documentary called Inside the Bruderhof which airs Thursday 25 July at 2235 BST on BBC1.
(Some of them got a little over-excited. No, the Bruderhof is not the Amish; yes, we do have electricity; no, you don't have to ask permission for everything; and last time I checked "secretive" organisations do not hold frequent open days, run active social media channels, and partner with a smorgasbord of other organisations who share our commitment to loving our fellow human beings.)
We didn't really intend for this to happen. I mean, how newsworthy is the Bruderhof? It's just a group of Christian families and singles who have decided that the best way to follow Jesus, and put his commands into action, is to share all our money and possessions. We would love to claim that we came up with the idea ourselves, but in all honesty we got the idea from a book called Acts – chapters 2 and 4 to be precise. It's a 2000-year-old tradition, so in that sense I guess you could call us old-fashioned.
And yet, I hope the church at large is encouraged by the fact that our mode of life has caught the attention of so many. Obviously, people are looking for a life that is better, kinder, more fulfilling. The church has a responsibility to show that a completely different way to live is possible. We at the Bruderhof have stumbled upon one way that works – most of the time – but it's not the only one. The main thing is that we do a better job of living Kingdom values in this broken world.
Take the brouhaha in the last couple weeks about the decision to scrap free TV licenses for over-75s. Some commentators and campaigners were saying that the decision was tragic because so many over-75s are lonely and have nobody to talk to, so should be able to watch free television. It's a tragic argument to have to make. Shouldn't we rather be having a national debate about how we have managed to build a society that is wealthy, yet lonely? Shouldn't we be talking about why it is that disabled people would love a job, but only a few can find one? Or refuse to accept that someone's worth should be dictated by their salary? Or object that social media influencers are dictating to our children what they should wear and how they should look?
The church is ideally placed – not to mention obligated – to lead these debates. And not by sermonizing: as an early Church Father once wrote, "We do not speak great things, we live them." The church should be stepping up, and showing that a life dedicated to serving others will lead to the fulfilment and sense of belonging that people crave. If we can stop worrying about money, we can use our time to love our neighbour.
Peter Mommsen, editor of Plough Quarterly (disclaimer: Plough is our publishing house) sums this up nicely in an article entitled The Economics of Love "We don't need a shallow social justice Christianity that lurches from one progressive cause to the next. We can have the real thing: the way of life Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. This life is there for the having."
We at the Bruderhof have been trying to do this, with greater or lesser success, since 1920. We started in Germany and lived there until the Nazi's gave us the boot. We took up residence in England, but then it turned out that being both pacifists and German was less than popular in 1940s England, so we moved again, this time to Paraguay. They were happy for anyone to come! We moved to the United States from Paraguay in the 1950's and spread back around the world from there. Darvell, where the documentary is filmed, was founded in 1971.
We have found that once money is taken out of people's lives, there is room for so much more. More time for our kids, more fun around the barbeque. More time to speak to a neighbour, or to help someone push a wheelbarrow. More time to work for something worthwhile.
The Bruderhof is far from perfect. Having been around for 100 years, we've had plenty of time to make mistakes. We have upset people over the years – for which we sincerely apologise. We've made bad decisions and hurt people. We've been though ups and downs as a church, and sometimes failed to stay true to the way of Christ. But the amazing thing is that Christ can use imperfect people to show his greatness.
A man from Hong Kong has just emailed me after seeing the news coverage. He says his church and country are being ripped apart by political unrest. He wants to come and visit and then share the example of peace with his Christian community back home. We will share what we can with him, conscious of our own failings but glad that, in a divided and secular world, the church still has a task.
Bernard Hibbs lives in the Bruderhof community at Darvell in East Sussex with his wife and children. He is Bruderhof's outreach director.
