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this morning, before church, the quincy street crew (and a few random others) had the opportunity to hang out with shane claiborne and chris haw (they wrote this book, among other things, if you are not familiar with them).  if you know me, or have been a reader of this blog, you know i'm a bit of a fan of shane's lifework and thinking, which made the morning a somewhat momentous occasion.  and, in fact, it turned out to be a wonderful, encouraging couple of hours of eating breakfast and discussing kingdom things.

there were several special moments and awesome stories (for example, some of the kids in shane's neighborhood are getting close to college, so he went to Eastern, the school he attended, and asked them for scholarships for these kids...and Eastern granted them, which is incredible!).  but, the most encouraging words, at least for me and amy, came from chris haw.  

for years, i have heard (and seen), mostly from my parents, about the redemptive power of families and households (see Acts 11:14, 16:15, 16:31, 18:8, etc).  and i believe that what is often described as the "nuclear family" can have a tremendous kingdom impact, even in places like dorchester and, more specifically, quincy street.  

my former-idealistic-single-self thought that "of course married people can be a part of intentional communities and kingdom life in the inner city."  however, it's not that simple.  we've had a roommate since we moved to boston and part of that decision was purely economic survival in the city, but the other part of it truly was an experiment to see what it would be like to be married and live with other people.  and, it turns, this has been the biggest challenge of our young marriage.

chris had some good things to say about this.  he affirmed for us that having our own "space" was not selling out, or somehow a lesser form of community.  he also pointed out some ways that married people can be part of the rhythm of an intentional community, and that married people and families are absolutely necessary pieces of a qunicy street type endeavor.  amy and i walked away from that feeling relieved, encouraged, and inspired.  which is pretty awesome and totally worth getting up early on sunday morning!