New monastic community house in Liverpool

‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!’ Psalm 133.1

We (Jenni & Sam) are pleased to be able to share that with the permission of our line managers in the Salvation Army we are going to be living in and leading an intentional, ‘new monastic’ community house as part of our appointment here in Liverpool. This is not a usual situation for officers in the Salvation Army to be in, so we want to share some of the thinking behind this to friends, family and any others who might be interested in this new venture.

We have always been drawn to the idea of community living ever since we met at university (back in 2006!) We tried and failed a few times to make this a reality over the years, but eventually managed to invite a few people into our very small two-up, two-down north London house – at one stage we had five people living with us! We have found that there is great power in people joining intentionally to live together – rather than simply drifting along in a house-share. The purpose of this whole idea is ultimately growing in discipleship – following after Jesus, and we hope that those who come and live with us will experience a deepening in their journey of discipleship. We hope to write more about this in the coming weeks and months on this blog.

The house itself

The house is located just a five minute walk from the hall of Liverpool Stoneycroft Salvation Army, which is about 2 miles out of Liverpool city centre. We have fallen in love with this area of Old Swan & Stoneycroft – it is full of beautiful, welcoming and generous people. At the same time, it is an area that has its own issues – looking recently at government statistics for areas of multiple deprivation, the postcode of our hall came 901/32,844 of English postcodes, where no. 1 is the most deprived.

For the sake of openness and transparency, the house does not belong to the Salvation Army, but to us. We owned a house in London until recently; after much thought and prayer we felt God was asking us to sell this, and buy this house up in Liverpool. As house prices are considerably lower in Liverpool compared to London, the house is a lot bigger – hence the opportunity for community living.

The house has three floors: we will live on the top floor in a self-contained ‘flat’. We now have three children and all the advice we have been given around community living stresses the importance of separate space for our family unit. Even if one of the aims of community living is to break down the barriers of ‘my castle is my keep’ type thinking and we want our children to grow up knowing the joy of intentional community, this will be our family base. We have a small kitchen and bathroom on the top floor for this purpose too.

On the middle floor, there are a few bedrooms and two bathrooms, and on the bottom floor there is a kitchen and community space for meals, times of worship and hospitality. There is a garden out the back in which we hope there will be many opportunities to invite neighbours and others from the church (after lockdown!), and a smaller garden out the front, which is being transformed into a mini community allotment – growing vegetables and flowers. We have already had local friends come and take a plot for this purpose.

Links to the local church

We are still officers of Liverpool Stoneycroft Salvation Army – this is our only appointment. We see this house as inextricably linked to the life of Stoneycroft SA. We envisage this going both ways – people who live in the house having some degree of involvement in the life of the worshipping community, and also opening up the house to the wider church – be it a small-group, or a church BBQ, or church members gardening in the mini allotment. The proximity of the house to the hall is intentional and the importance of localism will be the subject of a future blog.

While this will be a place of residence for a certain number of people, we intend for the house to contribute to the life of the church. Our church is embedded in the local community and there are various opportunities to serve, including:

- Helping at some of our weekday programme (toddler group, craft club, community lunch, adult learning classes)

- Joining a team to volunteer at a Salvation Army lifehouse (hostel) just 300m down the road

- Getting to know refugees and asylum seekers in the local community (the house is around the corner from government run asylum seeker flats) – this includes a Syrian family who were welcomed via the community sponsorship scheme in 2019

- Being involved in Sunday worship at the hall

Who can live with us?

The ideal candidates will be those who have a sense of frustration in their own discipleship journey, and want to go deeper through intentional missional community. There will be a daily and weekly rhythm of prayer, eating together and missional outreach, combined of course with free time. This is not just an average house-share and there are expectations for those who want to live here.

We hope that people will want to come who have a passion to see spiritual renewal in the Salvation Army specifically, although it’s not essential to have a background in the Salvation Army. You will need to commit at least some of your time to Stoneycroft Salvation Army – through Sunday worship and possibly some involvement during the week as mentioned above.

We can offer fairly cheap rent and are open to different models of people living with us: we envisage some people working in the day and perhaps contributing slightly more in rent, and others working part-time or not at all, and getting more involved in the daily life of the church.

Safeguarding

Like the wider Salvation Army, we take safeguarding very seriously. Our children will be living in the house, and protecting them, and everyone who lives with us from all forms of abuse is of paramount importance. Applicants will be asked for two references and although the house is not an official ‘Salvation Army project’, we are working closely with our divisional (regional) SA offices to ensure everything is done as safely as possible. This will be continually reviewed.

How can I find out more?

If you are interested to find out more (or know someone who might be interested), please email sam.tomlin@salvationarmy.org.uk.

We would really value your prayers moving forward!