“Living in community, you’re learning to be more gracious to one another”

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

In a world where autonomy and personal space are nearly sacred, there is a growing counter-cultural movement developing in the Church, focused on intentional community. It’s a journey one local family recently joined in the hopes of inspiring those around them to a closer walk with God.

“Community is a big thing,” explains Hope Versluis. “I work at Jericho Road and we care for people with substance abuse and mental-health issues. Very often guys who have lived there for a while and are stable start to feel that now they need to become normal. Normal to them means they have their own house and they live on their own. I tell them God designed us to live in family units. You’re actually isolating yourself, which is not good for your mental health.”

This spring, Hope bought a house in Barrhaven, where she now lives with nine family members: her husband (Michael), daughter and son-in-law (Bethany and Lucas), son and daughter-in-law (Eric and Sarah) with their three children (Tristan, Alexa, and Olivia), along with her youngest son (Bryan) who just left for the semester in Toronto.

Michael and Eric are pastors at Parkway Road Pentecostal Church. Part of their motivation in moving to a community-living environment was to model what they preach.

“We are all invested in each other more.”

“We’re encouraging people to live the Jesus way, not the consumeristic way,” explains Eric. How can you take care of people better? It’s this idea of having things in common and sharing things together. We talk about that; well this is a great way for us to model that.”

While their jointly-owned house is large—with seven bedrooms, three-and-a-half living rooms, and an extended basement—it’s not a mansion. But they share more than just the mortgage and utility bills. Michael does the grocery shopping and they eat large family meals together at least five nights a week.

Eric says one of the best parts is “seeing everyone at the table, having the chance to catch up and be heard. Also, my kids having all these other voices and people who support them who they can draw from, that’s been a really great thing.

“We are all invested in each other more. The fact that we are all here for each other relieves a lot of anxiety.”

While everyone in the group talks about the blessing the move has been, they are also honest that it is an adjustment from the life most people are used to.

“I think the tricky part is you really do have to be comfortable to be yourself,” Sarah shares. She adds that living in community also affects your behaviour sometimes.

“We want to give people a view into our lives and what we’re learning out of it.”

“If you’re in a bad mood you are probably not acting the way you would if you were home alone, because you are living in community. Even down to disciplining our kids, now we manage it in a bit more of a polite manner.”

“Living in community, you’re learning to be more gracious to one another,” explains Eric, “learning to live out those values of community, simplicity, and care.”

Moving back in with your parents and siblings isn’t for everyone, Eric concedes, but they hope their decision inspires others to explore creative ways to live the Christian walk.

“That’s one of the main reasons we decided to start a blog about it. We want to give people a view into our lives and what we’re learning out of it. Hopefully it will be a learning opportunity and maybe it inspires others to ask themselves if there are things they can do differently to better reflect Jesus.”