What is A Place Apart?

We are a group of Christ’s followers who are longing to feel alive again.

We envision a place apart, where members of our Church of the Brethren and others could come together in seeking to be deeply, wondrously alive in Christ.

The mission of A Place Apart, then, is to be a place where the new way of living, the new way of being alive introduced by Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit can be experienced and participated in.

The purpose of A Place Apart is to provide a place where men and women, young and old, married couples and singles, clergy and lay people, Christians, other faith traditions, and those without any religious affiliation can comfortably come to break with the frenzied pace, empty value systems, fakery, and pseudo-life of the world and develop a new relationship to God, to others, to themselves, and to the Earth. A Place Apart will be a place to regain hope and a place to receive direction and channel hope.

This purpose will be accomplished through the observance of daily practices - such as time spent outdoors, scripture reading, and corporate prayer - that will help us to make God a part of every aspect of life. We will welcome others to join us in this practice, with a special emphasis on reconnecting them and ourselves with God’s created order.

A Place Apart is in a time of formation. We are currently in the process of looking for land on which to build a physical community, which would be the primary place of teaching and interpretation for A Place Apart. See the post of May 1, 2007 for an exciting update on this land search process.

In the meantime, we are publishing teaching materials that explain more about the vision for A Place Apart. To order a copy of our video, audio CD, and other materials, go to the "resources" sidebar to the right.

What are we hearing?
“We feel like the pace of our lives owns us.” “We want to find work that has meaning.”
“We want a place where we belong.” “We don’t want to be afraid anymore.”

What are we seeking?
We want to do more than just tell people about Jesus.
We are re-learning how to cherish all things through Jesus.
We are learning again how to be alive.