Building the ARC

You might ask – "Do I look like Noah? Why would I want to Build the ARC, anyway?" Here's why: my wife and I were missionaries to Russia for 17 years. Secular materialism has led to the de-Christianizing of the world: in its extreme form of communism, about 250,000 church buildings in Russia were destroyed or confiscated and turned into museums, breweries, factories or "Lenin Houses of Culture" during the Soviet era. Secularization worldwide continues to lead many people to become dependent on the state for answers to all their problems, diminishing the role of the church in society.

Poor, disabled, and elderly Christians must free themselves from the idea that an unnamed "they" – meaning someone else: the government or "the rich" or other Christians – ought to pay to build wheelchair-accessible housing and new churches. But the secular state isn't going to do it, the rich generally aren't very charitable, and there isn't enough money in all the Christian churches and mission organizations in the whole world for these organizations to build enough of such buildings so that our country and other countries can again be called "Christian nations."

Almost all Christians, however, including poor, disabled, and elderly people, have a place to live, so Christians already have the wealth needed to carry out the task of re-Christianizing their countries, in the form of their current homes. This is a "DIY" (Do It Yourself) project: by exchanging their current home for a home in an ARC – an Agape Restoration Community, they are providing a wheelchair-accessible building where a church can gather to worship and fulfill its God-ordained ministry to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind." We need to restore the spirit of agape-love and voluntary mutual self-help communities, then simply train and organize ourselves to just do it! We have the training and organization ready to go!

How do you start building it? First, you gather people who are committed to living together as Christians in community. In his book The Benedict Option, Rod Dreher describes the immense pressure in today's world to force moral and ethical compromise upon Christians and tells how to apply The Rule of St. Benedict to the Christian life not in a monastery, but striving to lead a life of spiritual discipline and genuine Christian community in the midst of a secularized society.

By mutually supporting each other in an "Agape Restoration Community," living out our Christian faith on a day-to-day basis, we will be able to withstand these pressures! Another good book that explains The Rule of St. Benedict in laypeople's language and how to apply it in everyday life is The Rule of Benedict: Christian Monastic Wisdom for Daily Living by Rev. Dr. Jane Tomaine. The Church must reclaim its proper role of Enabling the Disabled: ...Welcoming the Disabled to Your Church, as Rev. Dr. Theresa Taylor writes in her book.

So get started: the pastor or a deacon must prepare a "ministry team" in his parish by teaching our 1-year online program "Social Ministry of the Church" on the "how and why" of reaching out to people with disabilities in the surrounding community. Another excellent book is Building the Benedict Option by Leah Libresco that tells how to gather two or three together to form such a ministry team. Then the pastor or deacon of the associated church will serve as director of the local ARC branch. When enough people have subscribed for shares, the local branch can take out a construction loan to build a new Agape Restoration Community. Enroll in our free courses to see how YOU can do diakonia-ministry. And Join "The ARC" Chat/Video Forum to Build the ARC!

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