FOOD FOR THOUGHT
| What they believe: "We are Christians called to live together in intentional community sharing a life of prayer, work, study, service and fellowship. We seek to embody peacemaking, sustainability and radical sharing. While honoring people of all backgrounds and faiths, we strive to demonstrate the way of Jesus as an alternative to materialism, militarism and racism."
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Koinonia founder Clarence Jordan - He believed that social justice was best achieved by living life in concert with Christian principles. Author of the Our vistors visit
Koinonia: A sustainable farm that feeds body and spirit
by Jerry Nelson
 Jerry Nelson |
We’re 590 acres in southwest Georgia, USA. The community was started by a man named Clarence Jordan in 1942, as an experiment in race relations.
This part of America was NOT a hotbed of racial tolerance in the 40s, and so Koinonia was often (up until the 60s) a target of the KKK and other miscellaneous hate crimes, including random gunshots into the farm houses and bombings.
Koinonia is located in Sumpter County. The county is also the home of Jimmy Carter, the Andersonville Civil War prison and the airfield where Charles Lindbergh took his first solo flight. In the 60s, Martin Luther King called the sheriff of Sumpter County “the meanest white man in all of America.”
Well, the farm has been around now for 66 years. The population has grown and shrunk, with a present population of about 22 adults and 10 or so kids. The highest population was in the late 60s and early 70s when it hit 60-some people.
About 100 of our 590 acres are in pecan trees. (I can never get it straight if they’re called pecan “groves” or pecan “orchards.”) We also have a fruit orchard (peaches, pears, apples, figs), grape vineyard, muscadine vineyard, a five-acre vegetable garden and a one-acre organic garden. (Editor's Note: Click here to visit the Koinonia online store where they sell peanut brittle and chocolate pecan bark from the farm.)
Animal-wise, we have goats, geese, guineas, rabbits and chickens. The community is right now talking and thinking about getting a horse or two, but a decision has not been reached yet. We do most things in consensus and sometimes that can get in the way.
Our typical day starts at 8:00 a.m. with chapel services followed by “circle.” Circle is one of the two regular times each weekday where everyone gets together for announcements and work assignments.
Work and chores are then done until noon, at which time we all eat together in the dining hall. Devotions follow lunch and then more work and chores until 5:00 p.m.. After 5 there might be a movie shown in someone’s house, a group going shopping in town, a vigil to be held or a study or discussion held somewhere on “campus”.
"I’m sure you’ve heard people say that an age is just a number and it doesn’t mean anything … here at Koinonia that is literally true. " |
In addition to calling everyone to lunch at noon, the farm bell rings at 10:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., calling everyone to prayer for a few minutes. At those times, we don’t gather at one central place for prayer, but rather everyone stops what they’re doing and prays to the God of their understanding.
We have houses for the married folks and apartments for the single folks. While everything is in community, some areas are mutually understood to be “private” and not to be entered without permission of the resident. For example, someone’s bathroom or bedroom.
The rest of the house however is kind of “up-for-grabs,” and it’s not unusual to see a person in someone else’s kitchen making coffee or finding a book to read. I myself like to wander through living rooms and see what movies (yes, we have DVD and VHS) someone might have in his or her collection. More than once I’ve been found propped up on someone’s sofa watching a movie that I’ve borrowed from someone else, while drinking a cup of coffee that I made at still someone else’s house and eating popcorn that I found at someone else’s place.
There is no rent charged for the housing. The community takes care of the rent as well as utility bills for each person here. And since the community also feeds us, we really have no bills to speak of. While some individuals own their own vehicles, the community does have several pickup trucks and two vans for use in running errands or going to Atlanta for something, as well as transportation to the grocery store and doctor appointments.
Ages here (including the kids) range from two years old up to 70 something with most of the folks being in their late 20s or early 30s. And while the ages are fairly well spread out, there seem to be two “clumps.” One of the late 20s/early 30s crowd and one of the 50-and-up crowd (the “clump” that I’m a member of).
However, the age differences should not be taken to mean that folks hang with their own age group. It’s nothing unusual to see the 50s and up playing volleyball with the teens or the 20-somethings setting around swapping stories with the 60-somethings. I’m sure you’ve heard people say that an age is just a number and it doesn’t mean anything … here at Koinonia that is literally true.
Everyone here at the farm works on the farm. No one holds down a job in town or “in the economy.” Some folks work in the pecan grove/orchard, some work in the garden and some work in the office. Myself, I work in the garden in the morning and do sales and marketing of our products in the afternoon. I also take a lot of pictures of the activities here for our website (www.koinoniapartners.org), as well as our monthly newsletter that we’re currently sending to about 30,000 people who have requested it.
In our literature, we describe ourselves as a “Christian intentional community.” We’re really a SPIRITUAL intentional community, with room for people with different takes and approaches on the word spiritual. Our main “theme” (for lack of a better word) is world peace beginning on a local level.
Koinonia has won the 2008 Community of Christ International Peace Award, and it is to be presented in October. (Click here to learn more about why Koinonia was selected.)
I guess I’ve taken up enough of your time. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much. I like my home and I like talking about it.
If you’re ever in the area, please stop by and visit and have a meal with us. If you’d like to come for a few days and visit, you’re more than welcome to do that also. Details on how to visit are on our website. But of course you can always shoot me an email and I can help make your visit happen.
If you’d like to get put on our mailing list or get our annual catalog, either write or call 877-738-1741. If I’m not around when you call, whoever answers the phone can help you.But of course if I’m around, I’d love to be able to talk with you!