Praying for Peace in Ukraine. Serving Refugees with the Love of Jesus.
Our staff and partners in Poland and Romania are asking us for HELP. Will you GIVE TODAY to support FEEDING, HOUSING, AND SERVING refugees in urgent need? 100% of your gift will go directly to help!
Do you dream of starting a community of faith that loves like Jesus?
There is a place for you here, and help to realize the calling in your life. You may be called to your current neighborhood, or a continent away. With Communitas you are among friends. All around the world we are starting and shaping faith communities doing just that.
We invite you to learn more about our incarnational approach.
In the midst of war, our missional staff are working hard to help and serve in the name of Christ!
Jay Benfante, one of our newest cross-cultural staff, recently moved to Prishtina, Kosovo. Just four days later, he was flying to Romania to help Serve the City, a Communitas partner, serve refugees from the current war between Russia and Ukraine.
Together with a network of churches and nonprofits, many have banded together to serve, house, transport, feed and clothe refugees coming over the border into Romania. Jay has been helping facilitate a partnership with UPS (yes, the United Parcel Service!) and Serve the City in western Europe to help bring tons of goods to Romania for refugees. Ukrainians and others are flooding into Romania, trying to flee the war as early spring in Europe brings unrelenting cold. Workers continue serving nonstop, day in and day out. They continue to need our help and support.
Christianity Today tells a story of two unlikely people praying for each other: a Ukrainian and a Russian. Two friends torn apart by war. One full of fear and the other full of shame for his nation—but each praying for the other in the midst of the current devastating situation in Ukraine.
As Russia invaded Ukraine, the West witnessed horrific war-inflicted bloodshed upon a sovereign European nation while recognizing the threat of nuclear war for the first time this century. It would be very easy at such a moment to make broadstroke comments about Russia and Russians. But we must be careful to not stereotype people of a certain nation for the actions of a few.
In Communitas, as we look at the work God has called us to, we remind ourselves that our support and prayers should not only pour forth for our Ukrainian friends and colleagues. At the same time, our hearts break for our Russian friends and colleagues, as well. We have seen unprecedented progress of the Gospel in Russia in just the last two pandemic years! And Jesus is a God of reconciliation and peace in times of turmoil. His Spirit helps us see the imago dei, the image of God, in all people. He also helps us see that we are all sinners in need of grace.
This past October, the founder of Communitas International (formerly Christian Associates International), Linus Morris, was honored at an 80th birthday party thrown by his daughter Laina Graf and her family, along with many other Morris family members, various guests and people whose lives have been touched and impacted by Linus and Sharon.
In typical Linus fashion, he spoke about drafting in Sharon’s wake, coming to Christ early in their marriage as a result of her witness to him and changing the course of his life and the lives of many others, including the writer of this piece.
The Director of Mobilization is primarily tasked with creating and stewarding the process and means to direct people into serving within our global mission. Working in close conjunction with the field ministry team and executive leadership, including the president, you will build a team that will “shepherd God’s people toward their calling” and will coach potential new missional staff considering Communitas. You will create numerous opportunities for engagement with Communitas and our mission, including speaking and other engagement events, short term experiences and internships, and more.
For full details, please download the Job Description on this page, and feel free to reach out to us with any questions at all at HR@gocommunitas.org.
Communitas International seeks a Planting Pastor to start and sustain a missionally-focused community of faith. Communitas has been planting churches worldwide for almost 50 years. The Planting Pastor will follow the proven methodology employed by the Communitas network of churches of embedding, initiating, practicing, maturing, hubbing, and extending to pattern the church and its community life, while also enjoying great flexibility to adapt to the specific cultural contexts of the area. The preferred candidate will have prior church-planting experience or extensive education in the areas of missional theology and practice. The efforts of the Planting Pastor will result in a thriving, self-sustaining, authentic, discipleship-oriented, outward-facing and reproducing community of faith in 3 to 5 years.
As Lead Pastor, you give oversight to the staff and missionary team. The Lead Pastor takes the initiating role in providing pastoral oversight and leadership to the health of the community. With the aid of the elder board and missionary team, focus should be shared among the areas of mission/evangelism, discipleship, leadership development and establishing and sustaining essential functions of a growing and maturing church in the areas of worship, community groups, children, operations, and other essential functions. As a natural process of living internationally, embedding in the culture and learning the language well should be an ongoing work in progress.
Communitas International seeks Interns who will assist Planting Pastors and Team Leaders to start and sustain a missionally – focused community of faith. Communitas has been planting churches worldwide for almost 50 years. The Intern will assist the Planting Pastor in the proven methodology employed by the Communitas network of churches of embedding, initiating, practicing, maturing, hubbing, and extending to pattern the church and its community life, while also enjoying great flexibility to adapt to the specific cultural contexts of the area. The preferred candidate will be at least a college Junior or volunteer adult who has a great interest in church-planting as well as missional theology and practice. The efforts of the Intern will result in greater personal and mission effectiveness which will in turn leave the host project more healthy and thriving due to the efforts of the Intern.
What Intern Can Expect from local Communitas Team:
The Intern can expect the following from the leader and local team:
We sincerely hope that your internship will lead you to a greater understanding of God’s plan and purpose for your life.
We are looking for missionally-minded teammates who will join us in serving in Sicily, Italy. We desire to build authentic relationships and learn from and with one another as we welcome each other into our homes and lives and invite others to join us as we follow Jesus. If you feel God is leading you to build His kingdom in Italy, this may be for you!
This position can be as a full or part-time team member, or a short or long-term intern.
This role would involve overseeing the weekly staffing, oversight, and running of children’s ministry at Upper Room. Including nursery/creche and children’s classes. A longer-term hope would be that this person would be able to start a Vacation Bible Study program (VBS).
This role could be for someone who is trained to teach ESL, or simply for someone willing to engage in conversational English. This role augments our ministry and is vital for a refugee to settle in the culture.
The key to this role is not that they be an ‘answer man/woman’ but able to encourage and equip people to read and to resource themselves. We augment people with Discovery Bible Study’s or more specific studies (e.g. baptism, for women, etc.) but the key is to get people reading which is counter-cultural.
We are looking for new team members who are interested in coming alongside our existing staff that we have scattered around Italy. We would also love to see new teams form and plant vibrant missional communities in other parts of the country as well. The Lord is doing great things here in Italy! There is a huge need for more committed workers to join us in this harvest field.
Recently, Alan Briggs of StayForth Designs and Right-Side Up Leadership Podcast visited the Communitas EuroCast conference in Croatia. We were glad to have Alan (and his daughter Betti!) with us, and on this podcast you will hear Alan's thoughts on our tribe: 4 reasons why community matters--and why we ALL need to be in community.
Communitas: Starting and Shaping COMMUNITIES of Faith that love like Jesus in their neighborhoods
Selfless missionaries like Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael have left a legacy that has impacted countless lives in such positive ways. While being a missionary has brought the gospel into many unreached communities, today it also carries harmful associations with Western colonization and white saviorism that has accompanied sharing the gospel in times past… and in some places, until today.
We’ve lost what a missionary actually is.
We think of a job description carried by a few as they travel to an exotic location and preach in a church they planted. But the great commission, the command to “go into all the world and make disciples” is for all followers of Jesus, in all jobs, to bring peace into their communities.
In the past, missionaries were able to get a religious visa in order to live and work in almost any country. Today nearly 40% of the countries in the world reject missionaries and no longer grant religious visas. In many of the least-reached areas of the world, being called a missionary will create sharp barriers to effectively sharing the gospel in a community.
Listen in to our president, Geoff Rinehart, as he joins the host of Right Side Up Leadership Podcast, Alan Briggs, along with Rowland Smith, our friend and director of Forge America. They discuss the future of church and ecclesiology, exciting examples of what church can be, as well as our long-time connection as organizations. Founders of Forge, Alan Hirsch and Debra Hirsch, also served on the board of advisors for Communitas as we moved toward a missional model of church planting some years ago and are dear friends of Communitas.
Click HERE to listen! The Interview begins at the 14:35 mark.
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT UKRAINIAN REFUGEES TODAY
The world has been left speechless in the last days. For Communitas, as we have trained hundreds of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian pastors and church planters together over the last two years in online cohorts (see our story from last month), our grief has been deep as we know and love so many people on both sides of the borders affected.
These cohorts of Jesus followers—on both sides—have already agreed to continue training and meeting together. According to our director, "We surveyed our people and UNITED we all are! Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan are all UNITED to train in the Gospel together to be a Family of Missionary Servants who will support, encourage and love one another as we all share in expanding God’s Kingdom of redemption and love!" Lord, may it be so.
As we wait on the Lord- we pray it is with open hands.
Legend tells of an ancient custom in Nepal: if a man loses something precious to him the rest of the tribe comes together, enters his home, and takes something else from him as well. This sounds so cruel, doesn’t it? Here is the reason and blessing behind this tradition. When a precious loss occurs, the other hand automatically clenches to keep what is left and the heart becomes lifeless or closed. Here stands the man cursing this one hand that has lost his treasure, bringing shame upon his family, while his other hand grips tightly to ensure he keeps what little is left. With clenched fist he threatens anyone who would get close enough to take away what is rightfully his.What does he look like now?
“Thinklings” has been a long-standing theological “think-tank” within Communitas, drawing together our theologians and missional practitioners to wrestle deeply with theological topics. The second online Thinklings took place in November 2020, on the topic, “Missional Communities: How do we give order, meaning, and resilience to Christ-communities under what are likely to be increasingly stressful circumstances? How shall the church maintain the integrity of our witness to the living God in turbulent times?" Nine contributors prepared and presented ideas on this topic, with robust conversation and discussion of pracitcal application following each. The discussion including additional Communitas staff and friends, beyond the presenters, and we are committed to continuing deep theological thinking within our missional movement!
