JPUSA Community Dynamics

Last night I learned a lot about the community Dynamics here at JPUSA.  Life here is unique in so many ways, from the acceptance of young people, to the senior citizens, to the family building adults who sustain the community. Obviously it is the adults 25~60 that sustain the community keep things working and manage the businesses that JPUSA runs. But like any community, church, or group of people things eventually change. Although I have not yet had all of my official history lessons about the community, how it formed, developed, changed, moved throughout the years, a friend of mine who grew up here gave me some insights to some of the things I have notice. 

(pictures of so many families and people who live here. More below)

What was once a thriving community fueled by visitors who come and go and are constantly exploring their faith and challenging the community has changed into a very different picture. Previously in generations past JPUSA was much more whole community oriented, which means the 300? 400? almost 500? (I haven't heard an official number) living here all would congregate in common areas like the worship space, the play ground, dining hall, etc where discussions would flourish and everyone enjoyed them selves. Group dynamics were very different and visitors were thrown right into the community living with anyone from elderly people to children (I heard even one example of a young adult staying with a 2 year old). This is to say that the community was trusting, close, loving, welcoming, and very open to new people. This kind of open welcome community creates so many connections between people from all parts of the states and even the world and from all walks of life. Everything can look so good, joyful, and happy. But as I grew to understand there is also some cold shoulder to go around. 

Especially among the kids who grow up in JPUSA they are accustomed to making friends with people who make a big impact on their lives, but then they leave. People come and go. Making friends, sharing experiences, and spreading love is a great thing, but when there is no stability in the relation ship to keep people in the same place things become hard. Its hard when people leave, so soon it becomes easy to become cold towards visitors and those who are not deeply rooted in the community. 

Many of the adults in the community that grew up in JPUSA rooming with young adults and the era of people coming and going have become much more family oriented towards a smaller group of people. People develop 'families' of close-knit friends and spend time with them, rather than the community as a whole. This of course is natural looking at their childhoods where people they loved often left, leaving holes in their lives. Wanting to become a solid community they bind together to form these families. So rather than the huge open group oriented community, there are clique type families. Almost everyone here at JPUSA is extremely kind, sincere, and friendly, but it is hard to penetrate much of the community beyond the level of acquaintance in my experience. 

My first few days were quite lonely here at JPUSA, my roommate wasn't very happy about having a roommate. He grew up here at JPUSA and had seen his fair share of visitors who come and go after a few months or years. I quickly realized he wasn't interested in a roommate. Soon I started making more connections with other visitors some of which are interning in different roles in the community. I felt relieved to get to know more people in the same boat as I was in. My day two goal I set for myself to get out of my room more went well as I found time to go on walks, spend time in the garden reading, and connecting with people to hang out, talk, and play games. 

JPUSA is full of characters from all walks of life, normal joe's, hippies, PK's, newly converted christians, people who struggled with drugs, gangs, and all sorts of sin. They have all made a choice to live intentionally to follow Jesus (or who ever guides them toward the kingdom of heaven, Buddhist, Jew, and i dont know what all else)

^^ A sweet Big'ol sandwitch.

(I know of one older Jewish man and one of the kids growning up is Buddhist, though mostly there are just christians haha)