Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Careers, Workplace and Religion
How do we “Oikos” in the cultural context of the United States?

How do we “Oikos” in the cultural context of the United States?

Last updated on: June 23, 2015 at 12:26 pm by Bob Robinson

How do we “Oikos” in the cultural context of the United States? 2015-06-23T12:26:33-04:00 Bob Robinson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Bob Rognlien, the Director of 3DM West, wrote a post today at Discipling Culture entitled “What is the Context of Biblical Discipleship?” He and his wife Pam lead immersion experiences in the Holy Land, where they see how life was (and is still is) lived in a different context from us here in the United States. He writes,

“When we visit places like Nazareth, Capernaum, and Chorazin we see the homes people inhabited in biblical times were designed for multiple nuclear families to live together, sharing a common life and vocation.

The Old Testament word for this kind of extended family life is ‘beth.’ The New Testament word for this is ‘oikos.’ No one in the ancient world would even consider living as an individual or a nuclear family; it was far too difficult and dangerous. The purpose of the biblical beth and oikos was to protect and provide for the extended family.”

Let me bring this cultural point to our attention: In biblical times, people inhabited homes that were designed for multiple nuclear families to live together, sharing a common life and vocation. They lived together and they worked together.

Rognlien wants the church in the United States to model their congregational life on this extended family motif. The life there is much less individualistic. Extended families live together, work together, vacation together, etc.

Culture or Bible?

He makes some propositions based on his observations of life lived in the Middle East. But, the question that begs to be answered is this: How are these cultural-specific propositions transferable to us here in the United States? If we are not careful to nuance our answer to that, we will simply seek to transfer a culturally-specific lifestyle upon a different culture and call it “biblical.”

What caught my attention is that Rognlien says that “Oikos is the context of a biblical lifestyle.”

“Our closest friends here in Jerusalem are a Christian family who trace their ancestry back many centuries in this place. We have been friends for 30 years. Their home is designed almost exactly as the first-century homes we see in archaeological digs: multiple rooms and a kitchen built around a common courtyard where they cook and share life together.

They think of everything in the context of their extended family.

They live in the same buildings or in close proximity to each other. They own a restaurant and everyone in the oikos works as they are able to make it a success.

They take their vacations together. They face challenges, mourn losses, and celebrate victories together.”

I’ve been with young evangelical Christians who idealize this kind of life. They move into the same neighborhood together, they create shared spaces for living life together, and they target their neighborhood for service and evangelism. This is an exciting change for these folks, and they are excited at first to live like this. But here in our cultural context in North America, our work is seldom found in close proximity to our homes. We do not work with the people in our nuclear families, let alone our church families – our small group or our church congregation.

But here in our cultural context in North America, our work is seldom found in close proximity to our homes. We do not work with the people in our nuclear families, let alone our church families (that is, our small group or our church congregation). These young Christians get discouraged as things quickly change from their idyllic setting. One couple moves because of a career change or a job transfer to another city. Everyone is working to make ends meet and for those who are raising children, they find that the time they had when they were married without kids has been zapped.

Vocations are often Separate from Oikos

The people in America’s oikos (our spiritual family in the local church) all have their own specific skills and training, and are pursuing their own vocations (or callings) from God to do good work for the good of their community. Because of the blessing of living in an affluent society, many of us are able to pursue callings beyond a family business. We are not relegated to working in the family restaurant or the trade business that our family owns. Our callings, and thus our skills and training, are much more varied here in the United States. Many have spent four years (or much more for post-graduate work) and thousands of dollars on an education in a specific field in which they want to excel and make a difference. People in our local church families have careers doing everything from blue collar to white collar, from metal worker to doctor, and they have educations and trainings that are extremely different.

In other words, the Middle East is very different from the United States. If we are not careful, we might read Bob Rognlien as saying that we in the American church should emulate the oikos of biblical times by quitting our jobs and shirking our responsibilities as those called by God into specific individual vocations. After all, we should do all we can to live like they did back in biblical times (and how they still live in the Middle East).

I don’t think that is Rognlien’s point, but I have seen plenty of young church leaders who have adopted that point of view. They have not brought into their church model the importance of vocation and how God uses our individual callings to bring about his purposes in the world.

I can understand, and even agree with having, a suspicion or even disdain of individualism, for the American worldview places that above all else. But at the same time, we must remember that individuals are called by God to live for God in specific ways. The community of God does not obliterate one’s individuality, it only makes it fuller – it takes people from being independent to being interdependent.

What is the “biblical lifestyle?” Rognlien makes some great points.

“In our society so many nuclear families are isolated, trying to face the challenges of life and find meaning on their own. There is so much to be gained by relearning what it means to share life and mission with a spiritual family that extends beyond our own nuclear family.”

He makes a strong case for seeing our discipleship in terms of individual/nuclear family/extended family.

“The personal responsibility of each individual to respond to Jesus’ invitation is critical to becoming a disciple, but it is not the ongoing context of discipleship…. Discipleship is most effective when it happens in a small group (nuclear family) which is functioning as part of a mid-sized missional group (extended family). When people are discipled as part of an extended family they have built-in opportunities to put into practice the things their rabbi is modeling for them and training them to do.”

Amen to that! But when most missionally-minded young church leaders hear that there are “built-in opportunities to practice” missional living, they assume that this means primarily that the mid-sized missional group must do all their work as a Christian community together toward a shared mission. There is only some room for training and encouraging each individual in the group to live out their faith in and through their vocations.

Can we have small groups (nuclear families) and midsized groups (extended families) that are living in such discipleship that the principles of missional living are applied to the context in which the individuals in these groups spend the majority of their time? Can we become disciples that work in different places and pursue different careers for the glory of God? Or do we have to live only for the sake of the extended family’s common mission?

To be blunt, what I’ve seen is this: The desire for oikos has made some young church leaders thrust upon their flocks far too much extra burden.

Instead of primarily preparing the people in their flock to be missional and to grow as disciples by being faithful to their individual callings, they create a church culture that implicitly says, “Your work matters only if you can get them into our oikos. Real discipleship happens when we live life together on mission to this neighborhood that we’ve targeted. Your individual career is actually a stumbling block to biblical living.”

Am I wrong in saying that we need to be careful of making the mistake of confusing culture with the Bible? It has been proven that the “biblical lifestyle” crosses all cultures and is adaptable to each. Do we have to live like they do in the Middle East in order to live biblically?

Previous Post

June 18, 2015

Following Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life - Jeff Vanderstelt

Next Post

June 29, 2015 The Disruption That is The Sabbath

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category arts and entertainment audio/video bible / theology business church college community culture education faith family government/politics leadership media medicine podcast science & tech social sector tech Uncategorized work and calling

Select a Month November 2025 May 2025 October 2024 September 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 July 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 July 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 November 2016 September 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Paul instructed Titus that the grace of God teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE