A Root out of Dry Ground

Page 3 — Chattanooga, Tennessee

The Last Place on Earth

Even though Gene had a new life and was married to a woman who shared his convictions, he knew that many things from his old life in Tennessee were unresolved. And he could not be devoted to the purpose God had called him to until his conscience was completely clear. Facing his past in Chattanooga was painful for Gene, and the south was the last place on earth that Marsha wanted to be, steeped as she was in the pseudo-liberal prejudices of her California upbringing. But their lives no longer belonged to them. They were living for their Savior now, so off they went to Gene's home town.

They both got jobs there, and soon all the debts were paid and (as much as possible) all the wrongs were righted. During this time they attended services at many of the denominational churches, where their "zeal for the Lord" attracted much attention. They also opened their home to anyone who wanted to come and learn about their Savior. Many young people came to meetings in their living room just to sing and talk about Jesus. Because of the things they heard and the love they experienced there, many teenagers quit taking drugs. People hailed their "ministry" as "a great work." Every Sunday they would bring a truckload of young people to the different churches they attended. The movement was popular, and everyone was happy.

The Light Brigade

The little brown house on Ringgold Road where Gene and Marsha lived became known as the Light House, and the little band of believers began sharing their faith through an "underground" paper called the "Light Brigade Freepaper." They were excited about experiencing love, a clean conscience, and a new life. Whenever there was a concert or other public gathering, the Light Brigade would be there handing out papers.

The response was amazing. Teenagers showed up at all hours of the day and night. Some had nowhere else to go and needed a place to stay. Gene and Marsha wouldn't have time to care for these people if they continued working their regular jobs. And they needed a bigger house so they could fit everybody in. But how would they make ends meet? Asking for donations was out of the question. The Bible taught them to do "honest work with their own hands to have something to share with those in need." That's just what they wanted to do — work together and share everything they had with each other.

Thus was born the "Yellow Deli" restaurant. They did yard work to get a few dollars together and rented a small building. With a couple of months of renovation and a coat of bright yellow paint, the cozy little sandwich shop was ready to open. It was a place where they could work for a living and still be together, learning all about their Savior and His teachings. And anyone who came in to get a meal could also get a glimpse of the new life they had found — the result of being forgiven and having the Holy Spirit living inside. On the menu they printed, "Our specialty is the fruit of the Spirit. Why not ask?"

People loved to come in and talk and sit for hours in this restaurant. It was a peaceful place, not full of the usual tense atmosphere of a typical sandwich shop. The local papers did big full-color stories about them, giving glowing reports of their work and their menu.

At the same time, for a reasonable price they were able to find a big house in need of much repair, which they fixed up and began living in. It just happened to be on "Vine Street." The name reminded Gene of the Bible verse he had come to know so well: "I am the vine, you are the branches… apart from Me you can do nothing," so they called their new home "The Vine House."

They still attended services at various churches, but problems were beginning to surface. Some people in the congregations complained about the "hippies" and Black people who were invading their respectable gatherings. And it was very hard for Gene and Marsha to find fancy enough Sunday clothes to outfit everyone who stayed with them. The young disciples were starting to ask difficult questions, too. They wondered how these people that they went to church with could be so wealthy when there were so many poor people around. And why did they act so cold and distant? Hadn't Gene told them that Christians were called to live a life of selfless love for their neighbor?

Then one Sunday it all came to a head. The church they were attending cancelled their evening service because the Super Bowl was going to be on TV. Even though the preacher had many good things to say in his sermons, it didn't seem to make a difference in the lives of the people. Their priorities were not affected.

Another church recently seen including The Super Bowl in its year of worship

From that day on, the little band of disciples stopped attending services. Instead they just went to a nearby park on Sunday mornings to sing and worship. After all, the Bible never said there had to be a preacher in a pulpit and everyone else listening quietly in pews. On the contrary, 1 Corinthians 14 taught that everyone should bring something to say or a song to sing.

That choice was very significant. When they stopped "going to church" and started being the church something wonderful began to happen. They began discovering who they were, and what God wanted to happen on the earth. Verses in the Bible that they hadn't really noticed before began to stand out. With excitement they discovered that the disciples in the first century A.D. lived just like they were living. Acts 2:44 said, "All who believed were together and had all things in common." And Acts 4:32 was even clearer: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had."

The Vine Christian Community

From that time on opponents rose up against the little band of disciples from the ranks of the "religious." No longer was this group just a nice little ministry to young people that made up for how the churches were failing to reach the youth. Now they had become an independent entity, The Vine Christian Community. They weren't asking the denominational churches for donations, teachings, seminary training, or approval. They were paying their own way and raising up their own leaders. People who hadn't wanted them at their churches in the first place were now offended that they had stopped coming. The Community members didn't really understand what was going on and tried to make peace, but they found all their efforts futile. When they tried to explain that, according to the Bible, they were just doing what was normal for believers, it only made matters worse. "You're saying that you're the only ones!" was the most common response. Lies and slanderous rumors began to surface about them. Suddenly they weren't so popular any more.

All this time, however, their numbers were growing. They had to buy another house to accommodate all the people who came to live and work with them. And when a disciple from a nearby town wanted a "Yellow Deli" back where he came from, they moved people there, got a house, and found a building for the restaurant. Then came more houses and more delis. Within four or five years time they were running seven delis in Chattanooga and the surrounding area and occupied a dozen large houses. And they still handled all of their assets as they had at first — voluntarily sharing all that they had.

Of course, they had to keep a careful accounting of the income their businesses earned and report it all to the IRS. And there were sales taxes and property taxes to keep up with, for their Master had commanded them to pay their fair share of taxes. But within their homes, they lived like one big, happy family, looking out for each other's needs.

During this time a core of sincere, whole-hearted disciples was forming within their ranks. It was no longer "just a group of kids who loved Jesus." What they were doing wasn't popular any more. Difficult times tested everyone's devotion, but those who remained proved to be motivated by a true conviction in their heart.

Birds of Every Feather

Many who entered the Community during those early years were there only for a season. But at the time of this writing — a quarter-century later — more than 70 of those early disciples remain and are still devoted to their Savior. Far from being a bunch of like-minded individuals from similar backgrounds, looking for a nice intentional community that suited them, they were about as diverse a group as you could imagine.

Joy and Cindy both came from the high school where Gene taught, but the vast majority came from outside the Chattanooga area — as far north as Vermont, as far west as California, as far south as Brazil, and as far east as India. John, for example, had dropped out of Yale and taken off on foot, determined to find somewhere that the life he read about in the Bible was being lived. After walking seven hundred miles, he met a young man from the Vine House who asked him if he needed a place to stay. In all, around a dozen members had just been traveling around the country, not even knowing the Community existed. When they came into the Chattanooga area, they learned that the "Vine House" people offered hospitality to strangers. What they found there convinced them to stay for the rest of their lives.

Connie, Willadeen, Al, and Liz were all locals who became interested in being disciples when they were 16 or younger. Liz got permission from her parents to live in the Community right away. The others joined after they had turned 18.

Gary, on the other hand, was a computer systems analyst in his mid-thirties, and Charles was an upwardly mobile Black plant manager. Eddie was a successful builder in Florida, Pat a high school teacher, and Kathy the music director for a church. What caused them to abandon their careers and wash dishes in the Yellow Deli was the same thing that fascinated the younger disciples. They heard the words of the Son of God presented with clarity and authority and saw a demonstration of His love in real human beings. They wanted to belong to Him and be like Him more than anything on earth. It was worth more to John than his career as a popular Black radio announcer. It was worth more to David than the job offer he had dreamed of — teaching on an Indian reservation.

Danny, Linda, Bob, and Deb had attended a Christian college in nearby Dayton, Tennessee. Margo, Michael, Emily, and Rose had lived in a hippie commune in Altamont, a little farther away. They all moved into the community around the same time. In order for people from such different backgrounds to get along in the "pressure cooker" of community life, they had to forget the past and stop living according to their natural temperaments.

But something caused Ray, a Vietnam veteran with a background in Military Intelligence, to love Dicky, whose background was drugs and Transcendental Meditation. Something broke down the barriers between Robert, the graduate of an ivy league university, and Joe, the son of a black sharecropper, who dropped out of third grade to work in the fields.

When Bill's college sent him to live in the Community to research his Master's thesis on Christian communal life, he found something. And Artie, a drifter injured in a motorcycle accident, who could barely walk or utter a complete sentence, found the same thing. Neither one ever left.

What they found also caused José and Gayle to leave behind their ministry to Latino factory workers. It caused Patti and Alan and Susan to become disciples in spite of the ban that their ultra-conservative Bible college had put on the Community. It even caused Kirsten, Thomas, and Rebecca to endure kidnapping and deprogramming.

For them, a passage in the Bible that Gene would often read summed up what they had found:

"Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but always rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Living Bible)

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