Sign it out
Name and date on the clipboard, even for an hour, even if you are a servant. A thing nobody signed for is a thing nobody looks for.
The commons
Held in common
What this congregation means to hold together, who will keep it, and exactly who may walk up and use it. Today it holds nothing, and this page says so before it says anything else.
Why we bother
A cooperative church is not a commune and not a charity. It is a congregation that decided owning a few things together was cheaper, kinder and more honest than everyone owning everything alone.
It starts with a tiller. Four households were each about to buy one, each would have used it two weekends a year, and someone said out loud that this was a stupid way to spend four families' money. That conversation is why this page exists.
Nothing here is a condition. No household hands over property, income or a key to anything. Membership does not cost money, and what you use from the commons is never weighed against what you put in.
It is not a hardship programme. A tool library has to be used by people who could afford their own tools. That is the point — a thing only poor people use quickly becomes a thing poor people are ashamed to use.
The books will be open. Every holding will be listed at the annual meeting with what it cost, what it earned, what broke and what was written off, and any member may call for the full ledger at any time and get it within a week. There is nothing in it yet.
Nothing yet
Written before there is anything to write about, so the rules cannot be bent later to fit whatever we end up with.
This congregation holds nothing in common today. No shed, no tools, no land, no fund, no building. The commons described on this page is a thing we intend, not a thing we have, and we would rather say so plainly than let a well-made page imply otherwise.
What we mean to hold first. A tool shed, because it is the cheapest useful thing a group of households can share. Then a relief fund, filled out of giving and drawn on without a form. After that, whatever the congregation votes for, in the order it votes for it.
What is already decided. The rules below were agreed before there was anything to apply them to. That is deliberate. A rule written after the fact is written by whoever the fact suited.
How you will know. When something is actually held, it will be listed here with what it cost, what it earned, what broke and what was written off, and read aloud at the annual meeting. Until then this section says nothing, which is the accurate thing for it to say.
How the commons is kept
Five working rules. They exist because shared things die of vagueness, not of use.
Bring it back better
Clean, fuelled, charged, sharpened. Ten minutes from you saves the next person an evening.
Say when it broke
Breakage is expected and costs you nothing. Silence about breakage costs the next borrower their Saturday, and that is the only version we mind.
No one keeps score
Nobody is asked what they have contributed before they borrow, and nobody's use is compared with their giving. Ever, by anyone.
The vote decides
Adding a holding, retiring one, or spending above the servants' limit goes to the congregation. Elders administer the commons; they do not own it.
Not held in common
Stated plainly, because the word cooperative makes people picture things that are not true here.
Your house, your wages, your accounts. Nothing is pooled. No member has ever been asked to sell anything, and any teaching that made that a condition of membership would be a false gospel, not a bold one.
Your family. Households raise their own children, make their own decisions, and answer to no committee for how they spend an evening.
Your conscience. Schooling, politics, medicine, drink and calendars are yours. The commons is about tools and time, not about opinions.
Your labour, on demand. Taking a share of work is voluntary and seasonal. Nobody is rostered against their will, and stepping back requires no explanation.
Membership, for money. Nothing in the commons can be bought into or bought out of. Giving buys no standing and withholding costs none.
Anyone's privacy. Who drew on the relief fund is known to two elders and to God. It is not in a report, a testimony or a sermon illustration.
Not yet
There is nothing to lend you yet
When there is, it will be for members, on the terms above, and it will be listed here with what it cost. Until then the honest answer is that this is a congregation with rules and no shed. If you want to be part of what gets held, that starts the same way everything else does.