The Jesus Village

 The Jesus Village at Haven Springs is intentional Christian community situated on 1000 acres of pristine land in the foothills of the Oklahoma Ozarks, or what is called the Oklahoma “green country.” This community is an intentional Christian community, with privately owned lots with homes in a village centered around a central church/community center which in turn is surrounded by hundreds of acres of pristine and fertile farm land and untouched fields, streams, and forests.

The Jesus Village at Haven Springs is off-grid, self-sufficient, sustainable, intentional, and holistic, but more importantly it is Spirit-Led, Biblically Grounded, Patriarchal, and Christ-centered.  

We are dedicated on reuniting Christians and giving them a refuge from the storm that is our present world, and to give them a place to raise their families, grow in their faith, and live a healthy and more fulfilling life. 

The Christian Exodus Project is an organization dedicated to developing Christian intentional communities both inside and outside the United States that are self-sufficient and holistic in their approach.

Our heart and vision is to provide help for Christians who are desperate for a richer and deeper relationship with Jesus Christ through fellowship and community with other Christians (which are His Body).

All Christian Exodus Projects share in common certain fundamental traits, namely

(1) an omni-denominational approach where all Christians are welcomed to apply regardless of their theological tradition so long as they agree to certain basic Christian's beliefs and willing to show love and acceptance of other believers of different traditions 

(2) the offering of affordable options so that no applicant will ever be rejected purely on the basis of their income or the amount of money they have, 

(3) a village model where people can live in close fellowship with one another while having large spaces that are used and shared by the group in terms of both work and play, and

 (4) a commitment to patriarchal values where the natural and biblical order of the family and a man’s headship over his whole household is fundamental to our governance and daily life. 

 The Jesus Village is the model promoted by the Christian Exodus Project and is our actual community here at Haven Springs.

Jesus Villages are self-sufficient and off-grid “villages” located on large acreage properties which are not tied to any grid and which are “communally self-sufficient” in that each home relies upon a common community source of off-grid water, electricity, septic, food etc.  

The Jesus Village model enables people to live, work, and enjoy time together just as our Christian ancestors had done for hundreds of years in their small shires, hamlets, towns, and villages in Europe. A Jesus Village is supported and surrounded by hundreds of acres of pristine land that is used by the community to do agriculture and recreation and to enjoy God’s creation. 

Yes and Yes!!
 

Even though our model is that of a village with shared resources, agriculture, and recreational spaces, each lot and home are privately owned in the village by each family. Thus, unlike many other community models that force you to decide between either having just another suburban neighborhood with everyone being an island unto themselves or being an entirely collectively owned commune without any individual autonomy at all, we instead offer a mixed model with the best of both worlds! A Jesus Village offers all the benefits of communal life while retaining the right of private ownership over one’s own property.

Further, though our model makes it so that those who are content with less and are happy with the self-sufficient village life will not have to work for an income outside our community if they so choose, some people have previous debts to pay, or a passionate calling they pursue in their vocation, or a family business they don’t want to sell. In fact, some just prefer to have some extra petty cash on hand and others just can’t sit still and would find the laid-back communal farm life to not be quite enough to satisfy their high-energy needs.

Under our model, it is up to each head of household to decide if he or members of his family desire to work outside the home and community to make an income and are not prohibited from doing so unless the profession is immoral or in some way threatens the community or is causing real tangible harm to his family. Likewise, if a person has an occupation and is unable to do the communal work needed to keep the village self-sufficient, then they would be expected to pay a monthly service fee which covers all the utilities, benefits, food, and activities that are provided by the community. 

The Jesus Village at Haven Springs is managed by the village church in executing the CEP vision. Thus, it is the work of Christ the King Fellowship to manage the vetting and membership in the community. Because Christ the King is omni-denominational, families will not be excluded on the basis of their denominational affiliation and individual convictions; hence, the church operates to manage the community, not to lock people into a certain way of believing or doing things.

This process helps to protect the community by vetting and pre-qualify candidates to ensure the sincerity of their Christian faith, their background, and their commitment to the ideals of village life. Hence, through good vetting and by offering a great deal of community benefits (that would be really awful to lose in our context), we create a non-coercive system of keeping out bad actors and keeping in those who love Jesus and His people. If someone violates our community laws, our ministry team will work with the heads of households to adjudicate the dispute in accordance with Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 at which point a person may be removed from membership and lose all community benefits and be broken from fellowship until they repent and are restored or choose to leave of their own accord. 

The Christian Exodus Project is not in the business of starting cults, we are not trying to destroy the church and rebuild it in our own image; however, unlike the wicked system of “denominationalism” we begin with the assumption that the church is ultimately the communion of all believers. Thus our church is called “Christ the King” for He is Lord of all true believers and all true believers are welcomed to come and live with His people in our “Jesus Village.”
 

Thus, though we tolerate and accommodate Christians of all theological backgrounds, such a militant ecumenicist approach is also necessarily offset by the structure of a real masculine and biblical leadership, proper vetting, and discipline for unrepentant and lawless individuals. What we tolerate is not necessarily what we teach, but what we teach is the understanding of the Biblical faith as held by all Christians everywhere and always and of those doctrines recovered in the Reformation. We are truly Reformed, Catholic, Evangelical, and Orthodox all rolled into one and stand on historic Christian and biblical beliefs. How many cults do that?

Likewise, we do not prohibit people from maintaining their memberships in other denominations or of attending other churches (even if we encourage them to go all-in with us), nor are we opposed to collaborating with other denominations and Christian communities and organization. Thus, if we are a cult, we are the least cultish cult in history. 

 YOU DO!!!

When it comes to the general operation of the community in terms of its daily function, decisions regarding planting and harvesting, where homes should go, how fences should be built, how resources should be distributed, when we will throw events, and all matters that are not directly related to Christian ministry, such are decided by The Heads of Households council. Thus, if you own your own lot and house in the village, then you have a say in how the village is run. Thus, it is every head of household (which are men by default with few exceptions) working together that decides how the community will operate, as well as what services his family will attend, and what particular religious practices their family will observe beyond our minimum requirements (i.e. who takes baptism, gets communion, head coverings, etc).

Besides the HOH council, we also have the Session, which is an odd-number of co-equal elders (pastors) who are formally trained in the Scriptures and ordained and who are likewise members of the village. These men make up our core ministry team in the church and besides the vetting work, are exclusively concerned with the preaching and teaching ministry of the community and the serving of communion and administering of baptism and whatever things pastors are normally expected to perform. The HOH council also has the power, in certain cases, to remove elders from the session and so with these two branches of governance, like in the American political system, we have a series of checks and balances to prevent abuse from either direction. 

 The community only has so many available lots, totaling a couple hundred acres, of various sizes, which make up the village surrounding the community center/church. The ratio of lots is carefully determined by experts in permaculture design based on the ratio of persons to usable land/resources with some “wiggle room” built-in for natural growth and expansion that comes with family formation and growth.

The rest of the land of Haven Springs is dedicated to providing for the agricultural and recreational needs of the Jesus Village in perpetuity. Everyone’s home and lot is privately owned and expected to be kept in-family generationally, or deeded back to the community, or sold to other pre-vetted members.

Once the community is maxxed out on size, a break-off with starter funds is expected to start a new community elsewhere and is baked into our growth model; however, it is our plan to continue saving money, courting investors, and working towards the goal of helping as many Christians as possible find communities and to create more communities all over the world, including other target locations in Appalachia, Central America, and the Caribbean as well as more right here in the Oklahoma Ozarks.
 

 To pre-qualify to purchase lots at the Jesus Village, we have created an easy application process that begins by completing questions on our vetting portal which will ask you various pre-written questions mostly related to your faith and personal life (the results of which will not be shared outside the ministry team per the legal confidentially requirements of all ministers).

After completing the questions on the portal, if qualifying, a member of our ministry team will contact you by email to schedule a phone interview, after which, you may be required to complete a federal background check (which is determined by the discretion of the ministry team).

After a follow-up video meeting with our whole ministry team, we will then consider offering you a membership and an on-site visit and introduce you to all the other members, all of which are pre-requisites to buying lots in the village.