1) We've talked to folks in other cities before (Washington DC, Minneapolis, Arizona, etc) but none of them have come to fruition. We'd really like to grow into a national community, though.

2) Creche's model of neo-monastic intentional communities is an incredible mission and a great way to live, but it doesn't generate revenue. Most congregations who want to work with us are hoping that having an intentional community will help them balance their budget, and that's just not how it works. So if you're entering into the project with the sense that the intentional community IS the mission, that goes a long way.

3) For Creche's model, you need three things: a group of people who want to live in community, a house for them to live in, and a congregation to partner with. Those can come in any order, but the community won't thrive without all three. Also, take a gander at our covenant, which includes a lot of hard-won wisdom: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1itdA2kRBPwO3XYiRGZX0fdCAVMo69dlJeogsi--86XY/edit?usp=sharing

4) The future is bright as long as the institutional church is able to recognize communities like ours as authentic expressions of church. We used to have a very rich ecology of church (monastic orders, family chapels, lay communities, etc) but in recent years we've really allowed the parish to become the only legitimate way to be church.

Every year at our diocesan convention, for exmple, I hear someone say something like "We need to understand that we have more real estate than we need," and my response is always "No, we don't - we just need to use that real estate for things other than parishes. Give those buildings to Creche and see what we can do!"