Membership Types

 

We have three membership types.  They represent a member’s advancement and increasing involvement in 3Circles Church Communities.   Each membership level uses the word “Bioneer” so a little explanation is in order.

 

Bioneer (root: "biological pioneer") a term coined by filmmaker, author and eco-activist Kenny Ausubel.  A bioneer is "a biological pioneer, an ecological inventor who's got an elegant and often simple set of solutions for environmental conundrums." As coined by Ausubel, the term describes individuals and groups working in diverse disciplines who have crafted creative solutions to various environmental and socio-cultural problems rooted in shared core values, including whole systems, anticipatory thinking, a view of all life as interdependent, and sustainable mutual aid.   (Definition courtesy of Wikipedia)

 

My 4 decades long journey of researching, visiting, planning, and founding intentional communities was always with the intention to “craft creative solutions to various environmental and socio-cultural problems rooted in shared core values”.   Additionally, “sustainable mutual aid” has always been part of my core values.  And since one of the “core values” behind the creation of 3Circles Church Communities was to move beyond the spiritually limited, relationally and family unfriendly societal community model (Community 1.0) and integrate the online social networking world of Web 2.0.  Thus it is that we have created a hybrid model for living both online and real-world, called Community 3.0.  I talk more about Community 3.0 below, but in a nutshell it is the creation of a New Tech Tribal, Constitutional Republic, modeled governmentally after the U.S. Constitutional Republic as it was originally conceived and founded.  So, given these facts I think Bioneer is a perfectly apt descriptive term for our members. 

 

When someone signs up as a 3CCC member they pay $29 a month and are identified as a New Bioneer (NB).   After finishing two easy-to-complete tasks, a New Bioneer then “graduates” to Visionary Bioneer (VB).  

 

The required tasks to become a Visionary Bioneer are:

 

1)      Print, complete and fax in your 3CCC Membership Covenant Agreement (at the bottom of this article);

2)      Enroll in at least one 3CCC project and at the end of 30 days receive a good report from the project leader (see our List of Projects).

 

The monthly fee is composed of a $25 Membership Fee, which pays for all the many 3Circles Church Communities services, including the affiliate program, and a $4 Member’s Emergency Fund fee.  This Member’s Emergency Fund fee is set aside solely for catastrophic emergencies such as natural disasters or acts of terror that cause the loss of the member’s primary residence and/or primary means of transportation. 

 

There are plenty of agencies out there that help with food, utilities, health related issues, etc..  And since we are providing educational opportunities for our members to learn about what matters most, from alternative medicine and health to getting out of debt and multiplying what little they have (through our 3CCC Debt Removal & Investment Club as well as our “12 Principles of Prosperity”) this Member’s Emergency Fund is NOT for helping with debt removal, bill payments, day to day living expenses or health emergencies. 

 

Often in life we see that people who plan for their future couldn’t have planned for what insurance salesman call “An act of God”.   So we want to offer this assurance to our members, that if you suffer such an unexpected catastrophe effecting your primary residence and/or primary means of transportation, we here at 3Circles Church Communities are ready, willing and able to help you and your immediate family.  To qualify for assistance from the Member’s Emergency Fund you must be a 3CCC member in good standing and have at least advanced to Visionary Bioneer (a very easy to achieve goal; qualifying as a Visionary Bioneer tells us you are serious about helping further the goals and principles of 3Circles Church Communities). 

 

The third and final level of membership is the Visionary Bioneer – Spiritual Entrepreneur (VB-SE).  For those wondering what a Spiritual Entrepreneur is, or wondering why we would use the term “Entrepreneur” in such an all encompassing membership title, please see the section below entitled, “How does 3CCC Define Spiritual Entrepreneur and Wealth”.

 

The requirements for becoming a Visionary Bioneer – Spiritual Entrepreneur are:

 

1)      Start OR join an existing 3CCC Fellowship Group.  Leaders who start a 3CCC Fellowship Group must enroll in our 3CCC Affiliate Program, since this enables them to profit from all their hard work.  Each person from their local community that joins their 3CCC Fellowship Group and signs up as an online member will qualify as a new affiliate member, earning them additional monthly residual income.

2)      Maintain enrollment in at least one 3CCC project (this can include #1, a 3CCC Fellowship Group).

3)      Participate in at least one, one-day 3CCC Virtual Retreat every 6 months.

 

Recommended but optional:

4)      Get involved in at least ONE of our wealth-building joint ventures below (your choice; you can choose only one or as many as you like):

a)      Join our 3CCC Affiliate Program.  You earn six US dollars and two Time Dollars for each directly sponsored member you sign up.  You can also earn three US dollars and one Time Dollar for each second level member you sign up (these are members signed up by your directly sponsored member).  These payments are made to you monthly, for as long as those new people you signed up remain 3CCC members.  This residual income is paid as an incentive for you to help keep our customers happy and informed.  One of the member benefits of moving up to a VB-SE membership is so you can take full advantage of our sweat equity ownership program.  Your Time Dollars, which represent your sweat equity contribution towards building up 3Circles Church Communities, can be converted into shares of 3CCC stock (see below, “Membership Benefits – Tangible and Free Benefits” for more details).

b)      Participate in one of our Co-Op advertising programs.   Co-Op advertising is a great way to increase your residual monthly income because the expense in shared.   As leads and sign ups come in they are assigned to affiliates on a rotating basis.  

c)      Participate in our glossy postcard direct mail program.  The main benefit is there is absolutely no work or time involved.  However, it will require a substantial monetary investment.

d)      Start or volunteer to help run a local chapter of the 3Circles Church Communities Time Bank.  Although 3CCC Time Bank coordinators and their assistants are paid in Time Dollars, those Time Dollars are an alternative wealth building medium with tremendous potential for improving one’s bottom line and changing people’s lives.

e)      Join our 3CCC Debt Removal & Investment Club.  We originally had the idea to create an investment club but if we really believe in the Golden Rule of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, we should also offer assistance to those who are poorer among us, who first need help getting out of debt before they can learn to invest and build wealth.  To qualify for enrollment in our 3CCC Debt Removal & Investment Club a person must have at least advanced to the level of Visionary Bioneer.

5) Participate in at least one real-world, week-end long 3CCC Spiritual Retreat yearly.

 

 

Membership Benefits

Consider the following and I think you’ll agree that the tangible benefits we offer (monetary and non-monetary) far out weighs the cost of a $29 monthly Services Fee (the 3CCC Services Fee includes a $25 Membership Fee and a $4 Member’s Emergency Fund Fee).

Tangible & Free Benefits:

1) FREE enrollment in our 3Circles Church Communities Time Bank (a $36 value). 

 

You’ll also be paid 4 Time Dollars per month just for remaining a 3CCC member, regardless of membership level (we estimate the average time members will spend on our website to be 15 minutes a day, 4 days a week; that 1 Time Dollar a week, 4 Time Dollars a month, 48 Time Dollars a year).   3CCC is a member of Time Banks USA, giving you access to a wide variety of products and services nationally.  Each Time Dollar can be exchanged for products or services, an hour for an hour.   So you could use your Time Dollars to hire a baby sitter, find someone to cut your lawn or do home repairs, teach you or your children to play an instrument or get voice lessons, get help with transportation... the list is endless!

 

However, because we pay for additional Time Bank members it wouldn’t make much sense to sign up 300 members of our 3Circles Church Communities website to the 3CCC Time Bank if only 20 of those 300 were active.  Paying for all 300 when only 20 actually use the service just wouldn’t make sound fiscal sense.  So to avoid this scenario each new member of 3Circles Church Communities is given a “Provisional” membership in the 3CCC Time Bank.  You would be able to go to a demo Time Bank to see how it all works and visit the Time Bank web site to read all about it, but until you actually told us to activate your account as a permanent 3CCC Time Bank member, you would remain a “Provisional Member”.  Time dollars would still be accumulated monthly, as stated above.  So, once you officially request to sign up we’ll assign those Time Dollars to your new 3CCC Time Bank account.

 

2) FREE sheet of first-class postage stamps (a $10.08 value). 

 

You will have delivered to your home, in the first 2 weeks following the beginning of your second month of membership (regardless of your membership level), a sheet of 24 forty-two cent 3CCC logo stamps.  These stamps have our website address and part of our logo on them.  They will help us spread the word about our community and you get some free stamps in the bargain!

 

3) FREE one-day, online virtual retreats ($25 value for each retreat, limit one per month) for all Visionary Bioneers and Visionary Bioneer – Spiritual Entrepreneurs (a $300 value).

 

As far as we know, we are the only group that offers a one-day, online virtual retreat.  The course teaches self-discipline of body, mind, and spirit, providing a list of things to do and practice, helping you totally unplug and de-stress for one 9 hour period.  The value of this is inestimable.  We charge a very low $25 fee to the general public and New Bioneers (charging our New Bioneers is one of the many ways we encourage members to upgrade to the next level of membership... same monthly price but increased participation in the life of our community has its rewards).

 

4) WHOLESALE purchase of our biofeedback headset for enhanced meditation feedback (a $15-$25 savings).

 

These are low-cost, state-of-the-art, cutting edge biofeedback headsets.  Right now they retail for $50.   Using dry attachment of one electrode to your forehead, they provide an accurate, objective reading of your meditation progress.  Competitive units require the use of gel to get an accurate reading, use a number of electrodes and are extremely costly.  We will accept partial payment in Time Dollars for these biofeedback headsets.   To encourage advancement beyond first level, New Bioneer (NB) membership, we will extend wholesale price breaks and partial payment in Time Dollars only to Visionary Bioneers (VB) and Visionary Bioneer – Spiritual Entrepreneurs (VB-SE).

 

5) FREE 24/7 access to our Virtual Meditation Room for all members, a serene place to unwind and meditate with others, creating far greater energy and inner peace (the link will allow you to download the room but you will need a password to use the room, available once you sign up as a member).  We will provide a separate room for discussions on meditation and our one-day 3CCC Virtual Spiritual Retreats.

 

We believe 100% in Spiritual Math – that one person united in faith with one other person gives each individual access to 10 times the power they would normally manifest alone.  The 24/7 Meditation Room is a place where peace and joy are being manifest 24/7/365 days a year.   It will be a tremendous help as you learn to communicate with God, discover your life purpose (if you don’t already know) and receive daily guidance for today’s needs.  It is a well known scientific fact that meditation serves to dramatically lower stress levels, which in turn improves health. 

 

As each 3Circles Church Community member learns to truly listen and spiritually “hear” God’s Living Word they will find solutions for their own personal needs.  There will also be wondrous insights as well as an increase in love and unity.  Of course, there are many methods of meditation and everyone is free to use the method that works for them.   During our 3CCC Virtual Online Retreats people will be given opportunities to share, so for those of you who are already “tuned-in” you can share what you know and help others to learn how to “Be still and know God”.

 

6) FREE Online tools that will help you and your family become (and remain) Debt-Free, including a free copy of my book, “$ecret$ - 12 Principles of Prosperity for Spiritual Entrepreneurs” (available to every new member; a $12 value).

 

7) Become part-owner of 3Circles Church Communities, Inc.  Time spent working on 3CCC projects represents YOUR sweat equity towards becoming part owner of 3Circles Church Communities and can be converted into 3CCC shares (we have some GREAT ideas as to how to do this, but we’re going to wait until we’ve worked this out with the lawyers and the SEC before making an official announcement with exact details (estimated value: $1,000 to $5,000 a year, depending on the amount of time invested in our projects). 

 

8) Earn monthly residual income with our affiliate program.  Any member can join our affiliate program and earn 12% to 24% of the $25 membership fee for every person they sign-up directly (their referral) or indirectly (their sign-up’s referral).  That represents $6 a month for each first tier affiliate (you sign up) and $3 a month for each second tier affiliate (the person you signed up, signs up).  In addition to the cash payout for affiliates we’ll also be paying Time Dollars to our affiliates.  Time Dollars can be used towards purchase of 3CCC products and services, purchase of needed services from other Time Bank members or you can use them as part of your sweat equity to become part-owner of 3Circles Church Communities (see #7 above).

 

Intangible Benefits:

 

1) Make friends with some of the most spiritually aware, principled and reasoned people anywhere.

 

2) A safe, secure and educational environment in which to raise children (there will be a school for grades K-12 at every 3Circles Church Community), an educational environment that teaches your values because every member of 3CCC, including our teachers, will share the same common set of values.

      3) A far lower cost to maintain a household within a 3Circles Church Community, since 3CCC promises to share equipment that most households must purchase from time to time, but which are used infrequently or seasonally, such as snow removal equipment, chainsaws, riding lawn mowers, road/driveway grading equipment, large ladders, various types of specialized construction and landscaping equipment, etc..

4) A true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make history with 3CCC as we spread our revolutionary message and build 3Circles Church Communities: “A Spirit-Centered Revolution”, Community 3.0, “We don’t go to Church... WE ARE the Church”, “Living Together, Empowering One Another, Sharing with the World”, “Time is money... Especially if it’s Time Dollars”, and our foundational beliefs and principles such as the “3Circles Empowerment Principle”.  And our simple, powerful and unique Mission Statement rightly puts the emphasis on our individual and collective acts of love rather than on what each individual believes.  Traditional Christianity and other religions, contrary to what Jesus himself taught place the emphasis on religious beliefs that conform to their denominational doctrines.  See Matthew 25, where Jesus separates the sheep from the goats.  Both call him “Lord” but only the sheep did what was necessary for entrance into the Kingdom, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and prisoners, and giving water to the thirsty.  Not one mention of theological beliefs.

      5) The benefit of fewer doctor bills due to neighbors sharing a wide variety of alternative medicine knowledge, thus helping prevent sicknesses from disease and stress.

      6) The inestimable value of having free run of the much larger community property, which contributes to overall health through daily rest and relaxation, as well as the joy of shared games and activities.

7) Participation in collaborative 3CCC projects that serves to enhance group cohesiveness, greatly enrich your life and help promote the ideals of 3CCC.

 

8) As a member you automatically receive priority consideration for our upcoming reality TV series, “The New Bioneers”.

      9) Access to community resource people who freely share their “Green”, healthy, money-saving house building and house systems technologies, providing dramatic cost savings on heat, electricity and water usage, not to mention lower labor costs due to volunteers helping out during construction.

3CCC Membership Signup – CLICK HERE

 

3Circles Community 3.0

 

If someone is joining our community they need to understand a concept we created to identify the differences inherent in the 3Circles Church Communities idea of community.  We call is “3Circles Community 3.0”.  

 

What we all identify and know in the real world as “Community” is Community 1.0.  People who live in such traditional communities share little in common and anyone with the required financing can buy a home and live in one of these traditional, geographically dependent “communities”.   The majority of one’s friends and family live outside your “community”, almost everyone commutes to their job workplace, and the majority of activities for children require more commuting.  That is the model for a stress filled life!

 

Community 2.0 represents a new type of community, an online community.  Here is how Community 2.0 is described in Wikipedia, under “Virtual Community”,  “Virtual communities may synthesize Web 2.0 technologies with the community, and therefore have been described as Community 2.0, although strong community bonds have been forged online since the early days of USENET. Virtual communities depend upon social interaction and exchange between users online. This emphasizes the reciprocity element of the unwritten social contract between community members.”    There is no commuting related stress but meaningful social interaction through personal contact is non-existent.

 

3Circles Community 3.0 represents the next stage of development in the evolution of community, a hybrid synthesis of Community 1.0 and Community 2.0 that provides the ideal community model.  Community 3.0 provides:

 

1.      A Written Contract: Rather than an unwritten social contract, there is a written contract.

 

2.      Collaborative Tools: The usual Web 2.0 tools are available for online interaction between members but in addition, special collaborative tools are made available to support creation, planning and development of real-world communities: a) community wide project scheduling and management; b) secure communications using VOIP enabled, password protected web rooms; c) desktop and document sharing using advanced Web 2.0 applications; d) integration with existing Instant Message systems or development of a private messaging system, allowing members to see when others are available and share files fast and efficiently; e) special coaching application that allows broadcast, with 100% certainty, messages of vital important to the groups training and events notification; f) eventual movement from PC based Operating Systems (OS) to a Web Based OS hosted by IT companies capable of providing 100% up-time, thus preventing the usual interruptions to collaboration that occur from data loss due to hard drive failures, malware attacks or data corruption. 

 

3.      Hybrid, Simultaneous Development of Online and Offline Communities: An offline community is planned and built by the online members, creating a unique community that, for the first time in history, exists simultaneously in both online and offline worlds.

 

4.      Development and Integration of an Alternative-Exchange System: A Time Bank, Mutual Credit System, or other alternative-exchange system is an absolute necessity to qualify for Community 3.0 status.   This is in keeping with our 3Circles Empowerment Principle, which serves to increase empowerment of those within the community.   Total dependence on the present monetary system serves to empower systems and institutions outside the community.   Creating an alternative-exchange system within the community establishes a mutual self-help system that rewards members who choose to work on community projects or help fellow community members with their individual needs.

 

5.      Shared Values with Focus on Building a Spirit-Centered, Green Community: There is a focused mission to gather like-minded, spiritually-centered, health-conscious, politically-savvy, and environmentally knowledgeable individuals together, for the purpose of building safe and secure, visibly stunning, sustainable green communities.

 

6.      Simultaneous Multi-Site Community Development Using Traditional Local Church Planting Methods, Collaborative Online Tools and the Non-Traditional Ideas of 3CCC: We are initiating an organized and concerted effort to grow numerous, multi-site, local communities through the establishment of local 3CCC Fellowship Groups.   This helps online members locate other nearby members, then establish a seed group whose purpose is to find people locally who share the same values and principles.  3Circles Church Communities provides all the necessary training materials and support tools needed to make this happen.   As each local 3CCC Fellowship Group grows together in love, they will make plans to build their own local 3Circles Church Community.

 

7.      Creation of Internal, Community-Based, Business Enabling Systems Such as a Business Incubator and Credit Union: A business incubator and credit union, along with our alternative-exchange Time Bank system and 3CCC Debt Removal & Investment Club, are all part of the economic engine that drives growth. 

 

8.      A Community Government Modeled on Our U.S. Constitutional Republic:  We here at 3Circles Church Communities believe it is vital that we by-pass the usual small-community governance models.  The usual result is an Oligarchy, governance by a few elite: i.e. Home Owner’s Associations or, even worse, governance by the community’s founder and associates.  Although there are plenty of problems with every form of government, only one form is established on the principle of “a government by the people and for the people”, with three main governing branches that balance one another, a Constitution and a Bill of Rights.  For those who understand history, it will come as no surprise that our US Government today bears little resemblance to the Government that existed during our first two centuries.  Originally each State appointed its Senators, giving each State greater power then the federal government, as was originally intended.  Originally, neither the judges of our Judicial Branch nor the President of our Executive Branch, could make law, something the Constitution reserved solely for Congressional representatives who were beholden to the will of the people, but today the President can make law by invoking an Executive Order and federal judges make law by rulings which override the will of the people.  Furthermore, the Constitution’s strict limits of Federal power are routinely ignored by our elected representatives.  As a student of history I firmly believe that our U.S Constitutional Republic, as it was originally created, is a divinely inspired form of government which, for the first time in history, established that the rights of man therein listed were not conceived or granted by our government, but rather are part of the natural rights which God has written on every human heart.  For this reason I have chosen to establish that each separate 3Circles Church Community will be likened to a State, with its own elected officials, and we shall create and maintain a miniature version of each of the three branches of our US government.

 

As you can see, 3Circles Community 3.0 is a new community paradigm.   We have nothing in common with Community 1.0 and we have moved well beyond the simplistic ideas of Community 2.0 online communities, where people of widely diverse interests, but no common vision and no common work projects, are content to share jokes, text message feel-good platitudes and exchange entertaining videos.

 

How Does 3Circles Church Communities Define “Spiritual Entrepreneur” and “Wealth”?

 

Entrepreneur: “Most commonly, the term entrepreneur applies to someone who creates value by offering a product or service. Entrepreneurs often have strong beliefs about a market opportunity and organize their resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions. Some distinguish business entrepreneurs as either "political entrepreneurs" or "market entrepreneurs," while social entrepreneurs' principal objectives include the creation of a social and/or environmental benefit. An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company, enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome.” (Definition courtesy of Wikipedia)

 

In my book “$ecret$ - 12 Principles of Prosperity for Spiritual Entrepreneurs” I discuss at length how to be a Spiritual Entrepreneur.  It may not seem obvious at first, as to why I would want to call every member who advances to the top membership level a Spiritual Entrepreneur but the answer can partially be found in the above definition.  

 

Every member of a 3Circles Church Community should want to “create value by offering a product or service”.   For most people that value may not be a product so they might conclude they don’t fit the definition of an entrepreneur.  But as the above quote reveals, entrepreneurs also “create value by offering... a service”.  Sharing and caring for others through a close-knit, faith-based, intentionally built, “green” community is a service that dramatically improves lives, revealing to the world a better way to live, by our own communitarian example.  So I would say that 3CCC members are also “Social Entrepreneurs”.   A Spiritual Entrepreneur is someone who is Spirit-Centered AND entrepreneurial, regardless of whether they identify more with the terms political entrepreneur, market entrepreneur or social entrepreneur.

 

Wealth:  According to Dictionary.com wealth is:

 

1. a great quantity or store of money, valuable possessions, property, or other riches: the wealth of a city. 

2. an abundance or profusion of anything; plentiful amount: a wealth of imagery. 

3. Economics.

a. all things that have a monetary or exchange value. 

b. anything that has utility and is capable of being appropriated or exchanged. 

4. rich or valuable contents or produce: the wealth of the soil. 

5. the state of being rich; prosperity; affluence: persons of wealth and standing. 

6. Obsolete. happiness.   

 

Notice that last definition, that considering happiness as wealth is now obsolete.   Maybe for the majority this is true, but we here at 3Circles Church Communities believe that the final measure of one’s wealth should one’s degree of happiness.

 

In fact, the word from which our English “wealth” is derived is “weal” and its variation, “wele”.  Their definitions revolve around happiness, welfare (general state of health) and prosperity, which includes all three, health, happiness and financial.

 

Weal\, n. [OE. wele, AS. wela, weola, wealth, from wel well. See Well, adv., and cf. Wealth.]

 

1. A sound, healthy, or prosperous state of a person or thing; prosperity; happiness; welfare.

 

God . . . grant you wele and prosperity. --Chaucer.

 

As we love the weal of our souls and bodies. --Bacon.

 

To him linked in weal or woe. --Milton.

 

Never was there a time when it more concerned the public weal that the character of the Parliament should stand high. --Macaulay.

 

2. The body politic; the state; common wealth. [Obs.]

 

The special watchmen of our English weal. --Shakespeare.

 

In many poorer countries wealth is measured by the amount of livestock and land one owns, even though the owner has very little money.   And then there is the environmental idea being put forth today, that regardless of how you measure wealth, it is meaningless if the environment degrades to the point of our extinction.   I have to agree.   However, man is not the only means for environmental degradation.  There is clear evidence that in the past, even before man’s technology could figure as a cause, the natural environment has destroyed itself through huge asteroid impacts and super volcanic activity.   In fact, volcanic activity is now considered the main factor leading to the Dark Ages. 

 

From the Wikipedia article on “Wealth” we read, “Sustainable wealth is defined by the author of Creating Sustainable Wealth, Elizabeth M Parker, as meeting the individual’s personal, social and environmental needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

 

Larry R. Frank, Sr., author of Wealth Odyssey, says, “Wealth is what sustains you when you are not working. It is net worth, not income, which is important when you retire or are unable to work (premature loss of income due to injury or illness is actually a risk management issue). The key question is how long would a certain wealth last?”

 

We here at 3Circles Church Communities believe that true wealth is a combination of spiritual, mental/emotional, physical and financial wealth that is directed towards the general good of humanity.  This is what I have labeled “Total Life Success” in my book $ecret$.   This is what we work towards, both for ourselves and for others.

 

3CCC Membership Signup – CLICK HERE