Realistic Living is a 501-C-3 nonprofit organization incorporated in the state of Texas, USA in 1984. The mission of Realistic Living is to clarify the essential Christian heritage and to promote and inspire its practice through small groups. This mission is carried out by conducting research into the core challenges of our times; by writing essays, books, journals, newsletters, and manuals; and by organizing training events and small circles which meet weekly. We are involved in interreligious dialogue, solitary religious practice, innovative leadership & educational methods, bioregional organizing, and progressive social change. We view religion as an essential process in every society that can corrupt or enrich every other social process. We emphasize experimentation with the solitary and communal expressions of a Next Christianity which includes both personal healing and ethical implications for neighborhoods and the planet as a whole.
The Staff of Realistic Living
Gene Marshall has a long history of participation in Christian renewal and interreligious dialogue. In 1952 he made a decision to leave a mathematics career and attend seminary at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. In 1962 he joined a religious order of families, the Order:Ecumenical, and became a teacher and lecturer of Spirit topics, traveling across the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia. These trips included a study of world cultures and religions and efforts to witness to the Christian breakthrough in the medium of these various cultures. In 1983 he began publishing books and essays.
Joyce Marshall did her university training in music and education with a deep passion for literature and feminine values. She is an avid reader of fiction and nonfiction books, and she reviews the best of them for the Realistic Living Journal which is published semiannually. She has been teaching theology and religious methods since 1974, as well as attending numerous religious workshops and retreats. She is one of the few living teachers of an innovative drama method called EcoTheater. She uses her drama and musical skills to lead a theater troupe in local performances.
Alan Richard has 20 years of experience as an activist and community organizer, 15 years of experience as a published behavioral health researcher, and 10 years of experience managing large behavioral health programs. He holds a doctorate in Religion from Syracuse University, has designed and taught courses in religion for lay people on topics such as existential Christianity and new monasticism, and founded a Christian Resurgence Circle “house church” in Houston, Texas. He is a contributor to the Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory and continues to participate actively in academic and lay conferences on theology and ethics. He joined the faculty of Realistic Living in 2010.
The Founders of Realistic Living
Joyce and Gene Marshall were already accomplished teachers of religion and ethics when they married in Chicago in 1977. They lived in Los Angeles four years doing intensive psychological training and then founded Realistic Living in Dallas in 1984.
Since that time they have written numerous books, Realistic Living Journals, Newsletters, and resources for small group nurture. The Marshalls are also social activists: organizers of the bioregional movement; playwright/
directors of a local community method called Ecotheater; trainers in local community leadership methods; and writers of essays on feminism, ecology, economics, education, interreligious dialogue, and other causes.
Gene brings to this team an education in mathematics, physics, and theology. Joyce brings her teaching experience and university training in music and education with a deep passion for literature, feminine values, interreligious dialogue, and meditation. Both have done advanced studies in Christian theology, non-Christian religions, history, the philosophy of social change, psychology, male/female relations, ecology, and economics. They have extensively researched and developed facility with leadership methods for small group religious nurture. They are now developing a focus on training in leadership skills for local cells of Christian resurgence. The Marshalls live in the woods on the Red River Flats of North Texas in a straw-bale house which they designed and participated in building. This home is both their residence and a meeting place for the activities of Realistic Living. (See photo gallery of the straw-bale house.)
The Boards of Realistic Living
Our local board is responsible for our non-profit 501-C3 corporation and is also an active working board. The members are:
Marsha Buck — Juneau, Alaska
Richard Corl — Spring, Texas
Nate Custer — Houston, Texas
Ellen Gentry — Camas, Washington
John Latham — San Mateo, California
Houston Markley — Camas, Washington
Gene Marshall — Bonham, Texas
Joyce Marshall — Bonham, Texas
Elvagene Philbrook — Edinburg, Texas
Roy Philbrook — Edinburg, Texas
Alan Richard — Bonham, Texas
Edwin Waters — Clayton, Illinois
Our International Advisory Board includes the following members:
Sara MacFarlane Allen — Gilford, New Hampshire
Willie Anderson — Juneau, Alaska
Robert & Deborah Armstrong — Lexington, Mass.
Ben Ball — Sugar Land, Texas
Jon & Annetta Ezelle — Seattle, Washington
Ken Fisher — Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Irma Hudson — Kansas City, Missouri
Ken Kreutziger — Lexington, Massachusetts
Joshua Lawrence –London, Ontario Canada
Jeanne Marie Manning — Santa Rosa, California
David Marshall — Moraga, California
Kathleen Marshall — Veneta, Oregon
Teresa Marshall — Richman, California
Wayne Marshall — Ojai, California
Michael May — Bloomington, Indiana
Marilyn McCord — Bayfield, Colorado
Julie Miesen — Highgate Hill, Queensland, Australia
Rita Newton — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Marilyn O’Boyle — Albuquerque, New Mexico
Mary Klepser Priem — Portland, Oregon
Gordon & Patsy Roe — Lewisville, Texas
Harold Slater — Midland, Michigan
Finley Schaef — Saugerties, New York
Diana Stokes — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
John Stowell — West Easton, Pennsylvania
Jaime Vergara — Saipan
Pat Webb — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
John Webster — Rogers, Arkansas
Terry Weygandt — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Twentieth Anniversary Report – November 2004
While we will celebrate our thirtieth anniversary in 2014, much of our history and ongoing work is well described in the twentieth anniversary report that follows.
Twenty years ago on December 6, 1984, the Realistic Living application for nonprofit status was signed and notarized. The signees were Gene Marshall, Joyce Marshall, and Marilyn McCord. We had worked toward this throughout 1984, and in November of that year we published our first Realistic Living Journal.
With this report we celebrate with you our twentieth anniversary, sharing highlights from the story of these two decades.
Click on the sections of this report you want to read:
Table of Contents for the 20-Year Report
1. The Antecedents and Beginnings of Realistic Living
2. Our Christian Resurgence Focus
3. Bioregionalism and the Endangered Planet
4. EcoTheater and Community Awakenment
5. Interreligious Research and Christian Theology
6. Written, Recorded, and Electronic Resources
7. A House for our Home, Offices, and Meeting Place
Inserts: