About a day or so ago, I was browsing Andrew Jones’ site and found this post on monastic vows. I was intrigued by the list of vows that he listed from the Vineyard article. I tried following the links to the source, but they have since moved. If you are interested, you can find the source article here.

The issue of Cutting Edge referenced also has a great article on the Church of The Saviour in DC. What a great article. It has some amazing quotes from the founder Gordon Cosby. Their ideas on cultural captivity are fascinating. They have done a lot of work on helping followers of Jesus find freedom from the ways in which the culture has captured their imagination that God did not intend. They have developed a framework of intense training in spiritual formation that is part of the membership process at the church. The cool part is that it is not just about spiritual formation but preparing the individual for their call or “mission” and the “corporate” mission of the community. This is distinct from the more individualistic notions of spiritual formation that are more common.

Mark and Nate of reimagine are starting a six month process to establish a network of people committed to a common life inspired by the example and teachings of Jesus. The idea is to get a group of folks together to be intentional about being and making disciples in a first world urban context like such as the SF bay area. I’m pretty excited about such an idea. I have my reservations about what value I will add to the venture. I feel like a bit of a novice to be participating in forming something like this. I long for a deeper foundation in scripture and church history to guide me and help inform the process. But maybe this is one way to get there. Undoubtedly a rhythm of study will be one stream of this common life. Perhaps that will afford me the opportunity, and the encouragement, to pursue a deeper understanding of scripture, theology, and apprenticeship to the master.