This weekend, we kicked off a brainstorming session on creating a common life as apprentices in the way of Jesus. It was a fun beginning to what will probably be a lengthy process of both individual and corporate spiritual formation.

The discussions centered mostly around coming up with common, multi-layered rhythms that will be practiced by the community. The rhythms of the community will be inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus and fall more or less into six buckets or streams: centeredness, generosity, community, restoration, integrity, and creativity.

The rhythms of these streams will be practiced daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. We will start off by focusing on a stream for 1-2 months like we did with the have2give1 project. As we focus on the stream for a few months and allow the project to challenge and shape us we hope to come up with daily, weekly, or monthly practices that can be incorporated into our daily lives. These practices will ultimately shape the vows of the community– the values and practices we commit to in seeking to be apprentices of the master.

We also took this opportunity to dive into a creative chemistry project– soap making. Ever since I saw fight club, I’ve had a passive interest in making soap. I also think it could be a interesting and creative way to make some money on the side. Imagine coming up with a funky concoction and convincing some swanky department store to sell it for $20.

Anyway, Lisa was telling me a few weeks prior to this trip that she has done it and that a friend gave her some supplies for making soap before leaving the area. She offered to guide us through the process using some of the materials she had left over. You just need some water, lye (sodium hydroxide), fats/oils, a fragrance and or texture, and about an hour. The recipe that Lisa was drawing from called for a cup of coffee grinds that had been sitting in vodka for 24 hrs as the fragrance/texture. Textured it will be. The coffee grinds are still intact in the semi-finished product.

One catch is that you need to wait for about 6 weeks before you use it. I’m assuming that the six weeks allows the lye to break down some so you don’t burn your skin.

I’m thinking about making this a series to collect and share my thoughts on each of the streams. If you have any thoughts on monasticism, intentional community, or soap making let me know. I’d like to hear about it.