This weekend, we had our sixth Sabbath retreat in the redwood forest around Mt. Hermon. Our community started the process back in December with the hopes of coming (stumbling?) to a place where we would be able to commit to a common set of practices that will help shape us in the way of Jesus. This weekend many of us made that commitment for the next year.

Took a vow to pursue a way of life that is led by the Spirit and characterized by love. We committed to doing this by pursing these rhythms in our daily lives (my paraphrase):

We desire to love the creator and His creation by following the way of Jesus and helping others to discover life in the way.

Community: Knowing and loving God and others cannot be done alone.
Service: We collaborate with our creator in loving creation.
Creativity: We seek to leverage our imaginations in exploring the story of God’s kingdom and subverting the royal consciousness.  
Simplicity: We seek to live in the love and generosity of our creator within an empire of greed and scarcity. 
Obedience: Together we submit to the Son of the Living God.
Prayer: We pursue the guidance of the Spirit by centering ourselves in the presence of our creator.

Alice and I made this commitment together. We were both a little anxious about how it will play out over the coming year as we build a life together but we both felt like we have learned a lot from the "dojo" process so far and trust that the shaping and forming will continue.

Tags: monasticism, vows, community, simplicity, service, prayer

Here is a more complete listing of the six rhythms:

COMMUNITY: We cannot know or love God apart from knowing and loving one another. Through his life and words Jesus teaches how to love one another and seek reconciliation with all people. We are committed to taking the journey of faith in solidarity with one another and our brother’s and sisters around the world.

SERVICE: We are made to collaborate with our maker in caring for creation. We recognize the sacredness of work and use the capacities of our minds and bodies to serve others according to our talents, skills and the needs of the place where we find ourselves.

CREATIVITY: We seek to be awakened in our imaginations and actions, inspired by the epic story of God’s kingdom and creation, and connected to our cultural context. We want to live artfully, taking risks, experimenting and using the language and mediums of our culture to explore the story of God’s
kingdom together.

SIMPLICITY: We acknowledge the abundant provision of our maker, and seek to live in trust, radical contentment and generosity in an empire of greed and scarcity.

OBEDIENCE: We recognize Jesus as our teacher and authority, and wrestle with how to surrender to the way of love in every detail of our lives. We submit ourselves to one another in love and strive to keep our vows to God and our commitments to one another.

PRAYER: We seek the fruitfulness and guidance of the Spirit that comes from being centered and surrendered to the will and presence of our creator. We practice rhythms of prayer, silence and solitude that help us remain open to the voice and power of the Spirit.