The work that we have been doing over the past 6-12 months is coming together in a more tangible form. We have been gathering to explore what it would look like for a community of people seeking to live in the way of Jesus to make some vows to further their commitment in this direction. I’ve written a little about this journey here, here, and here.

The meeting this weekend marks a milestone for us. We feel like we’ve come to a place where we can put a little more structure around operationalizing the vows we are taking. We’re calling the group Seven. Here is a little history on the name.

A NAME: SEVEN

For a while we were calling what we were doing “common life” and some of us have spent hours brainstorming different names and approaches to a name for the community of people who are exploring vows together. We looked over the six vows and realized that the intent of all of them is to LOVE—God and people. If we added love, that would make seven vows. There were seven days of creation and there are seven days in a week and we seek to live the way of Jesus seven days a week through the seven vows we make. (As an added curiosity, many of us live in or near a principle city that is 7 by 7 square miles.)

We decided that it might be better to use a name that requires some explanation, because a lot of our attempts at a name that fully explained things was cumbersome or had the wrong connotations. So we are proposing SEVEN as a name to describe the activities and gatherings of our community.

And here are the vows:

Service:

1. We account for and leverage our time to serve others through evaluating our commitments and developing a written schedule we share with one another that reflects our most important priorities.
2. We give priority in our schedules to seeking the presence of God with orphans and widows and people who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, lonely or in prison.
3. We seek to do work that provides income and fulfills our true vocation with dignity and in ways that promote equality, sustainability and justice.

Simplicity

1. We keep careful account of our personal finances and live budget that reflects sustainability and intentional conscientious priorities, and we share our income and expense budgets with one another in a yearly members meeting.
2. We give away 10% of our income; (5% to the common work of Seven Society and 5% to the charities of our choice).

3. We seek to live lives that are focused, content, sustainable, and generous. As a general principle we are mindful not accumulate possessions and, once a year, (on the day after thanksgiving) we collectively take an inventory of our belongings and evaluate what to keep, share, sell or give away.

   Creativity

4. We cultivate divine imagination by reading the scriptures daily with our family or household.

5. We seek to find God in all of creation and our humanity through intentional and reflective interactions with nature and cultural artifacts.
6. We create cultural artifacts (recipes, poems, paintings, songs, stories, etc) and share them with each other once a month leaving a trail for others to discover and learn from. (The fourth Sunday evening of each month)

Prayer

1. We begin and end the day with 15 minutes of prayer.
2. We take an annual three-day silent retreat.
3. We participate in cooperative morning-prayer the second and fourth Fridays of every month.

Community

1. We are active in a Jesus dojo cohort excercises.
2. We participate regularly in Sunday night SEVEN gatherings.
3. We practice hospitality on a weekly basis (Thursdays suggested) with neighbors, coworkers, travelers and strangers on a weekly basis.

Obedience

1. We keep our vows.
2. We meet with a trusted mentor at least once a month to talk about personal growth. (either someone within SEVEN or another local person.)
3. We seek community discernment on major life decisions (change of vocation, marriage, relocation, personal crisis, etc) through a listening meeting (scheduled for the 4th Sunday of the month).

Love

1. We seek to meet one another’s needs.
2. We seek to be reconciled one with another and with all people.
3. We seek unity, cooperation and goodwill with all groups and people locally and globally seeking God in the way of Jesus.

Update 9/11/2006: I updated Simplicity and Community slightly to reflect the updates from the Saturday night meeting.