Take the Monastery with You: Apostolic Monasticism for a Hurried and Scattered World.
What does ministry within an apostolic and monastic framework look like?
Monastic: secluded, contemplative
Apostolic: sent out, creates discipleship ethos
I’m somewhat of a contemplative, or maybe, I just am. I tend to be wary of concrete statements about my identity when it comes to things other than being an apprentice to Jesus. But, I spend a lot of time contemplating things in prayer and study; more often than not in solitude.
At the same time, while valuing my solitude, I am highly mission minded. Meaning I want to reach out into the world with the teachings of Jesus - I believe we are sent (Matthew 28).
These two ideas: contemplative, or monastic, and missional, or apostolic - seem diametrically opposed to one another, but are they really?
That’s what I’m trying to solve at the present moment, especially in regards to our ministry here at Oikos Ideas, and particularly with A School of Being and Doing.
A School of Being and Doing is setting out to create a space to intentionally take you out of the hurried and scattered world you find yourself in and give you extended moments of deep spiritual formation in the way of Jesus. To me this sounds very monastic - secluding yourself to grow spiritually.
But, I believe that what is birthed in these formational moments is truly what fulfills the mission of God, to make disciples of all nations.
Your practice of prayer is counter-cultural. In the words of Karl Barth it’s “the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”
We like to see mission as preaching on a street corner, or flying to a third world country, but I think the most missional thing we can do is intercede on behalf of our friends, city, and world.
I’m not sure where I remember hearing this, but someone once said, “If you want to see revival, spend 8 hours a day on your knees, at the foot of your bed, pleading with God to do it again.” And to be honest, that’s the action of almost every great movement and revival in church history - an individual or group of people consecrating themselves to the practice of intercession on behalf of putting the world to rights.
Seems pretty apostolic and monastic to me.
I think of the Moravian church and their 100-year, 24/7 prayer movement and how much mission was birthed out of that monastic practice in their meetinghouses.
Our doing is birthed out of our being. And our “being” is the act of being with Jesus and becoming like Jesus.
The quote that follows me around on every device and desk I have, comes from Eugene Peterson:
“Prayer is a disciplined refusal to act before God acts.”
What I want A School of Being + Doing to be is “a disciplined refusal to act before God acts”. That before you set out to make disciples and put the world to rights, you get a framework for who Jesus is and who He has made you to be.
A moment to teach you to take the monastery with you everywhere you go.
Ronald Rolheiser has a fantastic book called “Domestic Monastery” that compares the life of a mother to that of a monk. He asserts that a monastery is “a place set apart - a place where those living there learn and focus on how their powerlessness brings blessings.”
In the book he tells the story of a man who spent a period of his life as a monk and then returned home. Upon returning home this is what the man said of his mother, “He felt that his mother, who spent nearly thirty years raising children, was much more contemplative than he was, and less selfish.”
In a monastery the monks learn that they don’t own time and they follow the ringing of bells, that signal them to stop what they are doing and go on to the next task. Much like a mother must do when her toddler cries and she has been doing the dishes.
This can be jarring for some that haven’t experienced the bells or the cries of a toddler, but you probably have moments in your days that are very similar. I think the purpose of these bells is to hone our abiding with Jesus.
The monastic life has a saying, “Go to your cell, and your cell will teach you everything you need to know. Every time you leave your cell you come back less a person.”
Rohlheiser expounds on these values this way, “There’s rich spirituality in these principles: stay inside your commitments, be faithful, your place of work is a seminary, your work is a sacrament, your family is a monastery, your home is a sanctuary. Stay inside them, don’t betray them, learn what they are teaching you without constantly looking for life elsewhere and without constantly believing that God is elsewhere.” Jesus was saying similar things in John 15, abide in me.
The monastic life is not just for the secluded monk behind ancient stone walls, it’s for every follower of Jesus. We are living temples, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, sent into a hurried and scattered world, to bring peace and renewal.
Bring the monastery with you - that’s what Apostolic Monasticism is to me.