I borrowed this from Tom and Christine Sine's latest Mustard Seed Sampler-e-newsletter.  How true it is....let's re-imagine that, huh?

We’ll start with Godspace. I actually wasn’t as behind on her blog because she hasn’t been writing much lately due to being involved in a new change of direction that the Mustard Seed Association is taking. She talks about it in this blog called Quaker Discernment. I found the blog very interesting – I like the idea of decisions being made in community, but it does sound messy to me and I think I would find it very difficult in practice. But, I think that if you are going to say that you value community and people and that you believe that God can speak to anyone and through anyone then it is important to show that through your actions and not just talk about it.  It’s an interesting blog and I encourage you to check it out. Another blog that I found interesting on Christine’s site today was this one talking about how the FDA has approved cloned meat as being safe to eat. I personally found this interesting partly because I have very little faith in the FDA and if they say something is ok then I’m likely to think they are wrong (they have made a lot of mistakes before). I also find this interesting because I have a chemical sensitivity and am allergic/sensitive to a number of different foods. I struggle enough with my health and with finding healthy safe foods for me to eat – I don’t need another thing to worry about when buying food or eating out at restaurants.

Another blog that I found really interesting also related to leadership and decision making in the church but in a more specific and detail oriented way then Christine Sine’s blog. It was this blog entry by Kingdom Grace called The Missing APEs.The blog is a discussion of this article  in Leadership Journal written by Alan Hirsch. I found Grace’s comments on the article and the story she shared of her own experience to be very interesting and enlightening. I found both Alan Hirsch’s original article and Kingdom Grace’s blog about it very helpful and challenging and they gave me new language to think of leadership in and I always like when people can give me words for expressing my thoughts and experiences.

In reading through Kathy Escobar’s blog, The carnival in my head, I came across this blog. The prayer in it really resonated with me.

Ok, that’s it for now. Enjoy!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

Read full article at The Other Journal

My husband Tom and I live in a small intentional community in Seattle, Washington called the Mustard Seed House. We inhabit the middle floor of a triplex with a young family in the apartment above us and a young couple in the basement apartment below us. We get together at least once a week for dinner and sharing and once more for prayer, and we garden together once a month. We are keen on hospitality and have fun hosting people from around the world.

Recently we received a visit from Noemie, a young French woman researching sustainable community living in North America. She has already stayed with a cohousing community in Washington DC, an old order Amish community in Pennsylvania, and an income sharing commune in the woods of Virginia. She also met with Catholic workers and young Christians from the New Monasticism movement living in an intentional community.

Noemie did not grow up with a Christian background, but since her time in DC where she had opportunity to speak at length on how to live out the Gospel, she has become intrigued by the linkage between community and Christian living. Her recent experiences have convinced her that the only way to live out Christian faith authentically is in community with others.

I agree with Noemie. The pressures of our individualistic, consumer driven culture make many of us who call ourselves followers of Christ, functionally live as atheists. We may pray for a few minutes before we head off to work each morning and go to church on Sunday, but our faith has little impact on how we live the rest of the time. Our daily routines are increasingly not just disconnected from God’s rhythms and purposes, but in competition with them.

For us, as for our secular neighbors, “Normal is getting dressed in clothes you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it.”

Read full article at The Other Journal

Boy oh boy. I recently got The New Conspirators from IVP's new Likewise imprint--this is like their New Friars, but even more comprehensive. It's a who's-who of todays New Monastic, 24/7 prayer, and other communal movements.

Some reviews/excerpts:

Emergent Village

Open Source Theology is doing a multi-part interview/review.
Part Zero
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

I'm looking forward to reading this, hopefully with other dreamers, practitioners, and rabble-rousers. Three cheers for Tom and Christine Sine, and their continuing work!

Related: Who's going to the PAPA Festival this summer?

"One of the greatest challenges we always face as we start to plan a conference is how to convey the kingdom values that are central to who we are at Mustard Seed Associates. I teach a class on urban ministry and cross-cultural adaptation, and one of the questions I like to ask is: 'What will the culture of the kingdom of God look like?' Most of us have no idea. I believe that God's love and compassion, justice for the poor, concern for those at the margins, freedom from oppression and good stewardship of God's creation will be at the center of God's kingdom. Many people will probably get a shock when they enter the kingdom because it will be a real cross-cultural experience for them.

"It is the vision of this 'shalom kingdom' that is at the center of all we are and do at Mustard Seed Associates, in which God's eternal family from every tribe and nation--rich and poor, young and old--live together in the midst of a restored creation in harmony, mutual care and peace, not just with God but will all who are part of God's international community."

Read more about how we hope to practice our values at the conference here.

• Shane Claiborne, The Irresistable Revolution: Living As an Ordinary Radical (Zondervan, 2006).
• Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw and friends, Jesus For President: Politics For Ordinary Radicals (Zondervan, 2008).
• Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson, The Hip Hop Church (Intervarsity, 2006).
• Mike Riddell, Mark Pierson and Cathy Kirkpatrick, The Prodigal Project: Journey Into the Emerging Church (SPCK, 2001).
• Mark Scandrette, Soul Graffiti: Making a Life in the Way of Jesus (Jossey-Bass. 2007).
• Mark Van Steenwyk ed., The Missio Dei Breviary (Missio Dei, 2007).
• Lon Fendell, Jan Wood and Bruce Bishop, Practicing Discernment Together: Finding God's Way Forward in Decision Making (Barclay Press, 2007).
• Tom Sine, The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time (Intervarsity, 2008).
• Christine Sine, Godspace: Time For Peace in the Rhythms of Life (Barclay Press, 2006).
• Christine and Tom Sine, Living On Purpose: Finding God's Best For Your Life (Baker Books, 2002).
• David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis (Zondervan, 2008).

Blogs

• Submergence, http://submerge.typepad.com
• Mustard Seed House, http://mustardseedhouse.wordpress.com
• Kingdom Praxis, http://eliacin.wordpress.com
• Emerging Women, http://emergingwomen.blogspot.com
• One Hand Clapping, http://julieclawson.com
• Beauty and Depravity, http://eugenecho.wordpress.com
• Godspace, http://godspace.wordpress.com
• Mustard Seed Journey, http://mustardseedjourney.wordpress.com

Websites

• The Simple Way, thesimpleway.org
• Sanctuary Covenant Church, sanctuarycovenant.org
• Church of the Apostles, apostleschurch.org
• Fremont Abbey, fremontabbey.org
• Life Covenant Church, life-covenant.org
• La Red del Camino para la Mision Integral en America Latina, lareddelcamino.net
• World Vision, worldvision.org
• Emergent Village, emergentvillage.com
• Mars Hill Graduate School, mhgs.edu
• Trinity Lutheran Church, Lynnwood, WA, trinitylutheranchurch.com
• Reimagine, reimagine.org
• Missio Dei, missio-dei.com
• Jesus Manifesto, jesusmanifesto.com
• Northwest Cooperative Development Center, nwcdc.coop
• Quest Church, Seattle, WA, seattlequest.org
• Q Cafe, qcafe.org
• Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends, nwfriends.org
• Regent College, regent-college.edu
• Mustard Seed Associates, msainfo.org
• Seattle Mennonite Church, seattle.wa.us.mennonite.net

Articles

• Erik Lacitis, "Homelessness up in yearly count," Seattle Times (Jan. 26, 2008), accessed January 30, 2008, here.

Monks, Community & Rule of Life « Godspace

Yesterday the Boston Globe printed a great article The Unexpected Monks, on the move towards monasticism by many evangelicals. It is something that resonates very deeply with me personally as well as with all of us at MSA. In fact we are in the process of reimagining MSA as a network of communities with a common rule of life. We believe that God calls all of us to embody an incarnational faith in all aspects of our lives but we all need spiritual disciplines that enable us to live that out.

After the New Conspirators conference we plan to spend a extended time fleshing out what our rule of life should look like. Below is an outline I wrote for our Board meeting last Saturday that outlines some of our reasoning on Why Community? Even though we have been working on this for years we feel we are still very much in the early stages and would appreciate your prayers and comments as we move forward. Tomorrow I will post some thoughts on Why a Rule of Life? Lent - the season for reflection and self examination seems a good time to grapple with these issues.

Read more...

Posted below is the downloadable Lenten guide entitled "A Journey Into Wholeness." Christine had hoped to update it for this year, but with conference planning, she has not had the time. It is still poignant and challenging, so please feel free to use it to get the most out of this important season of Lent.

[slideshare id=232100&doc=a-journey-into-wholeness-1200606044377325-3&w=425]

"I was introduced to monastic rules of life in rather an unusual way. I love mystery stories, and was delighted when, about 15 years ago, I discovered a series of novels set in the 12th century in an abbey at Shrewsbury on the Welsh-English border. Brother Cadfael, a "squat, barrel-chested, bandy-legged veteran of fifty-seven," first swept into my life in A Morbid Taste for Bone, journeying into Wales to bring back the bones of Saint Winifred as patron saint for the Abbey."

Continue reading Christine's reflection on the importance of monastic rules here.

Annunciation, He Qi

"For most Western Christians, Advent, which begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, is the beginning of the church calendar. We begin our year not in frantic activity and busy work, but in quiet reflection and expectancy. This is the season when we anticipate the birth of the one who brings life and meaning to all we are and do. We do not just remember his coming to us as a baby, we also anticipate his coming as a Savior to any who will receive him, and await in breathless expectation his coming again at the end of time, when his kingdom will be revealed in all its fullness and God will restore creation and make all things new."

Read the whole article here.

God who is community come to us this night.

Embrace us in your love,

Unite us with your spirit,

Make us one in you.

(silence)

God of all creation you come to us in community,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Perfect relationship, perfect community

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, you come

The three in one, the one in three

You offer us community

That together we might grow spiritually

And become mature in Jesus Christ

We need your community

To keep us accountable to your call

For we are called to serve one another

We need your community

To equip and develop your Holy Spirit gifts

So that we can build one another up

We need your community

For prayer and encouragement

For fellowship and festivity, for worship of you

We need your community

To witness to your all-inclusive love

For only in community are we made whole

One people together, family of the living God

Click here to read the whole liturgy.

What on earth is God doing?

Mustard Seed Associates Conference

February 28, 29 & March 1, 2008

Stay tuned for more info.

Save the date.