#newmonasticism

[myomsjourney]

A Rule of Life...

As a part of my OMS journey, one of the things I need to do this year is to write a Rule of Life. 

“A Rule of Life is a set of principles and practices we build into the rhythm of our daily lives, helping us to deepen our relationship with God and to serve Him more faithfully.”    

                                       -Pete Greig from “The Vision & The Vow (page 149)

One of the pieces of advice my sponsor gave me about this was to “take stock” of where I am spiritually, and to pray/dream into where I want to be. 

I’ll be honest. The idea of taking stock of my mess is a little scary. 

But it’s also kind of exciting. It feels like I’m about to step into something new. Something that’s going to deepen my relationship with God...and I’m ALL FOR THAT! 

In writing my rule of life, my goal is to establish some Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly rhythms in my journey with Jesus. 

Here’s a link to a book I’m using to help me along the way:

Crafting a Rule of Life by Stephen A. Macchia 

The cool thing is, the book is free through the end of January! 

Here we go...

[myomsjourney]

A Bit of an Introduction...

It’s almost the end of January and I’ve finally done it. I’ve finally made this OMS blog. My name is Poppy and I’m at the start of a year of discerning. I love to journal and I thought it would be a good idea to release my thoughts out into the world. Maybe they’ll help someone else who starts this journey someday...

Let’s backtrack a bit.What is the OMS? It’s the Order of the Mustard Seed. Click HERE to read a detailed description of what the order is all about. 

Long story short, the OMS is a religious order. Joining the order means taking three vows. 

1. To be true to Christ

2. To be kind to people

3. To take the gospel to the nations

The cool thing is that I get to walk out my year of discernment with other people. I’m a part of a cohort with three other ladies who on the same journey.

Okay...enough background. The rest of this blog will basically be my online journal as I work through this year. Get ready for some random Poppy thoughts. Who knows, I may even surprise you with the occasional meme (it’s totally gonna happen). 

[templeja-blog]

Rhythm Time

A couple of summers ago, a happy bunch of friends (of which I am one, obviously) went off on a sort of Enid Blyton meets Francis of Assisi meets Pony Club expedition one afternoon.  This was the fault of Matt. His friend was selling a property with potential to be a spot for community living.  So one sunny afternoon we went through the massive gap in the gate and had a good nose around this massive deserted house with land and stables.  We speculated what it would be like to tell stories by the fire together with our guitar, grow happy carrots, learn about God, and try not to kill our dear companions who leave their socks on the floor  / hog the remote / eat all the food / default on the bills.  The story ends with us being very sensible and deciding that we like being friends, and didn’t want to ruin it by moving in together.  

This event is, feebly, as close as I’ve got to delving into my curiosity of the last few years about applying new monasticism by living in a small group.  Sorry to those readers who switched off at that sentence.  Anyway.  Snap back from English summers to the present day, and it seems like God is about to lay a new challenge on me / us.  

Oasis South Africa uses a series of practices called the Rhythm of LIfe.  I’m just starting to learn about this, but it looks exactly like new monasticism applied at work.  There are lots of different ideas about how to apply its principles, because South Africa has been doing it several years.  It’s changed the way that organisation functions. Their structure has become completely flat.  Jobs to be done are described by what skills they require and then shared around the team accordingly; people don’t have role descriptions as such any more. Their entire planning cycle and approach is built on the Rhythm.  They meet every week in small accountability groups to look at what’s happening in them personally.  They use the Rhythm with their beneficiaries (horrible word).  They’ve evolved into a sort of movement that does NGO work, rather than simply being an NGO. 

Now it is our turn to begin applying the Rhythm.  Building up the devotional culture at Oasis is something we have a big passion about. It seems the Rhythm is going to help us do this in ways we can’t even imagine yet.  Also God is giving me a chance to experience for myself those new monastic ideas in a community group.  Given my interest over the past few years, this feels like unexpectedly receiving a brilliant present to unwrap.  It feels integral to why God has put us here at this time.  Our first step will be a week of prayer at the end of November, something we planned to do anyway with the team as a celebration of arriving here. I look forward to boring / enthralling (delete as appropriate) you more with this journey!