The New Monasticism (kind of off topic but not really)

After the kids made it safely to school I immediately headed out of town and straight up to my husband's hotel room in the Cities where we immediately began a fascinating conversation about Spiritual formation and the New Monastic Communities movement. OK, so that's not what SOME people might do in a hotel room after being a part for a week, but there are certainly a large percentage of people who take advantage of quiet hotel rooms for the purpose of discussing these kinds of concepts. Smile.

it was actually a very amazing thing. And let me tell you why. For those of you who haven't read the book, you may not know how our relationship has transpired -- how we got together, etc.

In 1982 Bart came to the college I was attending as a freshman. I was already a sophomore (sophisticated moron?) who knew my way around. We were certainly not enemies for the next three years ago, I had quite a bit of respect for him and he tolerated me, though found me to be way too intense and outspoken and unrefined. I graduated in 85, he graduated a year later, and we kept in touch over the next several years.

In late September of 1992, when I was getting ready to leave for Mexico for a 2 year stint as an educational consultant at a Bible College, we found ourselves working on a convention together. We ended up splitting away from the other guys on the Executive Steering Committee and spent time catching up in my hotel room. The subject came up as to why neither of us had married (we were both approaching 30).

The conclusion we arrived at was that we wanted to do such risky and edgy things that we weren't sure we would find someone game for the lifestyle we were envisioning. ONe huge component of that was foster care. But another component was our desire to live a place where there were marginalized people and minister authentically among them. LIke maybe a place like Harlem. Or Africa. Or ... who knew? But that understanding even then that the "church" cannot expect to reach people from inside it's walls... that it has to happen in the context of authentic community where people touch people in very real and deep ways. This conversation was the springboard for a unique dating relationship that culminated in our marriage in 96.

Well, the foster care piece has come to fruition as you know. Twelve kids and a myriad of experiences later we have been-there-done-that with many many things that are part of that journey. And this past summer, as more of our children enter adulthood, we have been asking ourselves what we will do when they are all adults...

Bart was away at a spiritual retreat center last week and came back with great enthusiasm for someday (not any time soon for those of you who might read this and go to our church and start freaking out) exploring the idea of living in or creating a "New Monastic Community." In case you aren't a link clinker, Monastic communities involve people who see a particular need and then intentionally work together, sometimes living together, in order to meet that need.

I was a little puzzled for a bit as Bart talked and I attempted to understand the concept, but he handed me a book that listed the 12 marks of New Monastism.

1) Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.

2) Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.

3) Hospitality to the stranger

4) Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.

5) Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.

6) Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate.

7) Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.

8) Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.

9) Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.

10) Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.

11) Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.

12) Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.

It struck with me such force as I read over what we had discussed in very raw form 18 years ago. These are the things that we had envisioned. But 18 years ago we were young. We were naive. We THOUGHT we had experienced life, but really at least I had experienced life in the "salt-shaker" of the church. The past 14 years of foster care and adoption (we actually had our first placement 14 years ago on October 7 when Tony moved in) have thrown us into society with all of it's unpleasantries. We have lived, breathed, and experienced in first person much of the pain associated with marginalized people.

And so in another hotel room, a little over 18 years since our first conversation, we were facing each other rethinking something that then we were not experientially mature enough to endeavor.

The conversation in 1992 led to our marriage in 1996. I wonder what this hotel conversation will lead to. it will be exciting to see!