The Missional Order and The Abbess

Last October, as I drove up to Seabeck with Brad and Rick, I had no idea what to expect. Neither did they … and neither did anyone else, as we all soon discovered! This did not bother me at all, this ambiguous tension. I had been waiting almost two years for God to reveal the next steps in the plan for implementing the vision he placed in my heart. All I knew was that I was supposed to come.

I knew nothing of “orders” or “rules” – being a low-church minister – but the story I learned about the Northumbria community resonated strongly in my heart. I have been unable to find two better words for what I seek in a community than their words: availability and vulnerability.

And the “The Daily Office” was just as new … and I was pleasantly surprised by the way Northumbria presented their version of this discipline. One of these days I will get it in a book … because I just cannot have my computer available to me at all times and in all places. I’m wondering whether I can get a Kindle and download all my stuff. Hmmm….

In the wake of this gathering, my little coracle has been bouncing about on a journey that could only be guided by the currents of God – reading and pondering and writing … and blogging. One of the most unexpected results of the Seabeck gathering was the birth of my blog: The Virtual Abbess. In it and through it I have learned many things and have begun to share the vision for CovenantClusters – which I recognized immediately as a mix of a missional order and a discipleship training center. Interesting that God should show me a vision two years before explaining the ancient components.

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…this is how I began to respond to Len’s post: The Birth of a Missional Order: From Seabeck Forward. But in the days since I began, my mind has been flooded with, well, stuff. Sigh … I can’t even elaborate on what the stuff is … yet … but we are just 9 days and counting until school is out for our three boys – when I’ll have NO free moments for thinking and blogging!

So let me just put up a small R2A2 notice for what follows:

Back in January of 2006, I believe the Lord gave me a vision for what he would like me to do to help in the Kingdom. As outrageous as it was, I have had that vision confirmed repeatedly. But I have also spent the majority of my time reading books and blogs that give me vocabulary to describe the various components of the vision. And I am looking to find some time to get away and let all the loose ends weave together. But more loose ends keep popping up, it seems, so that I feel a bit overwhelmed.

What I find remarkable, however, is that more than overwhelmed, what I’m feeling is that the Holy Spirit is at work moving across the Kingdom planting seeds in the hearts of those willing to get down and work in the dirt. And the seeds that are being planted are, well, different – depending on where “the dirt” is … if that makes any sense.

This means that the dirt where AbiSomeone is will receive a seed that needs this particular pH and organic composition and climate to grow like a native plant. It also means that I should not look for anyone else’s seed to be just like mine. I have to be willing for the Holy Spirit to make this seed grow in my heart and let it take root in my home so that it can spread to my neighborhood.

So, I cannot focus on all the books and blogs and terms and schemes floating out there. I can be (and am!) grateful for their action as “mulch” – knowing that their essential components will break down and serve as nutrients for the little seed growing here. (And what a great bibliography section I will now have!) But I no longer feel compelled to try to recreate anyone else’s story … because then it is no longer a story I can tell with any authenticity or authority.

This realization is a big deal … to me. And it has come to the surface as a result of the past few months of being involved with a missional learning community facilitated by fellow-Seabecker Rob Robinson. This group is a place where my husband and I have been able to “be” with others who are “adrift” in the ocean of the Body of Christ in our little coracles … but no longer shackled to the “mother ships” of the “institutional church” (IC). We come from many different backgrounds, but we have been a good example of what the Allelon folks refer to as “listening one another into free speech.”

And so I will begin to focus again on defining CovenantClusters and looking for how the Spirit will begin to make it grow and begin to take shape. And I will be aided by understanding things about “missional” and “orders” and “mDNA” and “APEST” and “rule of life” and “daily office” and look forward to how God will weave them all together – or should I rather say “graft” them in? – to what I know about cHesed and covenant and clusters of Christ-followers.

With a vision as grand as CovenantClusters, it is easy to get overwhelmed with the details. So I’m going to continue a step at a time, a day at a time. And today I’m going to remember to keep these things as the main focus for my journey:

• The New Covenant I have joined in Christ Jesus calls for me to recognize my responsibility to be faithful partners with those brothers and sisters around me – so that we will be a blessing to our neighborhood – in however many ways that manifests itself.
• cHesed is a term that describes faithful covenant keeping and it is most fully translated as a concept around this cluster of New Testament terms: love, grace, mercy, submit, serve, lead. Please take a look at my chart to get a grasp of the breadth and depth of this concept.
• Covenant and cHesed are deeply relational concepts – CovenantClusters will, therefore, be a deeply relational branch on the Vine. The sense of commitment (to God and each other) will be huge (I hesitate using words like “total” because of the “cult” fears that they engender). This will be where the monastic flavors will emerge (very small pun intended) and will manifest themselves in a “rule of life” as well as a “rhythm of life”.

I believe and trust that the Holy Spirit will be faithful to continue to guide my steps along this path. It is comforting to know that there are many on the path ahead of me, blazing trail. Certainly, I look forward to Allelon and CovenantClusters continuing to journey together.

Be blessed....

Sin: A Reflection

Jonathan has an interesting reflection on sin as missing out on life today (please do go over and read it, or my response won't make at much sense) ... and it prompted this reflection from The Abbess:

Jonathan,

I would suggest that you have just understood what "missing the mark" truly means (after all, it does come from an archery term ;) ) -- because God is at the center of the "target" and the "arrow" is our lives and when we "shoot", we are releasing and "spending" our life.

The point about "sin" is that it is the "call from the ref" that our aim is not spot on, as it were ... and the point about Jesus coming is to give us help -- both in recognizing the "target" (being like Christ) and in our "aim" (by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit -- our "coach" as it were).

We are, each day and in each opportunity to live like Christ in all our encounters and relations, somewhat like an archer with "living arrows" -- and it is up to us to allow the Holy Spirit to help us "spend" our arrows by training us to identify on the proper target, strengthen our "arms" to the task, focus by shutting out the distractions of the "world", and waiting for just the right time to "let 'er fly."

...thanks for prompting this reflection. I may have to post this at "home."

...worth pondering some more, I'm sure, but it is a very cHesed concept and one in which I am hoping you'll want to join me!

Blessings!

Abi's Favorite Book of the Bible (...a Meme)

Wow ... these meme things are starting to take up lots of time ... ;^) But this one was much easier, kinda. I saw that Brother Maynard started this particular meme ... and saw that he tagged, among others, Kingdom Grace ... who tagged me.

Like Grace, I love the Old Testament ... but in the New Testament, I love I John. And apart from having had a good portion of it read at my wedding, here's the reason why....

Back in 2003, when the 40 Days of Purpose thing was taking off, our church decided to jump on the bandwagon. Not being a Calvinistic church -- and being the pastor responsible for teaching our series of church doctrine classes -- I wasn't up for doing it the normal way (...not that anyone here will be surprised by that :^) ), and proposed to our senior pastor that I write up a 40 day series based on the classes I had written and been teaching for the past three years. He was persuaded by my proposal ... and then I realized what I'd gotten myself into! I had three months to write, format and publish both a 40 days notebook to use instead of Warren's book as well as a simple adult Sunday School and an adult small group curriculum. I knew that God had his hand all over it because it was both finished (just in time) and exceeded everyone's expectations (except for the closet Calvinists, of course ... they were very unhappy campers).

One of the things I wanted to do differently from Warren's book was to have more continuity with the scripture references ... and as I began to think of which texts fit with each week's theme, well, it kept turning out to be from I John! So during our 40 day experience, we worked our way through the entire book. It was wonderful. The small group focus looked like this:

1. Week One: Understanding Why We're Here from I John 1:1-2:11
2. Week Two: Understanding Worship from I John 2:12-17
3. Week Three: Understanding Fellowship from I John 2:18-3-10
4. Week Four: Understanding Discipleship from I John 3:11-4:6
5. Week Five: Understanding Service from I John 4:7-21
6. Week Six: Understanding Evangelism from I John 5

Anyway ... that was such an awesome time in that awesome book. Thanks, Brother Maynard and Grace, for giving me a chance to reflect back ... and I can't believe it has been five years!!!

So there you have it!

Who to tag? How about these four....

Cynthia

Janet

Michael

Rick

... okay, no more memes for me for a while!

Grateful that Papa is shown in I John to be light, love and life.

Top Ten Meme, Part II

Wow. What a small world moment I just experienced! As I was tracking back to the origination of this meme to Dan's blog, I took a look around and in his blogroll, I found an old friend of mine: Don Sewell. Oh. My. Goodness!

When I looked at his profile, he mentions movies as one of his favorite things ... so I tagged him for the third person. I bet he has just as hard a time picking just 10 favorites as I did....

I try to play by the rules every now and then! ;^)

Top Ten Meme....

So, Lori was tagged by Sonja with this meme, and now she has tagged me. I haven't even gotten around to filling out all this kind of stuff in my profile ... and I just can't do this in a normal manner, you know ;^) so I'm going to change the deal for my part, but this is the real story of how it goes:

1. Your top ten movies, (in no particular order).

2. If tagged, write a post and tag 3-5 other people.

3. Tag back, (shout out link), to the one who tagged you.

4. Give a hat tip (HT) to Dan.

When asked for my five favorite books, I had to list my top three in my five favorite genre ... so that seemed appropriate for this exercise. Let's see ... here's the top several in my eight favorite genre -- I seem to be especially fond of many different movies! ;^)

Drama

1. The Lord of the Rings Series (I consider them one movie together)
   
2. Last of the Mohicans (first pre-date with hubby)/Last of the Dogmen/Dances With Wolves
   
3. The Last Samurai (interesting cultural follow on to Clavell's "Shogun" -- I read the book and have the mini-series from 1980)
   

Musicals

1. The Slipper and the Rose (had the best time watching it in Thai!)
2. My Fair Lady (...come on, Dover.... I also saw it in the theater with Richard Chamberlain as Higgins)
3. The Sound of Music (went to sleep to the soundtrack every night in 4th grade)
   

Comedy

1. The Princess Bride (...anybody want a peanut?)
2. Young Frankenstein
3. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
   

Sports/Animals

1. The Black Stallion movies
2. Hidalgo/Seabiscuit
3. Chariots of Fire
   

Action

1. The Indiana Jones Series (except #2) -- haven't seen the newest one yet
   
2. The "Jack Ryan" Series (with Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin)
3. The Four Feathers (with Heath Ledger in 2002, and the 1977 version, too.)
   

Romance

1. Sense and Sensibility (I first saw this with my mother and 4 sisters...)
   
2. Shakespeare In Love (...I don't know; it's a mystery)
3. The Thorn Birds (read the book and have the mini-series...the "midquel" didn't quite cut it, for me...)
   

Animated

1. Shrek (...where to start? Ohh, pick me!!! Donkey is such a hoot!)
   
2. Ice Age (...the LAST melon)
3. Cars (...love 'Mater and "cow tipping" :^) )

Inspiration

1. The Narnia Series (I will love them all because I love the books....)
2. Iron Will (love dog sled stores -- read Jack London's books: White Fang, Call of the Wild)
3. The Last Samurai (wonderful example of what obedience to a liege lord should look like...)
   

...and I will tag...

Brad/Futuristguy

and

Matt Stone

...makes me want to go watch a movie!

Reepicheep Rules!

Well, I went to see Prince Caspian yesterday (as an early birthday present to my oldest son) -- at least I got to see it on opening weekend, even if I didn't make it on opening day!

As I have mentioned to others, I am sure that I will enjoy it the second time much more because I will have gotten over how it departs from the book -- and it does, of course. Because there are some absolutely beautiful moments.

One of my favorite creatures is the King of the Talking Mice -- Reepicheep. We meet him in the second book published, Prince Caspian, where we find out that he and his followers descended from those mice who were transformed into Talking Mice as a reward for chewing through the ropes that bound Aslan to the Stone Table in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The Mouse King and his followers weigh in fairly early in the story -- before we "see" any of them -- in a hilarious way (which folks won't "get" until later, since it's not a scene directly from the book ... but it a wonderful glimpse into their valiant contribution to Narnian battle strategy).

I have always loved Reepicheep ... and they could not have captured him better than they did. Bravo, indeed! Now I just cannot wait until The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which begins shooting in the fall, since Reepicheep in one of the central characters in that story.

Not going to ruin it for those who haven't seen it yet ... just remembering fondly and looking forward to seeing it perhaps one more time ... and then awaiting the DVD around Christmas time.

Abi's view of the wrath of God

Scot McK is starting a new series on the Wrath of God over at Jesus Creed. There's an interesting discussion going on over there -- I encourage you to check it out. Scot begins his post with this comment as a preface to his fairly long list of questions:

There are some today who’d like to burn a wrath path through the Christian Church — those who believe in it can move to the right and those who don’t can move to the left as the path winds and wends its way. The question I want to ask in this series is multi-faceted and includes at least these sorts of questions:

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You need to read the rest of his post and work your way through the comments. This is what I had to say about it at comment #21. Your comments, as always, are welcome. :^)

As I have said many times since entering [paid] pastoral ministry seven years ago, it has been a tremendous advantage to me that I should embark on this ministry at both an older age and bearing children at this same time. So much of what I understood about God as Father has jumped out to me in this time that I just didn’t notice earlier — because I wasn’t living the circumstances.

Just the other day (okay, just about EVERY day), I had some discussion with one of my three boys (ages 13, 9 & 7) about proper behavior and consequences for poor choices. Most of those discussions dive quickly into accusations of “You’re not being fair” or “You should have warned me before” or “Why are you always being so bossy to me” or “If you really loved me you would give me what I want” or “You don’t love me” and, on a really challenging day, “You hate me … so I hate you back”

Sigh….

But I have recently come to a significant insight: when I react [try to counter their assertions] to their comments, it just adds heat to the fire. But when I respond [pleasantly but firmly] with a reassurance of my love and my sorrow at their choices, the heat goes out of the fire.

I have begun to wonder whether this is why God is so silent concerning many of our questions. He has told us over and over what is right — and behavior that is against good conscience speaks its own judgment. God, rather than answering each of our “whines” just reaffirms his love for us and his sorrow over our poor choices. And then he goes forward with the process of restoration.

This, then, represents my understanding of God’s ways under the Old Covenant — that time when the terms and conditions of the covenant were more “physical” … just as the raising of young children are more physical and concrete.

With the New Covenant, however, God seemed to call humanity to adulthood. To move past the focus on “law” and it’s concrete and physical consequences and get to the heart of “love” that spreads grace abroad in the spiritual as well as physical — transcending the physical, even, when it shows us how to delay gratification for the serving of the best interest of another … even if that means death.

Through Jesus we are able to see the Father who loves and teaches and forgives and waits and reconciles … and it helps us look back to the Old Testament and see much more of that same Father who loves and teaches and forgives and waits and reconciles. It just looks harsher from the childish view of selfishness and rebellion than it does from the childlike view of faith and love. [Emphasis has been added here for my post.]

I’m fairly certain that someone looking in on our home with no context in the midst of a meltdown could come away wondering why those parents are so mean … but I would want them to hang around long enough for the childish rant to fade and the childlike love to reemerge and see the scene when I sent them out the door for school and hear their cheery “Love you, Mom. Have a good day”

We really need to keep the bigger picture in mind.

…thanks for letting me ramble on … I’ll stay tuned to this series with interest — especially in light of the “hell” thread over with RJS’ series.

Comment by Peggy — May 19, 2008 @ 11:13 am

Remembering that Papa is especially fond of all his Eikons