Day 12-Life in the Spirit: Heeding the Spirit’s Prompting
Friday, July 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized
There is far too much to write about today. We explored the question: “What is the Spirit saying to the Church? We had an amazing plenary session this morning with Dr. Heath in which she posed that question and then talked about how some communities are heeding the Spirit’s prompting through the New Monasticism. To understand more about what New Monasticism is, visit www.newmonasticism.org The new monastics are communities of people committed to a new way of living in community that challenges us to think more deeply about how we might truly connect with one another, really know our neighbors, fully embrace those who suffer and journey together. She talked about how we often “shop around” for churches that meet OUR needs (the kind of worship we like, studies that are interesting, a place to drop off the kids, etc), rather than a church that will help us invest in broken people and and answer the call to community. She showed examples of various communities that are practicing new monasticism.
We had another special guest this afternoon. Bishop Huie arrived in time to visit us in the Arts Village and then joined us for dinner. After dinner, we had a conversation with her about our experience here and about calling and other things. It was amazing to hear the kids describe what they have learned this week. We could see the Holy Spirit working as the kids described lessons learned that we not intentionally taught by anyone. They were just lessons learned by being together in community. The Bishop also fielded questions from the students. I wish we had recorded their questions and her answers, but the one that sticks out is the student that asked “If you could give one piece of advice to us for ministry, what would it be?” the Bishop’s response was “Be courageous. Step toward the courage.”
We moved from there into a time of contemplative worship. Rev. Ben Trammell preached for us on heeding the Spirit, reminding us that Christianity is not about “if you die tomorrow, where are you going to go” but rather, “if you wake up tomorrow, how are you going to live?” We then had stations for prayer, with beautiful art that the students who planned the service created.
It’s hard to believe we are drawing close to the end of our time. Be praying for us as we prepare to go back home!
