Category Archives: new monastacism

New Monastacism and NLF

On June 1st I introduced a Rule of Life to our memberhip at NLF at our annual meeting. It was the culmination of over four years of pondering, struggle, and prayer about how to best lead in such a way that Christ be formed in our people. Click on the icon “rule of life” at the NLF website (www.newlifefellowship.org) and listen to my 18 minute introduction to the Rule as well as the Rule itself (it has 16 points). You can download a brief commentary on it as well. I distributed also a laminated card with the Rule and invited our church to begin piloting it this year. I am not sure all that God intends with it, and how this will all work out as a large missional church in NYC committed to evangelism. I just am sure that we are to move in this direction as a local church. It is intentional, focused, clear and a strong. Read more.

Finding Rhythms in an Interrupted Life

I am convinced living rhythmically is one of our gifts to our 24/7 world and a key to walking with God. Yet my life, like most, is full of interruptions. I love and affirm Wayne Mueller’s words in his book on Sabbath and our need for rhythms: To surrender to the rhythms of seasons and flowerings and dormancies is to savor the secret of life itself. Many scientists believe we are “hard-wired” like this, to live in rhythmic awareness, to be in and then step out, to be engrossed and then detached, to work and then to rest. It follows then that the commandment to remember the Sabbath is not a burdensome requirement from some law-giving deity — but rather a remembrance of a law that is firmly embedded in the fabric of nature. It is a reminder of how things really are, the rhythmic dance to which we unavoidably belong. Yet last week I experienced a classic challenge of having. Read more.

Begin the Journey with the Daily Office

I am in the process of finishing a Daily Office book that I have been working on since last Fall. It is going to the printer within 2 weeks and I recently made a change in one of the Offices (there are two per day, five days a week for eight weeks and are based on the themes from the workbook/book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality). One final change I made was to replace a devotional from one of the Offices to the one from Leighton’s Ford excellent new book that was recently published: The Attentive Life: Discerning God’s Presence in All Things (IVP, 2008). The book is filled with insights and learnings from his 76 years as a follower of Christ. I highly recommend it. He has been a personal mentor of mine for over 25 years. Geri, in fact, is with him now in North Carolina for 4 days on a spiritual mentoring retreat.. Read more.

The Future Runs Through the Past: Learning from History 2

The greatest richness and learning that comes out of us learning church history, especially early church history, is the perspective it gives us on the North American church. This leads me to the next few lessons. The first relates to the state of the church today in light of history. One twenty two year old in our church put it well: “I had no idea how weak we as the church in America are until I heard/saw all this.” This came out of listening to the purifying effect of the persecutions up to 311 ad where Christians experienced 129 years of persecution and only 120 years of relative peace. This eliminated any notion of half-way, nominal Christians rather quickly. Christianity is an Asian religion with rich African roots, not Western. They continually moved Eastward in their mission. Who knew there were three “Christian kingdoms” in Asia before the Roman Empire. One seminary alone, in. Read more.

The Future Runs Through the Past: Lessons from History 1

One of the great challenges for leadership, and the church in any generation, is to see itself as clearly as possible within the large scheme of history so as to not limit or distort the gospel to a cultural, ethnic, or nationalistic agenda. How do I be a Christian in the 21st century West dominated by pleasure, comfort, money, secularism, upward mobility and in a conflict with Islam that looks like it will go on well-beyond our generation? How do we be the church when nominal Christianity is the norm ? Last week my good seminary friend, Scott Sunquist, came and taught a church history course at New Life on Friday night and all day Saturday. For twenty plus years, I have longed to partner with someone like Scott. He is a PHD from Princeton Theological Seminary, a former IVCF staff worker and now a professor at Pittsburg Theological Seminary. He has been studying and writing on. Read more.

Rule of Life Process- New Life

I am in the middle of working on a draft of a rule of life for our membership and annual meeting on June 1st. Over the past year we have developed a “Rule” for our elders and pastoral staff which is quite extensive. However, I have been pondering what a devotional yet focused Rule might look like for New Life, one that would drive people to seek Christ above all else and articulate our unique calling as a local family. It should be interesting! Right now I have about 15 points that I believe get at the unique charism of who we are and am about to begin getting feedback from others. Here is a small portion for your perusal. Remember the nature of a Rule: The purpose of this rule is to keep us faithful to our unique “charism” and unite around it. It affirms who we are.This rule serves as. Read more.

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