“This is the Village I Have Been Telling You about”

This is an excerpt from the Afterword of Thin Places and was first published over at The House Studio.   These postures and the stories that fill them out aren’t concrete, sure-fire steps to a vibrant life as a missional community. They are simply field notes from our humble attempts at living out the mission of …

Glimpses of a New Narrative

This blog was originally posted over at The House Studio (publisher of Thin Places) a couple days ago.   We live in the downtown neighborhood of Golden Hill in San Diego.  It is a place that contains a multitude of narratives.  At times they are warring narratives, other times they are complementary narratives and still …

Missional-Monastic Community: Part 3

In part 1 I discussed the early developments of monasticism that later gave birth to a missional movement that was beautifully embodied in St. Patrick (Part 2).  Today we ask the question, how do we live out the best of both of these movements and daily live life as monastics on mission in our neighborhoods? …

Missional-Monastic Community: Part 2

Yesterday I presented a brief history of the soil which gave birth monasticism (Click to read Part 1).  In short, the monastics chose a life self denial, isolation and rigorous spiritual disciples out of faithful devotion to Jesus.  While the movement often withdrew from society (whether individually or communally) they offered a prophetic call to the low-committment …

Missional-Monastic Community: Part 1

Mission is the work of God that the church simply participates in, not the work of the church that we ask God to bless. Jesus commissioned his disciples to join this mission, and the early church sought to faithfully form faith communities that would embody and advance the missio dei. Two major movements in church …