A Month of Monasticism

Well, I know the month is not quite over yet but I chose to tell you about my “monk experience” for the month of March a bit early (plus I know some people who are interested in hearing my summed up views from the New Monastic Schools for Conversion).
To briefly explain my monthly endeavor, I experimented with monasticism both ancient and new. Ancient monasticism is the retreat of dedicated men of God for prayer and solitude. I came under the authority of the Rule of Monk Preston from The Knights of Prayer, Prayer Foundation. Obviously, monasticism is centered on prayer. The basic concept would be scripture memorization and recitation, prayer, and structured daily routine (which includes the divine hours and work).
At the start, I was excited for this structure and routine, pretty much anticipated the challenge (and yes, I looked forward to the outfit that I had to wear “a habit”.) Honestly, the overall idea I had in my mind didn’t work out the way I had anticipated, as a man of God with the heart of an evangelist, I wanted to do more outreach as a monk, so that was a bit of the disappointment (but fair to say it came with a lesson, doesn’t it always?).
Ok, so I traveled as a monk to Evanston Ill., to attend the Schools for Conversion conference at Reba Place Fellowship. Exciting trip to say in the least.
Now I will tell you about my time at the conference. Reba Place fellowship has a lot of rich history, and has been around since the 50’s. The overall concept of New Monasticism is to live in community, pretty much to experiment with what we read from the book of Acts. It is hard to sum up what I learned from this experience, since it had a big impact of my thoughts of New Monasticism and my personal walk with Christ.
In order to keep this short, I am not going to write detail by detail concerning the visit to Reba Place Fellowship, if you want to know my details ask. My goal is to express what I learned.
As far as what I expected from my visit to Reba Place Fellowship, I cannot seem to clearly reiterate but admittedly it was not was I had expected. When I arrived an older man from Reba Place and I had a great conversation, that would inevitable help me grow and affect my views of things. He said in paraphrase “we have to be careful of our ideals, it seems that idealism is taking a big place and that is not what this is about, and ultimately this will lead to disappointment”. That was so true! As we read through the 12 Marks of New Monasticism and discussed different views of Christianity as a way of life (ex. - You Must Be Born Again…and Again and Again) I remember reading a part that talked about the ideals that fail us. The direct quote that convicted me was, “…what would have been different if your primary commitment had been to love the people in the place where you worshipped”. That made me think, how many times have my personal ideals about what we should be doing as the church, or what the church should look like, how many times have these affected the love I have been commanded to have for my brothers and sisters, my neighbor, or even my enemy? As Dietrich Bonheoffer said “The greatest enemy to community is our ideal of community”.
Also, a big factor of New Monasticism is to live in close proximity to others within the body of Christ, at least local congregations. I had agreed wholeheartedly with that concept and still do, but after thinking about it as I was in the community, I realized that the bond I have with some people who I meet with weekly or bi-weekly, is community. We don’t have to necessarily live together or even on the same block. So, Gabriella can rest at ease that I am not going to ask her to move in with 3 other families right away (ha ha, maybe not yet at least).
A great factor of Reba Place Fellowship was the diversity in the people, both young and old, male, female, and many different personalities. Also, what has been termed “theological diversity” was very active. From Episcopalians to Mennonites, to radicals to reformed tradition which was awesome and truly demonstrated the culture of love and grace, that New Monasticism, or rather Jesus Christ represents.
Well, my overall thought was the missional concept though. I didn’t really feel the missional, evangelistic attitude was that prevalent at Reba Place Fellowship. I am not sure if that is such a theme in the New Monasticism view, but I felt that things should be much more missional. Reading through Shane Claiborne’s book, The Irresistible Revolution, I got the feeling he was very missional in his attitude, but I am aware of his view of “come and see”. It is my hope that the views of New Monasticism become very strong in my generation, but also with a spice of the missional church views.
That pretty much summed up my thoughts. Also, I would like to share a brief journal entry I wrote as I left Reba Place Fellowship.
“3/22/10- Today, I am leaving Reba Place Fellowship, Schools for Conversion. I guess I did go with some expectations that I did not find. I find myself in a sort of negative funk today. Like, “what is this all about? What am I doing?”
Since January I have been going through my experiments in truth (**currently reading the Autobiography of Mohandas Gandhi, who was the master at this concept). This month has been a study into monasticism (both old and new).
As I was walking and thinking, I just began to ask myself, “Who am I, what does God want me to do, etc”. (You know the “seasonal” self examination).
STAND-STILL (“I am at a standstill) has been on my mind lately. Praying over that line as I walked, I heard that low whisper “be still and know that I am God”. Also, other things that have popped into mind are:
-What P.A. told me about just being Mike, the outreach guy who relates to people
- Future with Gabriella (some normalcy to my life).
-Missionary (we are all missionaries, but in the strongest sense, is that me?)
-Pastoral calling
-Starbucks meetings with Annie.
-Jesus People USA
So therefore, what is my next season?"

Thanks for reading. Hope it was a blessing! Look forward to your feedback!
Love and blessings, for the glory of Him,
Michael Miano