It’s cold. Stay home. Be safe. Hang with your fam.

Love,

Blake

Starting in January, you and yours can root on your favorite musical hopeful at Blake and Julie’s for American Idol Tuesday Nights. We’re starting this event to build some community as well as to give us an excuse to invite our friends and neighbors to hang out with our group. We’ve chosen to center the event around American Idol because it has broad appeal, creates great opportunities for debate and discussion, and is a great show to follow for a season at a time.

We’ll have snacks and drinks and have plenty of room for a handful of people!

If making it to midtown is tough for anyone, we encourage you to start your own American Idol Night at your home and to invite your neighbors and friends. The show starts in January, so start making plans now!

I keep coming back to the ideas espoused by the “movement” that is being called “The New Monasticism”. Since I heard about it a year or more ago, it seems like I keep coming across it. I’ve liked the idea of intentional Christian communities in terms of proximity of living, shared table, and common vision for a while. I’ve come to believe that the closest we get to what Christian community could be in our culture is during college…when we all live together. Then the American culture tends to be a downhill run of individuality and lonliness for most people. Here are the 12 Marks of the New Monasticism from the New Monasticism website :

1) Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.

2) Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.

3) Hospitality to the stranger

4) Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities
combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.

5) Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.

6) Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the
community along the lines of the old novitiate.

7) Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.

Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.

9) Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.

10) Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.

11) Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.

12) Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.

This appeals to me so much that it drives me crazy at times. It’s appealing but requires so much. Here is another link to some documents relating to the New Monasticism.

Good things for us to consider in our infancy.

Starting Dec 31st, we’ll be having breakfast at Joe Momma’s on Sunday mornings as a time of breaking bread together, hanging out, and more. In old school, Acts 2 fashion, we’re attempting to engage in community with each other around food. If you’d like to help cook, we’ll start around 8. We’ll take a collection to help pay for the food. Bring one, bring all. We’ll have stuff for kids to do, so don’t sweat that if you have little ones.

Call 918.852.3232 if you have questions or email me at BlakeEwing3232@gmail.com

Hugs and Kisses,

Blake