Steve Taylor, who will be publishing his paper on his DownUnderBlog really soon, makes some recommendations for “postmodern monasteries”.
• A physical space. I think it needs to be earthed somewhere. It becomes far more meaningful if relationships are physically shared.
• Develop a rhythm of prayer, a shared daily spirituality that ensures geeks do more than see the neon glow of my screen. They work within a rhythm of appreciating people, creation and God.
• Build a community of “monks”, a group of people with “knowledge” not of copying books but of web design and video skills and graphic design. Some part-time, some spare-time, perhaps some full-time.
• Develop a few commercial projects to fund the lifestyle of the “monks”.
• Nurture, one at a time, authentic, low-budget group creative projects – “video” downloads for the world.
• Tap into “artists dole” and mentor developing Christian “monks”.
• Invite Christian teenagers to use the high-tech gear, to build relationships and share skills and develop their spirituality and take websites back to their church.
• Tap into Trusts for the high-tech gear and take computers to schools after-school. Teach kids in GI to log on and design their own webpage. Invite their parents to a viewing and tell them of the Kingdom of God in which the aroha of God crosses the digital divide.
A postmodern monastery – Combining authentic, low-budget group creativity with the task of preserving technical knowledge within the rhythms of prayer in order to cross the digital divide and catalyse open source spirituality.
I have a buddy in PORTLAND OREGON who has started a few years back what is called the ARTISTARY. I wish you could meet Peter Jenkins who started it. The Artistary is meant to be a Christian monistary for artists. It’s located in SE Portland. At present it exists only for guys but the dream is that a sister house would exist as well.
yeah here’s a link for the artistary: http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/life-artistary.shtml
The Benedictine rule
As the conversation keep going on about postmodern monastries (see Tall skinny Kiwy). Bob (The Corner) post a fascinating article on the Benedictine model..
Hmmmmm, sounds quite a bit like the Boiler-Rooms that is part of 24-7 Prayer in the UK.
I’d like to see more of this happening in, oh…say Colorado. ;^) But knowing God, he’ll probably say “Good….you do it”. Lol!
Uh-oh, Andrew, I just read down further you already covered 24-7’s monasteries. So…in the words of a Gilda Radner character “never mind”.
Re: “Steve Taylor On Postmodern monasteries. Excellent, insightful comments. Re: Comments – We love 24-7 Prayer and their Millenium 3 monasteries. We are (Knights of Prayer monastic Order)located in Portland, Oregon. We felt that we should give full Monk status to women(July 19, 1999): Born again Protestant Monks: Evangelical, Celtic, Franciscan — Interdenominational Prayer Teaching & Resources.