Jesus Life 87 - Jesus Army

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The vow of “stability” is a challenge to
today’s “consumer Christianity”: the commitment
to remain committed to a single call for
life – unless God spoke to the community (the
community, note, not the individual) about
a calling to something else. We need to hear
the call to this kind of rugged commitment: a
promise to stay and build, through thick and
thin, with the same people in the same place;
not to “feel called to move on” when things get
tough or an attractive job offer comes up.
Part of the Jesus Fellowship covenant,
which some members make, includes a
promise like this. Such promises may not suit
everybody and not all the members of the
Jesus Fellowship make them. Yet they provide
signposts for what it means to be a devoted
Christian today.
These “modern monks” live in community –
but their communities are more likely to be on
a council estate than a remote Welsh hill. These
“modern friars” are on the streets telling others
about Jesus – but they are wearing Jesus Army
jackets, not habits.
It’s not just the Jesus Fellowship, either, not
at all. Many Christians today are determined to
be a real alternative culture, showing God’s new
society in such ways as this.
Join in – there’s a place for you.
JL
Totally Devoted by Simon Cross is published by
Authentic Publishing
authenticmedia.co.uk
For more on Christian Community visit:
newcreation.org.uk
To read the blog of Sister Catherine’s
community visit:
ibenedictines.org
This article is an expanded version of a post
that first featured in the Jesus Army blog:
jesus.org.uk/blog
For an older article by James Stacey on new
monasticism visit:
jesus.org.uk/short/newmonks
www.jesus.org.uk
James is a leader in the Jesus
Fellowship. He lives in Coventry
with those he loves - ‘wife, three
kids and friends forever’ - in a
Christian community.
READ HIS BLOG:
man-with-the-mop.blogspot.com
Jesus Life
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