Waiting for Benedict

Some thoughts on the end of another year of our Theta Young Adult Community.

It was a little surreal to sit in Eugene Peterson's rocking chair in his study at Selah House on Flathead Lake, Montana. I glanced over at the nearest books on the shelf and saw Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue. Rowan Williams quotes him in Holy Living, and I've been meaning to find that quote for some time. 

"What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us." (MacIntyre)

Sustaining us. Local forms of community. Cultivating power. The Theta Community reflected on their year. "Our friends in other places don't have this." "My friends feel alone in their belief and in living the Christian life." 

"And if the tradition of virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope." (MacIntyre)

When I hear the sometimes despairing generalizations about 'the youngsters these days,' I wish everyone could come to the Theta Community on any given Wednesday night. Heartfelt worship. Grappling with challenging teaching. Desire for cultural missional engagement. Habituating practices that sustain and deepen prayerfulness and an awareness of God. Not bound by the previous captivities to grasping or trying to recover hegemonic political power, they see influence in a much more neighbor-loving, salt-and-light-and leaven kind of Jesus way. We have grounds for hope.

"We are not waiting for a Godot, but for another--doubtless very different--St. Benedict." (MacIntyre, 245)

This is not the first dark time in human history. God seems to respond with little communities of light. Noah and his family, eight in all. Hannah and her listening son. Nehemiah, Ezra, Esther and team. The Upper Room fellowship. Benedict and Scholastica and their communities. Francis and his. Bonhoeffer and his. Theresa and hers. 

Theta will begin on Sept 7, 2022. If you know a local young adult point them our way. www.trinitysanpedro.org/theta We will begin an over-30 Theta-style community next year at Trinity. WMPL is starting one in downtown Minneapolis in the Fall. Faith Lutheran in Hutchinson and Dave Wollan is starting one in the Fall. The Awaken Project is rolling at Mount Carmel Ministries in Alexandria, MN. Wild Goose Collective has it's first community currently meeting in Southern British Columbia. CLBI and Free Lutheran Bible College are veterans at this kind of community. I'm in conversations with about 5 other congregations who are interested in this type of intentional discipleship community. 

How will we make it through the current dark ages? Together. With Jesus at the center. 

Find one. Or, start one.