Have you ever wanted to be a part of a spiritual community that made sense to you, made a concrete difference in your life, and equipped you to be more present and effective in the world? Here comes your chance...
Living Vision is the brain, soul, and heart child of Toby Jones and his book The Way of Jesus: Re-Forming Spiritual Communities in a Post-Church Age (Wipf & Stock, Eugene, OR, 2010) In that groundbreaking book, Jones offers seven principles that he thinks any group of spiritually-minded people can use to launch their own organic post-church community. His principles include the following:
Open Theology – No doctrine, dogma, nor list of required beliefs, but genuine, thoughtful, inquiring openness to the full range of religious viewpoints.
Discipleship – An emphasis on living/action/service, as opposed to adopting or accepting beliefs.
Rick Taking Adventure – An attitude and approach to life in community that stretches and challenges participants to do good and spiritual things they might not have the faith to do on their own.
Radical Inclusiveness and Hospitality – Everyone is equal and everyone is welcome all the time - PERIOD! All faiths, all traditions, all perspectives, all orientations.
Service Without Strings – Caring for others, particularly the poor and suffering, is done without expectations of reciprocity or gratitude. It is the right thing to do and is a value/practice that is elevated by all religious traditions.
No Building or Real Estate – Owning or renting a place to meet is an unnecessary distraction that too easily becomes the tail wagging the dog. Itis also a huge financial drain that drastically limits a community’s ability to reach out in service and generosity to those outside the community.
No Paid Leader – Originally, spiritual leaders of all religions were not paid. Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and founded seven of theoriginal Christian churches, was a “tent-maker,” earning his living withoutasking his churches to support him. Paying a leader fundamentally alters the relationship between participants in a spiritual community and furtherlimits the community’s ability to serve the poor and the downtrodden.
*Copies of Toby’s book are available at progressiveretreats.org or at Mclean & Eakin
In light of these seven founding principles, Living Vision seeks to be a “community of practice,” that is, a group that gets together not to talk about nor discuss, but to actually do the practices that will deepen our spiritual grounding and make us more present and helpful in the world.
With that conviction in mind, Living Vision is launching its fall/winter schedule of practices on November 8 with an emphasis on ancient contemplative disciplines. We will be meeting three Tuesday evenings a month (every Tuesday except the first one of the month) from 7:30-8:30 at Yoga Roots in Petoskey (located at 444 Mitchell St. in downtown Petoskey). Each gathering will begin with a 5-10 minute introduction to one particular spiritual practice (silence, centering prayer, lectio divina, breath prayers, to name a few), 30-35 minutes of the practice itself, and 5-10 minutes of shared insight from the experience to wrap up and send us on our way. Participants are to bring a comfortable cushion to sit on along with a notebook and pen.
Living Vision gatherings are free and open to anyone who is hungry to practice with us.
For more information contact Toby Jones at tobyjones48@gmail.com See you Nov. 8 at 7:30!
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