Beat: This heart is to be supported by four rhythms, practices that help us to live with open hands, open hearts and open eyes. Our prayer is characterised by a daily practice of prayer and Bible reading, a weekly gathering and an annual prayer season. Sabbath is a commitment to rest, retreat and the practice of “Sabbath economics.” Hospitality consists of opening our homes to one another and people within the neighbourhood and bringing welcome to the streets. We receive the hospitality of others and share the hospitality of God as we gather around the table. By solidarity we affirm our intention to engage with local people where they are, to stand with them, and to re-imagine a “shalom-filled” neighbourhood and world. Solidarity is an action which seeks justice for neighbours and strangers. We seek to live this by acting together and opening up our lives to receive encouragement, question and challenge from one another. This heart and its rhythms are a way of saying what it means for us to follow Christ on the street, around the table and in the inner room. We will explore what they mean for six months by seeking to practice these rhythms. At the end of this period we will assess in what way this helps us as we seek to follow Jesus. We will be helped in this task by who will meet with us at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of this process.
Are you part of a group that has experimented in community? That’s a few years into it? That has wisdom to share from decades of experience? I would love to hear what others have learned about starting a community in the place where you are.
