OMS - a year of preparation

And so I start, I had a discernment meeting with a small group of prospectives, an Aussie, Irish, another yankee and me. I guess we passed, and I await the opportunity to join a cohort to study together, ask questions, and try each other out. I’m anxious to get going! I’ve sent my guidebook and list of materials I’ve read to my pastor, hoping to meet and get his idea of it all. 

    Not long ago I heard the account of Jim Jones and the suicide cult he had and want to make sure that another learned man sees what I’m entering into. There are no red flags for me, but I want to assure those around me that this is all ok … albeit a bit out of the American Evangelical norm. 

OMS - where our paths met

It’s been about a year since I was first introduced to the new monasticism in general and the Order of the Mustard Seed (OMS) in particular. 

   Someone else introduced me to Lectio 356, an online prayer app and I became interested in the readers of the prayers, Jill, Izwe, Sarah, but particularly Pete Greig. 

   Pete, a Brit with an interesting accent had multiple interesting stories, his wife was struggling to thrive at times, he took walkabouts across Scotland (my ancestral home) and hung out with people who most of my people would not be comfortable around. He started a prayer room that grew voraciously and had a number of messy ministries at a time when I was getting tired of orderly conservative Christian life.

   Tomorrow I meet in a zoom discernment session that will help me decide if OMS and I are a good fit. To date I know exactly 0 members and probably haven’t even been in the same state as any of them. But the things I’ve read/listened to make me feel like they are my people. The opening quote in the OMS guide says:

   Perhaps somewhere in the subterranean chambers of your life you have heard the call to deeper, fuller living. You have become weary of frothy experiences and shallow teaching. Every now and then you have caught glimpses, hints of something more than you have known. Inwardly you long to launch out into the deep.

-Richard Foster