The Fellowship of Ailbe, practicing a Celtic Christianity “Go and Show” model of mission,

The Fellowship of Ailbe is missional after the Celtic tradition. That is an underlying approach best described as “Go and Show” as opposed the the modern Evangelical church using a “Come and Listen” style of mission.

Our challenge in the Fellowship is to extend that rich and powerful understanding of Matthew 28:19-20 into the post-Christian and pagan culture of the 21^st Century in a way that is true to our Lord Jesus Christ and speaks in a language that can be understood by our audience. We are also working in a virtual environment that restricts eyeball to eyeball contact and requires us to search out new methods of communicating the Gospel, given once for all.

There are five major missional distinctives of Celtic Christianity ministry¹ :

1. Going out into the community to “identify with the people, engaging in friendship, conversation, ministry and witness.”
2. Focus on monastic community that prepares people to “live with depth, compassion, and power in mission.” These monastic communities are based upon:
   1. Living to “Rule”
      1. A personal rule outlining each Member's commitment to the other Members to follow a deliberate program of spiritual disciplines and to participate in the life of the community.
   2. Anamchara (soul friendship)
      1. A deep friendship between two individuals based on mutual encouragement, mentoring, and accountability.
   3. Penance in which an undesirable behavior is deliberately replaced by practicing a desirable behavior.
   4. Theology which is:
      1. Trinitarian
      2. Eschatological
      3. Creational
3. A role of imaginative prayer in all settings by
   1. Regular practice of praying and singing the Psalms, and other Scriptures.
   2. Developing a steady state of prayer, to make praying without ceasing a normal mode of life.
   3. Seeking the voice of God in all aspects of Creation.
   4. Opening our hearts and souls to the Unseen through prayer and meditation.
4. Hospitality in the monastic community inviting all people as guests
   1. in a community of friendship.
   2. through service to them.
   3. through prayer as we invite the Holy Spirit into their lives.
5. A focus on the experience of those who seek God in the church: you first establish community with people. Within fellowship engage in conversation, ministry, prayer and worship. In time they come to believe and are invited to commit.

1The skeleton of the five distinctives is quoted in a Celtic Model of Ministry, the Reawakening of Community Spirituality, by Jerry C Doherty, The Liturgical Press, pg xiv and were taken from The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity can reach the West...Again, by George G. Hunter, pg 47-55

A meditiation on Psalm 33:6-12

Thia passage is one of the many places in the Psalms that extol the richness and diversity of the Creation. A dear friend and member of the Fellowship of Ailbe, Jesse Slusher, applied his gifts to the development of a short video that truly brings the words of the Psalmist to live. Enjoy with me.

Musings from Vermont on a Lord's Day afternoon.

The beautiful leaves from a few days ago are gone, stripped by heavy rains and gusty winds, blown away towards New Hampshire. The bare sticks of the maples reach heavenward, revealing the gentle Green Mountains that have been hidden by the trees since spring. Now the summer's infinite shades of green are being replaced by a variety of browns and grays, all selected from God's palette. Vermont is putting on its late fall garb, an easing into the stark whites of winter.

I have been blessed for eight years by this view from my living room window. The sheer display of color, of shadings and hues, reflect God's sense of beauty and His creativity. I know that what I see is a speck, a fleck, a mote, an infinitesimal sampling of that beauty and creativity, but it is all I can comprehend and absorb. This sampling of the Shalom that is to come with the new heaven and new earth, gives me incentive to press on with the work of the Kingdom of God. It shows me that God has a love of order and harmony that transcends the rage and destruction that is the hallmark of the kingdom of Man.

Thank You, LORD, for this gift of a Lord's Day afternoon to be refreshed and rejuvenated