Saturday, June 27, 2009

Disciplemaking 3 - St. Benedict

Again, I am approaching these topics as they come to mind, not any logical order.

When Benedict of Nursia launched his monastic movement he set out to establish schools of discipleship. A couple of key strategic realities characterized these schools. First, was the principle of scripture immersion. Benedict's love for scripture and the need to be reading, meditating and praying it many times during a day makes him sound like and old fashioned Bible loving Southern Baptist! He grasped that the journey of discipleship involves re-making one's imagination. Immersion in scripture is central to this. Second was commitment to community. Simply being in committed relationship to others has the effect of forming one as a disciple. This is an example of the more is caught than is taught principle.

The Rule of Saint Benedict is a great manual for Christian discipleship. Benedict was a strategic, missional thinker. We do well to learn from him.

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