To Creator, obedience
To Creation, service
To each other, community
In all things, love
In all things, love
With possessions, simplicity
For life, prayer
In our world, creativity
In all things, love
In all things, love
As a group we are committed to a deliberate approach to making a life together in the Way of Jesus. We reviewed the Gospels and identified seven themes based on how Jesus lived and what he taught: service, simplicity, creativity, obedience, prayer, community, and love. Through common vows we make our desire to follow the way of Jesus concrete and tangible. A vow is a solemn promise made before God and people to take or refrain from a specific action. A vow expresses sentiment, intention and a commitment to specific practices.
"For you have heard my vows, O God;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name...
Then will I ever sing praise to your name
and fulfill my vows day after day." (Psalm 61:5,8)
When a group of people make promises together they are able to support and encourage one another in their resolutions. We see making common vows as an earnest attempt to obey Jesus in the details and direction of our daily lives. Our specific committments, practices and rhythms are continually evolving because we see each year as a new phase of this experiment. Below is a summary of our current committments to God and one another:
1. Obedience. We recognize Jesus as our teacher and authority, and wrestle with how to surrender to the way of love in every detail of our lives. We submit ourselves to one another in love and strive to keep our vows to God and our commitments to one another.
- We are obedient to the 10 commandments and the law of Love.
- We meet with a trusted mentor or peer-mentor to talk about personal growth at least 6 times a year (a personal growth plan should be written on your own or with your mentor).
- We seek community discernment on major life decisions (change of vocation, marriage, relocation, personal crisis, etc) through a listening meeting.
2. Service. We are made to collaborate with our Maker in caring for all of creation. We recognize the sacredness of work and use the capacities of our minds and bodies to serve others with our talents and skills according to the needs of the place where we find ourselves.
- We give priority in our schedules to serve one another and, as our season of life allows, the forgotten and marginalized.
- We do our work with dignity, to provide income and fulfill our true vocation, in ways that promote equality, sustainability and justice in our world (directly and indirectly).
3. Community. We seek to practice forgiveness and reconciliation, honor, encouragement, humility, and hospitality in all of our relationships. We are committed to taking the journey of faith in solidarity with our sisters and brothers around the world.
- We are active in projects and family meetings.
- We participate in Sunday night SEVEN gatherings.
- We practice regular hospitality by welcoming people into our homes, lives and events.
4. Simplicity. We acknowledge the abundant provision of our Maker and seek to live in trust, radical contentment, and generosity within an empire of scarcity and greed.
- We live by a budget that reflects sustainability and intentional conscientious priorities. We share these budgets in a yearly members meeting.
- We give away at least 10% of our income (5% to the common work of SEVEN and 5% to the charities of our choice).
- We collectively take an inventory of our belongings and evaluate what to keep, share, sell or give away on an annual basis.
- We live by a schedule that allows for our mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional selves to be replenished and available (weekly Sabbath, room for spontaneity, pace of life, conscientious commitments, etc.).
5. Prayer. We seek the fruitfulness and guidance of the Spirit that comes from being centered and surrendered to the will and presence of our Creator. We practice rhythms of prayer, study, silence, and solitude that help us remain open to the voice and power of the Spirit.
- We create space in our schedules to pray twice a day.
- We take an annual two-day silent, contemplative prayer retreat.
- We participate in communal prayer once a week.
6. Creativity. We seek to be awakened in our imaginations and actions, inspired by the epic story of God's kingdom and creation, and connected to our cultural context. We want to live artfully, taking risks, experimenting, and using the language and mediums of our culture to explore the unfolding story of God's kingdom together.
- We cultivate divine imagination by reading the scriptures daily with our family or household.
- We seek to find God through intentional and reflective interactions with nature and culture.
- We create cultural artifacts (recipes, poems, paintings, songs, stories, etc) and share them with each other 6 times a year, recognizing their importance as signposts of our journey.
- We practice body and mind disciplines (exercise, sleep, healthy eating, rest, etc.) that promote health and sustainability.
7. Love. We acknowledge that love is the greatest force in the universe, and in every dimension of our lives we seek to cooperate with the reign of God’s love.
- We actively seek to meet one another’s needs.
- We seek reconciliation in all relationships, past and present.
- We seek unity, cooperation, and goodwill with groups and individuals seeking God in the way of Jesus, both locally and globally.
