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Soul Keeping at the Abbey of Gethsemani

Published on August 24, 2011 by Chris Bean in discipleship, Faith, Prayer and Uncategorized.

Never before have I felt so physically, mentally, and spiritually rested and prepared for a season of life and ministry. To some degree, I have the Trappist monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani to thank for that.

This past weekend, I spent about 3 days in the beautiful knob country of Nelson County Kentucky in the monastery of Gethsemani. It’s located about 12 miles south of Bardstown, KY on about 12,000 acres of beautiful land. After talking about a pilgrimmage to Gethsemani for several years, I finally made it down there.

Usually, retreatants spend either Monday thru Friday or Friday to Monday at the retreat house. You need to call several months in advance to schedule a spot in the retreat house. Or if you’re a dude and don’t plan quite that far ahead, you can stay in the “south wing” which is part of the monastic area where they’ve designated a couple of floors for male retreatants. Accomodations (including meals on the weekends only I believe) are offered for a free-will donation which you can tuck in an envelope and leave on your way out or mail to the Abbey.

The monks gather in the Abbey Church 7 times a day for prayers which begins with vigils at 3:15 am. I never actually joined them that early, but I did make it for Lauds at 5:45 am both mornings. The prayer liturgy combined with the sense of sacred space added much to my experience.

During the morning I set off on a couple of hikes and enjoyed absolutely perfect weather for the whole weekend.

As my retreat time came to a close, I sensed that God was teaching me about my need for contemplation, silence, prayer, and a more disciplined life/schedule in general. Returning to the world of common daily tasks, obligations, and routines…I hope to implement a kind of monastic “Rule” for living this Fall. Two days into the new routine, I can say that I’m batting a thousand!  ;-)

A View of the Abbey/Monastery from Monks Road

But whether or not a particular schedule is sustainable or not doesn’t change the fact that I need to be much more disciplined and intentional about my daily times of prayer, reading scripture, contemplation, worship, service, etc. With a new quarter of ministry to college students at UC right around the corner of the calendar, I know that my best hope of impacting and influencing college students will be to model a life of faith that demonstrates intimacy with God, compassion for those around me, and authenticity  with students.

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“Music Ministry” at CCM

Published on February 15, 2011 by Chris Bean in Calling, Campus Ministry, Faith, Gospel and Music.

One of the “jewels” of Cincinnati is the famed College-Conservatory of Music on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. There’s a great article discussing the value of this institution to the community as well as to the greater culture and world of music, art, performance, etc. As I was reading the article (which you can find here written by Ray Cooklis), I kept noticing parallels to what some would call a ‘Jubilee Vision’ of the arts.

Here are a few quotes which stand out:

“It’s about talented people committed to perfecting their art as far as possible.”

CCM is about “an excellence that communicates, spreads out and contributes to its community.”

“In a culture awash in mediocrity, CCM is a place where people can strive for nothing less than their best – and remind the rest of us how high the bar should be.”

As a novice musician myself, I have a particular interest and passion for connecting with CCM students and seeing them integrate their calling as musicians & performers with their faith. Recently, I met a grad student in the jazz studies program who is a fellow saxophonist. His life was transformed by God through an Inter Varsity campus ministry during his undergrad years in New Hampshire (one of his classmates is pictured w/ the tenor saxophone to the right). Jon is not only passionate about being an excellent saxophonist, he has a tremendous calling to share Christ with those around him. So several weeks ago, I came alongside of Jon in a supportive/mentoring role as he launched a new bible study to CCM students at UC.

Although the CCM culture is mostly antagonistic towards the Christian faith, Jon is being faithful to this calling and drawing students to God’s word through a study of the life/ministry of Jesus each Monday night on campus.

I’m pretty excited that I get to be a part of Jon’s faith journey for a couple of years here in Cincinnati. There’s no doubt that he will leave Cincinnati with some serious musical credentials. But I also pray that he’ll leave a legacy of transformed lives as he pours his heart into this unlikely kind of “music ministry.”

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Take a Load Off at Park+Vine

Published on February 4, 2011 by Chris Bean in Coffee and Third Place and Uncategorized.

Our Formed collaborative gathered this morning to put the finishing touches on our “Work”-themed seminar this weekend. More info about that here. Our meeting location has been on my list of cafes to visit for several weeks now.

Park+Vine is what you would call a Green General Store with a cafe. They are located off Main Street in the Over The Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati. The old Kaldi’s coffee shop is their new home, and the place looks great. Although they have a variety of interesting products, the cafe was my main interest today.

Featuring an old-world Victoria Arduino 3-group machine and espresso from La Terza (a local coffee roasterie in Northside)…you can get some of the best capps and lattes in the city right here.

(Pictured to the right is a 2-group version of their espresso machine.)

Although they have a limited amount of seating, there’s a large table that is great for groups of 6-8 and a couple of smaller tables as well.

You could also pull up a seat on one of the bar stools and have a friendly conversation with the barista as s/he steams up some great soy for your espresso beverage (the store and cafe is totally vegan).

Local art which has been created mostly with reclaimed materials adds an extra creative vibe to the space as well.

Although I never had the opportunity to visit this location when it was the old Kaldi’s, I’ve heard that Park+Vine made some great improvements by brightening and livening up the decor. Come check it out for yourself soon.

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