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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From Our Recent Newsletter

Published on August 1, 2011 by Chris Bean in Campus Ministry, discipleship and Gospel.

From our recent newsletter…

As I share this campus ministry update with you, I am enjoying fellowship and training with other campus ministers in my CCO family. Several times a year we come together for training events which always remind me of how great it is to be partnered with a campus ministry organization that is passionate about God’s Word, the Gospel, and seeing transformation in the lives of college students and in our world.

One of the themes which has emerged at our training event this summer is sanctification. Part of being a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:13) is engaging the continual process of spiritual growth and maturity. Romans 6 encourages us NOT to live under the authority and power of sin any longer. We have been made alive in Christ. As justified and adopted children of God, Christians should be transformed daily through the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That is a tremendous truth for all of us to marinade in…college student or not.

As you might imagine, however, the cultural-social-academic-relativistic context in which college students (and most young adults) exist is not conducive to this kind of transformation. That makes it all the more important for college students to engage God’s Word regularly, and participate in a community which celebrates, worships, prays, & serves together (most people call this a church).

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Provision, Praise, & Prattle

Published on July 19, 2011 by Chris Bean in Celebration, Faith, Family, Finances and Personal.

My love for alliteration is no secret to many of you. Those who have ever tracked with my facebook statuses, tweets, or blogging realize that it’s simply something you’ll have to endure if you want to hang out with me…especially in the virtual realm.

Now let me reverse the order and begin with “prattle.” Since this word means: to talk or chatter idly, it might not be the perfect word for what I’m going to share. Today’s “prattle” is all about my little boy, Josiah. He is just over 7 months old now and bringing even more joy to our lives than we might have expected (if that is possible). Here’s a little video of a recent feeding.

Josiah squeals from Chris Bean on Vimeo.

On to Praise. God is good, right?! Generally speaking, I would say that I’m coming out of a season of life (the past 2 to 5 years) in which ‘praise’ has not been my default setting. Cynicism, critique, questioning, complaining, etc  These have been words that come to mind more naturally than praise. But over the past year, I sense that God has been rewiring my brain a bit…and giving me a new appreciation for Who, How, Why, and Where HE is. Psalm 103 is coming to mind as my default setting: Praise the Lord, oh my soul!

Provision may have something to do with my increased tendencies towards praise. As we continue to live out our new faith-stretching call to campus ministry…and daily depend on God’s provision, we are increasingly amazed at how God meets our needs. Just this morning, I made the painful and scary decision to approve $600 in repairs to my Ford Focus. Having just had a baby (in the past 7 months) and bought a house in the past month, our financial margin has all but disappeared. Within minutes of telling the mechanic to move forward with the repairs, we heard from one of our monthly ministry supporters who wanted to cover that expense for us. God’s ability to PROVIDE far exceeds my ability to gather resources. So we continue to trust and live in this exciting space of gratitude.

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