Creating Community Through Shared Experience and Tradition

So it’s been six months since we moved into our new place in Hamilton, and we’re almost unpacked (ha!).  Just a few boxes left in the front porch that need tending to.  We are slow, but we get there eventually.

We’ve also been in the process of unpacking together what it means to be a Community House.  About a month ago, our friend Anita moved in, and our daughter has made it a second home of sorts – we made a little space for Hannah in the attic for when she visits from Toronto – so now we’re up to five in the house.  On Wednesday our basement bunk beds arrive, and we will begin to prepare space for two more!  Really, it’s all very experimental for us, and we know we’re getting lots wrong along the way, but the good thing is that we know we will grow as much from our failures as we do from our successes.

Our favorite night is Mondays, which we call Family Night.  We all eat together, and often just check in with each other around the table over dinner.  Generally we don’t serve desserts at the house, but I’ve begun planning dessert for Mondays, to make it more of a special meal.  Last week?  Upside down Mango Cake!

Yum!  After dinner, we move to the living room, pull out the guitars and worship and pray together.  The last two weeks we’ve been putting Bert, our parrot, on his perch in the middle of the living room, and he croaks and whistles along to the worship.  And after our prayer time, we all do our housework together – so the house is all nice and shiny for Spaghetti Tuesday!

I’ve recently become much more aware of the power of shared experiences and traditions in the formation of community, and the Christmas Season has given us some lovely opportunities to feel more connected to each other in the House.  Early in December, we trimmed our Christmas Tree together.  We fused some of the rituals that we grew up with in our respective homes, and created a lovely evening of drinking apple cider and egg nog, listening to Handel’s Messiah, and transforming our little tree.

It was a lovely evening.  Last night, we took the money we had gathered through the year (we have a jar in the kitchen where we toss our loose change), piled into a car and went to Toys R Us, and filled a cart with toys for the Hamilton Dream Centre.  Again, we could feel a qualitative difference in our hearts and feeling of connectedness with one another as a result of our shared experience and we are already planning what we want to do next year.

Sharing our living space?  Not so difficult.  Sharing our lives with one another?  A little harder.  But we’re finding that intentionally creating shared experiences and rituals is really helping us along the way.

Tuning into His Song for this Season

Yesterday was D-Day.  December 1 and the Christmas Decorations come out!  My boxes of snowmen were bursting at the seams and rattling in the attic, and the tree was leaning against the patio fence, waiting to come in out of the cold, but now everybody is happily occupying our living room and the rest of the house.

I love Christmas.  I love the decorations, the music, the foods, the celebration, being with family and friends.  I love the feeling of warmth and well being that comes over me.

This year  I am exploring more deeply how to tune into the song that God is singing in this season.

I bought my presents from micro-enterprise in Uganda.  Making donations to Compassion and World Vision in lieu of gifts.  Making some of my other presents.  I’ve found some good online resources to help cut the cultural clutter:

http://madeinusachallenge.com/2011/occupy-the-holidays-ten-ways-to-make-your-gift-giving-more-meaningful/ (minus the made in USA part – just translate “Canada” in your brain as you read it)

http://www.facebook.com/AdventConspiracy – a movement that helps us replace consumption with compassion.

I have also found and am following the advent series produced by 24-7 prayer.com, which I am enjoying so much!  It is really tuning my heart for the season and I start each day with these online reflections:

Tonight at the Community House we are trimming the tree, eating pizza and drinking apple cider and listening to Handel’s Messiah.  Christmas is coming!  Jesus is coming!

Weber Newsletter – Blooming Where We are Planted

It has been a very busy season over the last six months, relocating the family and the ministry to Hamilton.
God has opened door after door with favor and gracious provision.  We are enjoying living in and developing our Community House just a little west of downtown Hamilton. Right now there are just three of us living there (four when Hannah comes to visit), but we are preparing rooms for interns to come and join us in our work at the Urban Monastery.Just a little ways away, GOHOP is sharing donated office space (thanks Hughson St. Baptist!) with True City and Micah House.  And we have Prayer Spaces there, at Living Rock, and in the East Barton neighborhood as well as our Prayer Space in Waterdown.

The Prayer Truck

One highlight of the last few months was the Prayer Truck.  For two weeks this summer we converted a UHaul Truck into a sacred space, parked it in the downtown core, and had a fantastic time praying for and with folks in the neighborhood.  Many people who would not normally come into a church, came to the Prayer Truck to communicate with God through painting, collaging, and origami, and to receive prayer themselves.  It was very exciting to host prayer on the streets of Hamilton, and we are already dreaming and praying about next Summer!

Prayer Resource Hub

As we are settling into life in Hamilton, we are exploring with True City, ways that the Urban Monastery can be a resource to the local churches here.In partnership with missions agencies, we hosted a week of 24/7 prayer for World Missions in October.  Individuals from many churches came and joined our prayers for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

In addition, we are hosting a monthly book study on the Practice of Hospitality, which is being attended by leaders and congregants of churches in Hamilton and Waterdown.  One of our participants has already turned her learning into two sermons for her congregants!   Our team also provides prayer and prophetic ministry to pastors and business leaders.  Also we are supporting and encouraging a group of young leaders, again from a variety of churches in the city.  it is an exciting group where we explore together how to shape our lives after the leadership of Jesus.  Finally, Jill is joining a team of Hamilton Pastors who will be going to Uganda in April, to teach, to learn, and to explore how as churches and ministries in the city we can collaborate in missions.  You will hear more about the Uganda trip in a little while!

GOHOP’s 10th Anniversay!

On October the 15th, GOHOP celebrated 10 years of Partnering in the Great Commission Through Day and Night Prayer.  We are so grateful for the love and support of all of you who have carried us in your hearts and in practical ways over the last decade.  Truly we have, all together, built a place of His presence in this community, and together are being built into the loving presence of a people of prayer.

As we move into the next decade, we invite you to continue to partner with us and help to make all of our dreams for this city and region a reality.  His Kingdom Come!

Partnering with the Webers

As you all know, we couldn’t do what we do without your loving support, in friendship, prayer and resources.  We’ve seen God provide again and again in wonderful ways over the years.  I tell people that in 10 years of being missionaries, we’ve never missed rent, and we’ve never fasted involuntarily!  If you would like to partner with us financially, for our ongoing expenses or to help with the Uganda Trip, you can donate here.

What does an Urban Monastery Look Like?

People have been asking.

And we’re trying to sort it out ourselves.  GOHOP is morphing and in motion.  We’re not sure what the destination is going to look like but hey, the journey is the thing, right?

Here’s a map of our Prayer Spaces what life at the UM looks like this week. Zoom it out to see all our Prayer Spaces:

View Larger Map

Monday:  The most exciting and exhilarating part of our job!

NOT

Administration.  Working at our new office graciously donated to us by Hughson St. Baptist Church and True City.  We share a collaborative office space with True City, Micah House, and others.  In the afternoon, we put the finishing touches on the quiet prayer space we’ve created in the office, papering the walls so we can write our prayers.   “Let’s just start with the cross and resurrection, and see what grows from there.”

Monday night:  Family night at the Community house – the residents and guests of the house eat together and laugh a lot.  Bert our parrot laughs more than everyone, chuckling his way through the meal.  After dinner we worship and pray together, then everyone does their chores in the house.  I wanted to call doing our jobs “house blessing”, but the boys thought that was cheezy, so chores it is.

Tuesday:  Phyllis manning the prayer watch in our Waterdown Prayer Space in the morning.  Jill prayerwalking in the community.  In the afternoon, at the 500 James St. Prayer Space, we gather for worship and meditation on the psalms, prayer for pastors and leaders in the city.  At three, a young businessman shows up for his prayer appointment and we pray for him for an hour.  The Lord is kind, and helps us pray into his heart with love and accuracy.

Tuesday night: Spaghetti Tuesday – Community Dinner at the Community House.  Friends and strangers gather around the table.  Conversation is fun and fiesty.  Kirk cooks up a splendid spaghetti sauce.  Sometimes we bake together after dinner for friends.

Wednesday:  Staff meeting in the morning.  Checking in, dreaming, planning, praying.  Then off to Living Rock where we minister to the youth there after their Gathering, and then spend the afternoon worshiping and interceding for the next Generation in the city at the Living Rock Prayer Space.

Wednesday night:  Moving Mountains Prayer Group  – this week we are dedicating and praying through the Perkins Centre, and celebrating Abraham’s birthday with the community of young men and women that he has gathered and trained in prayer over the years.  Let them eat cake!

Thursday:  Phyllis on the wall in Waterdown again.  Jill out and about prayerwalking and at various pastors and leaders groups.  Abraham doing hospital visitation or developing young leaders.  Building relationships in the city and exploring how GOHOP can help increase prayer capacities in churches and in the city.

Thursday night:  Practicing the Way Group – meeting with a group of young leaders in the city and exploring together a new approach to Spiritual Formation (actually a really old approach, but needing to be refeshed in our lives).  We eat together, enjoy our children together, and set our hearts to following the Master.

Friday:  Team dispersed in various places – prayer for healing, meeting with friends we have made in the city through the Prayer Truck, prayerwalking.  In the afternoon we gather at the Community House, worship and mediate on the Psalms again, and pray for the ministry

Saturday:  Sabbath!

Sunday:  Ministering in various churches – preaching, leading worship.  At 4 pm we join with the Mission Services Chapel, and are looking at ways we can grow in our friendships with those on the margins in our city.    Community Dinner at Mission Services, then back to the Community House for our Book Study on Hospitality.

Our Hamilton staff of urban monastics (we miss u Tim!)

It’s a lovely season for us right now – feasting on the abundance of the Lord’s house and feeling very rich in our relationships.  Building relationships and people, rather then building structures and trying to populate them.  Desiring to be the loving presence of a people of prayer in the city.  We’re always looking to expand our circle of friends and to grow our staff of prayer missionaries, so email jill@gohop.ca if you want to join the fun!

Fasting Fashion – the October Dress Project

October is over.

I guess I can put the dress away now.

But I’ve grown quite fond of it.

This year I participated in the October Dress Project.  For thirty one days, I wore the same dress.  I mixed up the slacks that I wore underneath, and the sweaters and scarves on top, but each day, the dress was the same.  And yes, I did wash it!

“The same dress each day?  Why on earth?” you may ask.

I did not realize how pathological my clothing acquisition had become until I moved to Hamilton. Packed and hauled and unpacked boxes and boxes and more boxes of clothes.  It was ridiculous.  Really.  Sure, I bought most at Value Village

(it sounds fancier if you try and pronounce it with a French accent – just try it Valoo Veellage!).

Bottom line is too much stuff is too much stuff, cheap or not!  Shopping had become a recreational activity, and I was spending more money than I wanted to (in my more rational moments).  I decided that it would be beneficial for me to adopt a spiritual practice of simplicity, clothing-wise.

What would it feel like to wear the same dress each day?  As part of an online community of people who were adopting the same practice?

What would it be like to identify with the majority of women on the planet who only have one or two dresses – at all?

I can’t believe how much I loved it.  I loved the simplicity of not having to figure out an outfit each morning.  I loved how comfortable it was.  I loved that I spent a lot less time fussing about what I looked like.  My wallet (and my husband) loved that I didn’t spend money on clothes!  It was very liberating, and I can see why monks and nuns adopt simplicity in their clothing choices.  In culture addicted to fashion frenzy and disposable clothing, it was a refreshing change.

Interested?  Wanna join me next year?  You can check out the facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/132972689585/ or read a couple articles http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2011/11/03/1765116/1-dress-30-days-more-than-a-fashion.html and http://octoberdressproject.blogspot.com/p/about-and-faqs.html

Practicing the Way of Jesus – Exercise in Celebrating Abundance

“I’m a pragmatist,” I tell people.  “Not a theologian.”

And after twenty five years of trying to figure out how to be a follower of Jesus and His Way, I find I’m getting even more practical in my old(er) age.

I find I’m not alone.  Many of us are kicking back at how the information age has created a glut of theological theory.  We want to be doers of the Word, not just hearers!  On Thursday nights I gather with a group of young leaders from different churches in the city.  We have dinner together.  We worship.  We share communion.  And we craft and perform experiments.  Thursday night has become our learning lab as we wrestle with Jesus’ teachings and how we can put them into practice.

We are inspired by, well, Jesus, of course, but also another guy named Mark Scandrette who wrote a book called “Practicing the Way of Jesus – Life together in the Kingdom of Love.”

His book and his website www.Jesusdojo.com challenge and guide us in our journey.

Here was the experiment of the last two weeks.  First we meditated upon some of Jesus’ teachings about security and provision, and decided to celebrate as a group how God has blessed us with abundance.  Each day we created a list of things we were grateful for.

Then we took an offering in the group, and shocked ourselves as we came up with over $1000!  With the money, we decided to shower abundance on someone that God had been putting on our hearts.  One of us is friends with a single mum who has three teenage girls, two of whom have significant health challenges.  The family needs to move, but lacks the resources.

We purchased gift certificates for Ikea and Home Sense.  We got the mom some spa gift certificates and got each of the girls a mall gift certificate.  We put together a gift basket of their favorite foods.  We spent the night before delivery praying for the family, and writing messages of love and hope on cards for each family member.  We made a video of us sending our love, greetings and blessing to them.  And then we delivered it all to their home, along with a commitment to take care of their move for them – the packing, the cleaning, the truck acquisition, and the move itself.

Delivering the basket to the family was like Christmas morning, except with more tears.  Gotta be the most fun thing we’ve done in a loooooooong time… and we can’t wait to meet next week and reflect on our practice together!

In Jesus’ days, making disciples was learning from teaching AND learning by doing.  We are excited about our new Practice, and encourage you to create some experiments of your own!

Click on the link below and hear some of Mark’s thoughts about Practicing the Way of Jesus

http://vimeo.com/23915843

Day in the Life of an Urban Monastic – Take 2

6 am

I wake.  Tossed and turned a fair bit in the night.  Sleep gets a bit out of whack when Kirk is on night watch…

7:30 am

Waiting for a bus.  I’m learning to navigate the quirky Hamilton Transit System.  After a long wait I discover the Canon bus doesn’t run this early on a Sunday, so it’s the Barton Bus for me.  The #2 Barton is always an adventure.  Today I learn from a grizzled old Portuguese man how he clung to the side of a high building for 3 1/2 hours when the scaffolding on his work site broke.  Four of his co-workers died that day.  “Relax, they tell me!  Howmy gonna relax!”  Again, I meditate on how car ownership has in the past separated me from my community and my neighbors.  I feel much more grounded in my neighborhood when walking and taking public transit.

10:00 am

I’ve been in the prayer room for a couple hours already.  We’re winding up a week of 24-7 prayer for World Missions today, graciously hosted by Wentworth Baptist.

A whirlwind blows through the prayer room – well, actually its a Sunday School Class.  Some write prayers on the walls, others just ricochet around the space like pinballs.  A young man in his mid teens lingers.  He gets out his hockey stick and puck.  “Sorry,” I say, “hockey in the hall, not the prayer room.”  He gets another idea and hunts down a Monopoly game.  “Do you have a table we can set up in here and play?”  Again I remind him we are here for prayer.  “You don’t have to stay all day if you’re bored.”  “No, it’s ok,” he responds. “I don’t really like being at my home.  Here’s good.”  He stays most of the afternoon, eventually writing down prayers for the Hamilton Tiger Cats on the walls.

2:30 pm

Got a break before my evening shift.  I walk a few blocks south to visit a new friend I met at the prayer truck.  I am greeted with gracious hospitality and served lovely tea and pie.  “I made it in my electric frying pan, because my oven door doesn’t close,”  she says.  Another friend pops in, and we all pray together.  I move on to my next errand.  A couple streets over, I pick up the book I have to read in preparation for my Uganda trip in the spring.  It’s called “When Helping Hurts ~ How to alleviate poverty without hurting the poor and yourself”.

My friends aren’t home, but the book is in the mailbox.  I sit on their porch for an hour, taking in the lovely autumn afternoon, devouring half of the book and amusing myself wondering what the neighbors think of strangers roosted on the porch.

8 pm

Tearing down the prayer room.  I always feel so conflicted at this point.  What to do with all the prayers people have poured out on the newsprint?  I carefully photograph it all, then start ripping away.  The whole thing comes down a lot faster than it went up!  The room is then reset for it’s next incarnation – the headquarters of the church’s Out of the Cold program.  I’m glad that prayer and loving service happen in the same place.

10 pm

I text a couple friends in my small group.  Does anybody know how to fix an oven door?  Find a handyman and set up a visit for tomorrow.  Maybe next week I can have pie cooked in the oven….

Dangerous Prayers

About 14 years ago.

I’m sitting in a pew.

Alone.

It’s Wednesday morning.  I’m happy.  Content.  Reflecting on the goodness of God.  I have been in an accelerated season of personal healing and restoration.  He has been pouring out His love and blessing in wonderful ways.

“Could you keep doing it, Lord?  Keep pouring Yourself out into my life?”

The response startles me.  A quiet voice.

“Would YOU pour yourself out, Jill?”

A scripture verse comes to mind, where Paul talks about being poured out like a drink offering of sacrifice and service.

I pause for a moment.  Then pray a dangerous prayer.  Sing a dangerous song, actually.  Just made one up on the spot.

“Make my life a prayer, make my life a song, make my life an offering to you, I want to pour it out…”

And something in heaven is set into motion….

Fast forward fourteen years.  As we approach the anniversary of the Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP), I’m reflecting on my dangerous prayer, and God’s gracious response.  I’ve been a prayer missionary (or monastery Abbess) for ten years.  My life has indeed become a prayer and a song, and an offering.  It’s been hard.  Really hard.  But inexpressibly wonderful and glorious.  I don’t really have words, except to say that God has been good.  More than good.  Great.

The other night I was with our small group, and we were reflecting on dreams that God has given us.

“What’s yours, Jill?” they turn to me.

I pause a moment.  “Well, I’m living them already, actually.”

Dangerous prayers.  Risky adventures of faith.  Living the dream.

I just want to invite you to join us in our celebration.  We’re having a birthday party for GOHOP next Saturday, the 15th.  500 James St. North in the True City/GOHOP offices, 5 pm.  It’s a little potluck standup reception, so bring fingerfood/munchies, and come celebrate God’s goodness with us!  I also want to invite you to join us as we host a prayer gathering next weekend for 24/7 Prayer Canada.  You can see the gathering details at www.24-7prayer.ca

If you want to hear the dangerous prayer of mine that became a song, you can listen to it a bit on itunes, or even buy it if you want!  It’s called “Make My Life a Prayer.”

Small is Beautiful

GOHOP is coming up to it’s 10 year anniversary on October 15.  Happy Birthday, us!

When the vision for the House of Prayer began to roll out a decade ago I felt very inadequate and overwhelmed.  The only model of House of Prayer that I had to look at was IHOP down in Kansas City, which at that time had hundreds of prayer missionaries (thousands now!), their own facility, and were managing to pull off 24 hours a day, 7 days a week worship and prayer.  The only model of House of Prayer Director I had to look at was Mike Bickle, and let me tell you, Mike I ain’t!  Though the call was clear, the task felt daunting.

“Lord, how am I going to build a House of Prayer?”  I fretted.

“One person at a time.” was His response.

And it’s been just that.  One by one, people have come, embraced the lifestyle, and been molded into Houses of Prayer, living breathing tabernacles of His Presence.  Many of them have “graduated” from GOHOP to start ministries or to step into significant leadership roles.

Have we built a big impressive organization?

No.

And we’re in good company.  Historically, the majority of monasteries were small gatherings of men and women who set themselves apart to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer, learning, hospitality, creativity, mission, mercy and justice.   As they lived out that ethos they became living letters from the heart of the Father.  Unimpressive at first glance, but their influence has preserved and shaped culture over the centuries.  For a great book about this, I recommend “How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill.

I get calls and emails from folks who want to come out and see what the House of Prayer looks like.  “Well, it’s really not all that much to look at,” I caution.  “We’re just a bunch of folks who hang out and pray together.”  It feels like we are like the little mustard seed in the gospels.  Very small.  Insignificant really.  But somehow, by the grace of God, many people, and even many leaders, have been able to rest in our branches over the years, and continue to do so.

Small is beautiful.

Interruption or Gracious Invitation?

Can you imagine if Jesus had a Blackberry?

I can just picture the scene.  Blind Bartimaeus shouting by the side of the road, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus pauses.

And whips out his Blackberry, “Well, let’s take a look.  I think I can fit you in….Tuesday at 2…no, I’m doing loaves and fishes that afternoon.  Hmm, what about Wednesday at 9:15?”

When I read the gospels I am amazed to see how full of interruptions they are.  Poor Jesus doesn’t do more than step out the door in the morning, and he is beleaguered by the hostile, the sick, and the curious.

I would have been totally exasperated by it.  “C’mon everybody – can’t you see we’re on our way to Jerusalem?  Let’s get going already!”

And yet Jesus wasn’t.  I believe He understood that what seemed to be interruptions were really gracious invitations from His Father. “My food and drink is to do the will of the One who send me.”

He illustrates this in the Parable of the Great Banquet.  The Father lays a table, and invites us to come.  But we are too busy, too pre-occupied.  We knew the banquet was coming, but we neglected to put it in our daytimers.

I can remember what I call The Great Interruption.  Rewind twelve years.  I had been on staff with a local church for about six years, learning to manage various departments, looking forward to getting ordained and launching as a church planter.  Very innocently, I visited some meetings down at Little Trinity Church in Toronto, where some crazy musician/prayer folks were visiting from the House of Prayer in Kansas City.  I remember sitting in the back of the church, stunned, stirred and shaken, knowing I had been interrupted and that my life was going to detour onto a road that I hadn’t even known existed.  Everything in my life since then has flowed down from that watershed experience.

If you want to hear more about divine interruptions and gracious invitations, I would invite you to have a listen to my teaching on the topic.

Interruption or Gracious Invitation

He is setting a table before us.  Will we come and eat, and taste of His goodness?