What is Suburban Monastery?

Suburban Monastery promotes the idea of spiritual depth and encounter.  While we affirm God’s radical accepting grace, we also long for spiritual maturity.  On announced dates during the fall, winter and spring, we create a Wednesday night sanctuary in the Westhall of Westside King’s Church.  We do this to signal the importance of spiritual formation for suburbanites — people who commute, work on computers, use credit cards, tune into the media, carry mortgages, and fight daily busyness.  We regularly ask the question: “can an authentic Biblical spiritual life be cultivated right where we live?”  We know that we need Christian community, and we realize that an encounter with the living Jesus in word and prayer changes us.  But we also need spiritual forms and patterns that keep us honest and engaged; we need a rule for spiritual life in order to escape the disorder of our private suburban worlds.  At Suburban Monastery, we look to the wisdom of the past, seeking to ground our faith in something older and wiser than ourselves.  Our hope is simple: we want to become more like Jesus while we become more ourselves.  PLEASE NOTE: Drop ins are welcome. You are free to attend any or all sessions: we call the monastery “a place, not a program”.

Update: Suburban Monastery for Lent

Suburban Monastery represents one way for us at Westside King’s Church to deepen our understanding of Christian spiritual practice.  This past fall we considered the teaching of Paul’s Colossian letter, taking as our theme the Christ-centered life.  In early January we held our annual days of prayer, focusing on the connection between prayer and worship.  March 5-7 marked our first annual Lent retreat.  Here are our plans as we move towards Easter.

For the Wednesday evenings of March 17th and 24th we present a two-part series we are calling The Baptized Life — a Lenten meditation on what it means to follow Jesus through the image of our baptism.  This is for two nights only.  As always we begin our sessions in silent prayer at 7 pm,  followed by public readings at 7:15 and then on into our teaching and interaction.  We conclude always promptly at 8:30.

March 17 — Baptism as identification with Jesus: lessons on the road to Jerusalem
March 24 — Baptism as alignment with God’s purposes: the Gethsemane prayer

During holy week (March 30 to April 1), we will again present the Stations of the Cross, 9 am to 9 pm Tuesday and Wednesday, 9 am to 5 pm Thursday.  Our Good Friday service will be held on April 2 at 10:10 am, followed by our Sunday Easter services on April 4.

Questions? Want to know more?  Want to be part of our information email list?

P  403.777.0800 ext 221
E  suburbanmonastery@wkc.org

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