Oak Grove Abbey News

We had our first guest "speakers" at the Abbey last night. Mark and Dawn Thames, of Lower Greenville Community in Dallas, graciously hung out with us for dinner, thought provocation and evening Compline. This couple, more than any other I can think of, embodies the street-level maturation of all the highest aspirations of our fledgling Abbey experiment. We felt an immediate connection and extreme encouragement to hear more of their experiences, successes and failures (and overall wisdom )from sincerely living in a missional-incarnational manner in a very "post-Christiandom" sub-culture for 10 years plus.

Posted by gdwill at 10:04 AM | Permalink |

There is a great cover article from Christianity Today about the small-but-growing movement called "the new monasticism." Although the Oak Grove Abbey isn't an exact replica of the examples described in the article, at least this is a well-written documentation that we aren't crazy -- or if we are, at least we aren't alone!

Posted by gdwill at 9:19 AM | Permalink |

Posted by Jolie at 3:35 PM | Permalink |

The Abbey community will be taking our "launching the year right" retreat this Sunday and Monday. Please pray for us as we dream out loud about what we believe God has afoot for the year.

Posted by gdwill at 6:20 PM | Permalink |

The Abbey celebrates it's first wedding engagement! Sean pulled out all the stops last Sunday night when he popped the question to Melissa on our deck over candle light and the setting sun. We had a great celebration with their family and friends, capped off with a toast and Eucharist (talk about "giving thanks"!). You can read Sean's first memoir of the occasion here.

Posted by gdwill at 6:11 PM | Permalink |