A Place Apart Community Blog

Are You Ready?

2009-07-21T22:34:00.004-04:00

To: Those who have a connection to A Place Apart

From: Paul Grout, Director/Oblate, A Place Apart

Those of us connected to A Place Apart have a deep love and respect for the Church. The

Church has nurtured us, it has in so many ways brought us to where we are.

We are coming to believe that the Church that we have known will not continue. The decline of

the North American Church will accelerate through the next five years. The Church as it most

commonly exists today is not sustainable economically or spiritually.

The denomination, districts, and local churches are typically depending upon people over sixty to

provide up to ninety percent of annual budgets.

The building centered, program centered, pastor centered church is collapsing under a weight

that it can no longer sustain. Increasing percentages of church members under fifty are rushing

in and out on Sunday mornings. The spiritual, administrative, and physical demands of

maintaining the church are progressively falling on people over fifty.

Seeking to revive what has been or bring renewal to what now exists will at best only prolong what

is, and unconsciously create a barrier of resistance to what could be. It is not that the church and

it’s leaders have failed. The Spirit is calling forth something new and ancient, something deeper

and wider and richer than what has been known. Many of you have been feeling this calling forth,

but few of us have understood how to even begin responding. There is a growing almost

universal sense of loss and emptiness that many are now seeing a Spirit generated prelude to

the emergence of new life.

A Place Apart and so many similar groups that are emerging throughout the country are seeking

to give voice to what has happened and prepare the soil for planting the new and ancient garden.

The church will be reborn in a new form through the rebirth of individuals; body, spirit and mind

into a new realm of consciousness and a new realm of being. This realm was introduced and

empowered by Jesus Christ.

A Place Apart is not about bringing forth the next new thing. We do not have a program to save

the church. We are seeking to reconnect our lives to God, to the Earth, to each other, to

ourselves.

A Place Apart is about beginning to step apart from the life that is no longer serving us or others.

It is about stepping apart to become a part of the life that God daily makes available to us.

If you and some within your church are ready to begin exploring with us what a new life within the

Spirit might involve, we encourage you to contact us.

A Place Apart

Paul Grout

(802) 387-4177

apartvermont.org

e-mail apartvermont@gmail.com

Coming Soon

2009-05-30T22:38:00.001-04:00

Look for new reflections, questions, poetry and liturgy and new updates from A Place Apart starting this summer!

Cross Meditation

2009-04-10T18:08:00.003-04:00

wondering
when this would ever end
or would it ever end
wanted to escape somehow
run away from this spot
felt so weak
so vulnerable
tried to utter a prayer
recite some scripture...
but nothing came to me
as I stood beneath the cross
nothing...

this blood will give you life
do not run away from it
rather draw strength
from this moment

- This shortened meditation taken from
Michael Kennedy's book Eyes on the Cross
(pgs. 184-188)

Listening to the Spirit

2009-03-18T12:51:00.000-04:00

Song is

all around you

Turn off

the screens

your mind

Listen

Breath

Your heart beats

Quit straining

for melody

start participating

in rhythm

Listening to the Spirit

2009-02-24T11:44:00.003-05:00

Can you see what is happening;

Where all things are going?

Everything is being taken away,

new life is made possible.

Accept that it will never be the same,

receive what is emerging,

or you will live in fear,

in the illness of separation.

The wall separating us are crumbling;

must crumble.

Divisions no longer exist

between;

male and female

rich and poor

foreign and domestic

alien and citizen

spiritual and unspiritual

The illusion of superiority is being broken;

position,

status, goodness, geography, color

uptown,

downtown,

city,

country,

condominium,

trailer park, may it now be on Earth as it is in Heaven.

You will wish them to be whole,

fully alive,

without malice or illusion,

living in the mystery,

thankful, connected to God, each other, the Earth, themselves,

And you will wish the same

for the sons and daughters

of your neighbors,

next door, and throughout the world.

This is what is coming,

This is where hope resides.

Listening to the Spirit

2009-02-04T12:08:00.004-05:00

...you made that pact
with a dark presence
in your life.

He said "If you only
stop singing
I'll make you safe."

And he repeated the line,
knowing you would hear
"I'll make you safe"

as the comforting
sound of a door
closed on the fear at last...

-David Whyte
"The Fire in the Song"

How have you stopped singing?
Has it made you safe?

Listening to the Spirit

2009-01-13T22:12:00.004-05:00

You released your grip on the shore years ago.

You swam into the rivers current

to let it take you where it would

and as you began to float away

they shouted from the shore;

“You’ll drown

mortgage payments, retirement,

security,

that isn’t where you belong,

that isn’t the way it’s done,

you’ll be all alone.”

But you weren’t alone.

As you were swept along

you looked around

and floating with you,

others,

the community of the river

and through the years it has grown,

those who have let go of knowing,

on a journey of seeking,

floating toward the mouth

where the river empties

into the vast and open sea.

But the season of floating is ending

and the season of the sea

awaits its appointed time.

Floaters join hands

begin the new community

working your way to shore

and together go back

upriver

passing places that were once home

where you can no longer be,

offering a blessing,

thankful for all that has been,

continuing on

now seeking the river’s source

it’s ancient beginning

where pure springs of living water

bubble up

from the deepest places.

Here

where you thought you had never been,

remembering

being here

before time began

in the great coming together.

P.G.

Listening to the Spirit

2008-12-31T15:49:00.000-05:00

You cannot protect your heart from aching over the destruction, the devastating effects of a culture and its empire lost in fear, blinded by affluence, physically, spiritually, mentally exhausted even as it continues to frantically race to cover over its naked emptiness.

You are a part of this culture, a citizen of this empire; part of it’s clinging; held prisoner in a cell whose doors I have long ago opened. You can search for new ways to cover over your loneliness. You can live in the illusion of your superior understanding. You can continue searching outside of yourself.

Or you can fall on your knees, quiet the voices within your mind that you have given your life’s attention to , and listen to your deepest self that has always known, and I will hold you, speak to you and begin to walk you home.

P.G.

A Shift in Focus

2008-12-09T13:27:00.007-05:00

(A message from APA Director, Paul Grout)

I would like to begin experimenting with a shift in focus on the A Place Apart blog. I have appreciated the insights and discussions but would like to see what I will call a more primary, elemental, personal, raw engagement.

In North America and within the North American Church, we tend to talk about ideas, about faith, about God and about what might or should happen. What would happen if we found time in each day to listen for what God might actually speak directly to us?

I’m asking us
to start listening,
not talking to God,
not dialogue,
just listening.

Let’s put aside for a time what we think should change in the world and the church and just see what God would say to us individually. Let’s record on the blog what we hear and let's share what we are hearing, what we believe God to be speaking to us.

Isn’t this essentially what the Psalms are in the Bible?

Let’s see if what God is saying to you has any relationship to my life and the life
of my community. For example, I got up the other morning to spend some time listening and this is what I heard: (click here to read devotional thought or scroll down to previous post)

A note about our listening:
This listening has to be entered into as much as possible in a childlike state. There is a sense in which we already know, have always known, since we were little children, the answers to life’s deepest questions. We have developed blocks to inner peace, fears that imprison us in rooms with open doors. What we hear coming from God also comes from us, our intellect, our memory and experience; but isn’t this also part of God’s presence in our lives?

(As always we encourage you to share what the Spirit of God is showing you as you listen. This sharing may make us vulnerable but it allows for us to form a stronger community in Jesus Christ.)

Listening to the Spirit

2008-12-09T13:24:00.003-05:00

Your loneliness is part of being human.
It is rooted in the mystic side of your being,
it is the artist, the poet.
It is a part of your longing for more.
Guard against trying to cover it over.
Do not dwell on yourself,
your situation,
your feelings.
Do not pity yourself.
Deepen your relationship with Me.
Deepen your relationship with others.
Your loneliness cannot be healed,
It can only be transformed.
In your loneliness,
live in joy.

Question

2008-12-03T09:35:00.003-05:00

The Advent season
we remember
Mary's call to bear
the One who
became Light
in our darkness.

What are you "called" to bring forth in your life and the life of others?

Please share with the community

Devotional Thought

2008-12-03T09:34:00.003-05:00

Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions arising out of awe that comes from engaging the living God.

This type of questioning frees us. Frees us from having to have it all figured out. Frees us from having answers to everything. Frees us from always having to be right. It allows us to have moments when we come to the end of our ability to comprehend.

Moments when the silence is enough.

- Rob Bell
Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Questions in Review

2008-11-26T09:42:00.003-05:00

Since we've not had a lot of dialogue of late, we are going to post a review of the past 6 questions. We feel that these questions are too important to simply move on to another discussion. Feel free to make suggestions on topics that you would like to see discussed here at the A Place Apart blog. Look for a new question next Wednesday. In the meantime, give thanks with a grateful heart.

What troubles you most about Christianity in the North American Church today? For the full question click here.

How can you use your spiritual gifts to support A Place Apart? For the full question click here.

Has the old paradigm given way to something new? For the full question click here.

What is missing in the North American Church today that young adults/young families need? For the full question click here.

How is your life punctuated by prayer? For the full question click here.

Who was that person or persons that had a profound impact on your life? For the full question click here.

Devotional Thought

2008-11-26T09:41:00.003-05:00

Alive

GO
Risk
Play
Do good
Give love
Journey out
Live as if you had a thousand years to live
Live as if you were to die tomorrow
Return home
Receive love
Trust God
Pray
Rest
BE

-Kent Ira Groff
Journeymen

Question

2008-11-19T10:18:00.005-05:00

In the recent APA newsletter, the following statement was made:

You believe that something is so right about Jesus but you are troubled by so much about Christianity.

What troubles you most about Christianity in the North American Church today?

Devotional Thought

2008-11-19T10:17:00.002-05:00

Conversion is not about being anxious, but rather about being alert to what is happening around us. Conversion is listening to sounds around us but never straining to hear too far off. Conversion is being able to step back from our ambition, our self-esteem, our willfulness - the fog that clouds our vision. Conversion is humility. Conversion is forgetting about holiness and heroism, accepting instead the grace offered in ordinary things. Conversion is no more than a series of flickering moments, the vast majority of which will be unnoticed by ourselves and others, but the sum total of which forms and reforms our very humanity - and dictates whether we will ever come close to finding our spiritual core.

-Paul Wilkes
Beyond the Walls: Monastic Wisdom for Everyday Life

Question

2008-11-12T10:20:00.005-05:00

Are you a Sage, Prophet, Lover or Mystic?

MethodX has put together an informative Spiritual Types Test that is both fun and insightful. Click here or on the link to take the easy 15 question test.

There is an APA connection as well.
Envision it like this: Prophet=Warrior, Mystic, Sage=Monk.

For our discussion this week:

What Spiritual Type are you?
Is this how you would describe yourself?
Or do you see yourself more as another type?
How can you use your spiritual gifts to support A Place Apart?

Devotional Thought

2008-11-12T09:58:00.004-05:00

There are two ways of being a prophet.
One is to tell the enslaved that they can be free.
It is the difficult path of Moses.
The second is to tell those who think they are free that they are in fact enslaved.
This is the even more difficult path of Jesus.

-Richard Rohr, O.F.M.
The Wild Man's Journey

Question

2008-11-05T10:55:00.004-05:00

Something is happening in America today. There is a renewed sense of hope and vision. We at A Place Apart believe that we would be neglecting the pulse of a people if we didn't acknowledge this fresh spirit on this day. For the first time in many of our lives we don't fear inasmuch as we can now hope.

Do you sense that there a spiritual connection as well? Has the renewed sense of vision traversed into your faith?

While it is of the old paradigm to view these events solely as secular, we believe that what is happening cannot be separated into the mundane and the sacred. They are interwoven within the fabric of conscience.

Has the old paradigm given way to something new? Or are we of the same mind as Habakkuk, awaiting its appointed time?

Devotional Thought

2008-11-05T10:54:00.003-05:00

Then the Lord answered me by saying,
"Write down the vision and inscribe it on tablets,
It must be clear enough to be read at a glance.

For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail
If it seems slow in coming, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay."

Habakkuk 2:2-3

Question

2008-10-29T10:41:00.003-04:00

A few weeks back this statement was made in a Sunday School discussion: "If we want young adults and young families to come to our churches, we need to have the right kind of music. Music will draw them in."

How does that statement sit with you?

What is missing in the North American Church today that young adults/young families need?

(You need not be a young adult to respond to this question)

Devotional Thought

2008-10-29T10:21:00.004-04:00

This is the setting out.
The leaving of everything behind.
Leaving the social milieu. The preconceptions.
The definitions. The language. The narrowed field of vision. The expectations.
No longer expecting relationships, memories,
Words or letters to mean what they used to mean.
To be in a word: Open

If you think you know what you will find,
Then you will find nothing.
If you expect nothing,
Then you will always be surprised.
And able to bless the One who creates the world anew each morning.
So it is with setting out on the path of liberation, leaving everything.

- Lawrence Kushner
Honey from the Rock

Question

2008-10-22T09:46:00.007-04:00

In Esther De Waal's book The Celtic Way of Prayer she makes this simple observation:

The Celtic way of prayer was learned from the monasteries; it was from the religious communities that people learned to pray. As a result, they learned that there was no separation of of praying and living; praying and working flow into each other, so that life is to be punctuated by prayer, become prayer.

In what ways does your life mirror the above thought?
How is your life punctuated by prayer?

Devotional Thought

2008-10-22T09:28:00.003-04:00

Self Portrait

It doesn't interest me if there is one God or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you.
If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand.
I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living,
falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love
and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have heard, in that fierce embrace,
even the gods speak of God.

-David Whyte
Fire in the Earth

Question

2008-10-08T10:13:00.003-04:00

Welcome back everyone!

After a summer break, we are ready to dive back into our longings and discussions. Look for new devotional thoughts and questions every Wednesday morning. We'll start off with an easy discussion that will hopefully reintroduce us to one another.

In our society, the need for elders/mentors is becoming greater and greater. Who was that person or persons that had a profound impact on your life? Share a little if you want, you don't have to mention names if you so choose.

Go a bit further now.

Did that person or persons embody any particular aspects of a Warrior? A Mystic? A Monk?
How did they do so? And looking back, did their WMM tendencies influence your own?