Life in the house is in a pretty good space! At the beginning of November we had Mim Briggs join the residential team, from her home in Sheffield. She’s been a brilliant addition to both the wider House of Prayer team, as well as simply within our household, bringing much laughter, enthusiastic singing, and a beautiful heart for God and people. She’s definitely ‘livened things up’ for us as a house and it’s been wonderful to see the vibrancy she’s brought to all of our lives!
Over the course of the winter we’ve also begun to recognise that we, as a ‘new monastic’ expression of community, need to do some work in building our own frameworks and rhythms. For most of the last couple years, we’ve unconsciously been in a bit of a ‘all hands on deck’ season of supporting the wider vision and transitions involved throughout WAT, but with the realisation now that we haven’t necessarily been able to put in place some of the frameworks and intentions needing to develop for us as a residential community to thrive.
It’s been really encouraging to hear that we’ve all begun to sense that this is a season to begin ‘forming’ ourselves as a house a bit more, so that we can more fully live out the values and practices we’re hoping others will experience when they come to visit or get involved with events onsite. And it’s been even more encouraging to see some of the small things we’ve been able to put in place, making significant impacts to our own house culture.
Finally, recently we also had the opportunity to go away for a weekend to the beautiful Lee Abbey in Devon, with our wider Community Companion team, as we also begin to look at how the shifts and continuing growth and development within the wider WAT organisation will effect how the original ‘team’ - those who have been praying into and envisioning these dreams since before it’s inception - and how we function. We all feel there are some changes coming, with some who’ve been involved feeling a shift to withdraw or transition into different involvements, as well as a sense of needing to begin considering what a longer term ‘leadership team’ might look like for the wider House of Prayer, within the overarching organisation.
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| Lee Abbey Beach View |
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| Some of the "Companions" on retreat :) |
So, lots of questions and conversations are going on at the moment, but it all feels like a healthy season of growth and, to an extent, ‘finally’ beginning to develop the foundations which will be needed to enable long term sustainability and growth! Exciting!
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