Webinar: The Well-Ordered Way

Here are some resources men­tioned in The Well-Ordered Way: Find­ing Free­dom in a Rule of Life web­cast con­ver­sa­tion between Stephen Mac­chia, Jonathan Bai­ley, and Car­olyn Arends.

SPE­CIAL NOTES AND OPPORTUNITIES

• For even more wis­dom on this top­ic, you may wish to vis­it (or revis­it) our 2021 Webi­nar, Find­ing your Rhythm: Craft­ing a Rule of Life (with Ken Shige­mat­su and Jean Nevills)
  
  

• One of this webinar’s pan­elists, Steve Mac­chia, is releas­ing a new book enti­tled The Dis­cern­ing Life: An Invi­ta­tion to Notice God in Every­thing. Any­one who pre-orders the book can par­tic­i­pate in a free ​“Read­ing Retreat” — learn more here.
  
  

• You can learn more about the Ren­o­varé Insti­tute for Chris­t­ian Spir­i­tu­al For­ma­tion here. (The dead­line for the 2022 – 24 cohort is Feb­ru­ary 1^st, 2022, at which point we will begin open­ing appli­ca­tions for the 2023 – 25 cohort.)
  
  

• The next book in the Ren­o­varé Book Club is A Burn­ing in My Bones: The Autho­rized Biog­ra­phy of Eugene Peter­son. We hope you can join us!

WEBI­NAR RESOURCES

• Webi­nar Record­ing with­out ads

Count­down Song

• New Years Day from the album Just Get­ting Start­ed (An Acoustic Reflec­tion on 20 Years in Music) by Car­olyn Arends

Resources Rec­om­mend­ed by Stephen Macchia

• Books by Stephen Macchia
  • Craft­ing a Rule of Life (Mac­chia)

    • Def­i­n­i­tion of Per­son­al Rule of Life (p. 14): ​“Your per­son­al rule of life is a holis­tic descrip­tion of the Spir­it-empow­ered rhythms and rela­tion­ships that cre­ate, redeem, sus­tain and trans­form the life God invites you to humbly ful­fill for Christ’s glory.”

  • Rule​oflife​.com — web­site sup­port­ing Craft­ing a Rule of Life

  • The Dis­cern­ing Life: An Invi­ta­tion to Notice God in Every­thing,

• Oth­er Rec­om­mend­ed Resources

  • God in My Every­thing (Shige­mat­su) — con­tains an appen­dix with many prac­ti­cal exam­ples of a vari­ety of Rules of Life

  • Com­mon Rule: Habits of Pur­pose for an Age of Dis­trac­tion (Ear­ley)

  • The Rule of St. Bene­dict — many edi­tions avail­able online

• Steve’s 5 Areas of Con­sid­er­a­tion for Craft­ing a Rule of Life

1. Spir­i­tu­al Life — Rela­tion­ship with God

2. Phys­i­cal Well-Being — The Body as a Tem­ple of the Holy Spirit

3. Call­ing — the Mis­sion­al Work of the Holy Spirit

4. Finances — how do I stew­ard my treasure?

5. Rela­tion­ships with others

• Romans 12:1 – 2 — The Mes­sage: Place Your Life Before God

  • So here’s what I want you to do, God help­ing you: Take your every­day, ordi­nary life — your sleep­ing, eat­ing, going-to-work, and walk­ing-around life — and place it before God as an offer­ing. Embrac­ing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjust­ed to your cul­ture that you fit into it with­out even think­ing. Instead, fix your atten­tion on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Read­i­ly rec­og­nize what he wants from you, and quick­ly respond to it. Unlike the cul­ture around you, always drag­ging you down to its lev­el of imma­tu­ri­ty, God brings the best out of you, devel­ops well-formed matu­ri­ty in you.

• Clos­ing Prayer: Psalm 16

Resources rec­om­mend­ed by Jonathan Bailey

• Books by Jonathan Bailey

  • The Eter­nal Jour­ney (Booklet/​PDF)

  • DWELL app

• Oth­er Resources

  • Life of St. Antho­ny (Athana­sius)

  • Wis­dom of the Desert (Mer­ton)

  • Seek­ing God: The Way of St. Bene­dict (de Waal)

  • Prax​is​labs​.org — com­mu­nal rule of life for busi­ness leaders/​entrepreneurs

Resources rec­om­mend­ed by Car­olyn Arends

• Ren­o­vare Articles

  • How We Order Our Hearts (Car­olyn Arends)

  • How to Cre­ate a Rule of Life Based on the Six Streams (Chris Webb)

Oth­er Resources Men­tioned in the Webi­nar and Chat:

• The Artist’s Rule by Chris­tine Val­ters Paint­ner. She is a Bene­dic­tine Oblate and author of sev­er­al books. Her book is a 12-week jour­ney intro­duc­ing you to Bene­dic­tine thought and cre­at­ing a per­son­al rule as an artist.

• Don Pape (papecom​mons​.com)

• The Monk Man­u­al (monkman​u​al​.com)

• Northum​bri​a​com​mu​ni​ty​.org

• Order Of The Mus­tard Seed

• 100​daysof​Dante​.com

• Rad­i­cal Spir­it (Chit­tis­ter)

• Wis­dom Dis­tilled from the Dai­ly: Liv­ing the Rule of St. Bene­dict Today (Chit­tis­ter)

• Always We Begin Again (McQuis­ton)

• The Bene­dict Option (Dreher)

• The Soul of Shame (Thomp­son)

• The Com­mon Rule: Habits of Pur­pose for an Age of Dis­trac­tion (Ear­ley)

• Habits of the House­hold: Prac­tic­ing the Sto­ry of God in Every­day Fam­i­ly Rhythms (Ear­ley)

• Prac​tic​ingth​e​way​.org (a new ini­tia­tive from John Mark Comer)

Thank you:

We are grate­ful for the gen­er­ous donors who make the work of Ren­o­varé pos­si­ble. If you would like to con­tribute, please click here to make a tax-deductible dona­tion.