Join us at the Mustard Seed House for an evening of conversation with Missio Dei’s communitarian Mark Van Steenwyk and follow Mustard Seed House people.

Mark Van Steenwyk is a member of Missio Dei (an Anabaptist intentional community anchored on the West Bank of Minneapolis that pursues Jesus’ way of simplicity, prayer, hospitality, and peace). Missio Dei is affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA and the Baptist General Conference.

The evening will be an informal time of sharing stories and experiences about new monasticism, intentional communities and radical discipleship.

For more info, contact Eliacín

When? Friday, February 27 at 7:00 PM

Where? Mustard Seed House , Seattle (click to see map)

This is a free event, but spaces are limited. Registration is required. Register here.

Download now this PDF including a new set of Advent responsive prayers curated by Christine Sine.

Advent Morning & Evening Prayers.

This are the prayers we are using at the Mustard Seed House – daily at 8:30 AM (PST) and 9:00 PM (PST). Download them and pray with us.

Via Godspace

Sunday night we started a series of discernment sessions with the Mustard Seed House community to work out how we can put our MSA rule of life into practice.  Over the next few months we plan to use this process to flesh out the shape of not just our community life but our personal disciplines too.  The idea is not  to dictate how each person practices their faith but to provide a framework of accountability for the practices that each person wants to commit to.  I am a great fan of British theologian John Stott.  One of his great comments from a lecture of his is

“The answers we get depend on the questions we ask.  Our job is not to give people answers but to help them ask the right questions

Part of what we are discovering is that this discernment process enables us to ask the right questions that move us towards a more intimate walk with God and a life in which God’s presence is more deeply connected to everything that we do.

The first half hour of our meeting was spent checking in – reflecting on what we are looking forward to and what we have experienced in the last week.  This provided a wonderful foundation for our discussions.  We then asked other the question:

What personal prayer and Bible study practices would you like others to hold you accountable for?

As we shared we realized that we are all had very different ideas of how much time we should spend in prayer and Bible study.  Some of us were struggling with the very idea of daily prayer times because these had become rote routines that seemed to do little to strengthen our faith.  After a very open time of sharing we started to grapple with what is probably a much more important question for us.

What makes us feel closest to God?

As we discussed this question we realized that most of us draw closer to God through a variety of avenues that often have very little to do with Bible study and traditional forms of prayer.  However these practices often then draw us into prayer and Bible study as a way to go deeper into the revelation of God that we are already experiencing.  Some of us connected to God through nature, another person through walking on the beach or reading and yet another through encountering the divine presence of God in the mundane everyday things of life. Someone else encountered God through talking to friends and strangers.

Out of this discussion we have shaped our question for next week

Out of knowing how we experience God, what practices should we encourage in each other in order to help us experience God more deeply?

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Last month I interviewed Catie for the MSA Seed Sampler issue on Living Simply with Kids. I asked her thoughts on why she lives in community and the importance of gardening. It’s pretty insightful and very funny.

Listen here.

Tonight we had our first community dinner night with Dustin and Joy, the new communitarians at Mustard Seed House. After several times together and several times of prayer and discernment, we invited Joy and Dustin to be part in this adventure of living in intentional community.

Here is the Afro-Celtic prayer we prayed as way to begin this new season in the Mustard Seed House.

The Revolution Starts at Home: Living Simply with Kids

This will the the first in a series of workshops and conversations related to homegrown revolution, alternative living, sustainability, cultural awareness, social justice and other holy mischievous act of resistance and creativity.

For those of us trying to live an intentional Christian life kids can be both and inspiration and a frustration. We want to live out an alternate script from what society has written for us but it often seems like when it comes to our kids we’re on our own and have to start from scratch (which of course we don’t have time for, we’re parents!)

In this conversation we will be exploring together simplicity, sustainibility, whole-life faith, justice, life-long learning, and healthy parenting. And discovering how these issues affect the way we live with our kids and in the greater community.

Facilitated by Ricci Kilmer & Eliacín Rosario-Cruz

Hosted by Mustard Seed Associates and Mustard Seed House

• When? October 11th, 2008 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
• $10 Donation | Register online
• Soup and bread lunch provided.
• Please come and bring a snack to share and your own drinks.

Where? The Mustard Seed House  

View Larger Map

The Mustard Seed House (MSH) is an intentional Christian Community in Seattle. I am very fortunate to be one of the original core families and conspirators in this liberated space in which we try to embody God’s Kingdom value as a new kind of family.

Here are some photos of some of our gatherings, activities and ordinary family life. There will be more added soon. So keep checking them out.

Photos of the Mustard Seed House (via Flickr)

Peter and Anneke Geel will be leaving the Mustard Seed House in August. Peter has been accepted into the doctoral program at Georgetown University and for some reason they aren’t very keen on commuting to Washington DC each week. We are looking for a couple who are interested in joining our small community here in Seattle and moving into our 1 bedroom basement apartment. We are looking for people who can make at least a two year commitment.

The Mustard Seed House is an intentional, intergenerational Christian community with 3 families, 2 dogs, numerous bird feeders and a worm bin. We are little like a large extended family – kids and dogs are full participants in all our activities. We are keen organic gardeners, and are particularly concerned about creation care, sustainable lifestyles and spiritual rhythms for life. Our present shared practices include a  1+ weekly dinner and check in time, weekly prayer, and a 1+ monthly garden day. As a community we offer generous hospitality to people from around the world and provide an opportunity for visitors to explore a regular rhythm of prayer and worship as well as other aspects of kingdom living being modelled by the community.

The Mustard Seed House is part of Mustard Seed Associates though not everyone in the community works for MSA. The community often hosts MSA gatherings and provides a central place to gather to discuss issues facing us now and in the future and to develop creative models that reflect something of God’s kingdom values. We are in the process of developing a rule of life that will provide guidelines for shared practices not just for those in the Mustard Seed House but for others associated with MSA as well.

If this doesn’t sound too scary and you are still interested we would love to hear from you.

For more info contact mustardseedhouse@gmail.com

Thin Space Learning from the Celtic Saints:  a day long learning/sharing experience hosted by Mustard Seed Associates and the Mustard Seed House.

• When? June 7
• Where? Mustard Seed House, Seattle WA

Register online

The rediscovery of Celtic Christianity has been a delightful revelation for many followers of Christ in recent years. Many Christians are intrigued by this rich tradition and by the men and women who led it. They were described as God intoxicated people who lived with an intense sense of the presence of God. All of life and all of creation were embraced by the triune God whom they believed walked with them throughout life’s journey. 

The invigorating prayers and traditions of this movement continue to inspire people today. Come and learn from the Celtic saints and see how this wonderful Christian tradition can enrich and empower your prayer life and your spiritual observances. This day long seminar will explore the lives of Patrick, Columba, Brigit and Brendan and the rich understanding of prayer that each of these Christian leaders brought to their faith.

Discover new ways to connect your prayer walk to your everyday life as you explore the many examples of prayer that under girded the lives of these dynamic ancient followers of Jesus. Discover a deeper understanding of prayer as you learn to write Celtic prayers based on your own life situation. 

Schedule for the Day:

• 9:00 Welcome & morning prayer
• 9:30 Learning from Patrick – the all encompassing presence of Christ
• 10:30 Break
• 11:00 Learning from Columba – rhythms for life
• Lunch
• 1:00 Learning from Brigid & Brendan – journey into hospitality
• 2:30 – 4:00 Writing prayers for the journey
• 4:00 Sharing.
• 4:30 Closing and afternoon prayer

Register online

 The Mustard Seed House (MSH) is a small expression of Christ community in Seattle.  MSH is what I  called a Liberated Space – a God’s Liberated Space. With God’s help we are striving to embody in a physical space what we believe are the values of God’s new society. As a community living an alternative story and by different rhythms than those imposed to us by the Empire. If you ask us to describe ourselves, we might say that we are a group of people trying to follow God in the way of Jesus as a new kind of family.  

jordoncooper.com: The Missional Imagination
My question is what if we started to start ministries and ideas that had the community in mind as opposed to planting another church, what would they look like?  I think of Harambee (I love their history), Urban Rest Stop, a small scale family housing program, third spaces like the Freeway, or the Franktuary (read the story), or places like the Simple Way, Mustard Seed House, or the Hawthorn House. 

My other question is what if we made a commitment to the places abandoned by the empire?  I expressed my frustration before about the 1000 Christians descending on the west side to “clean up the place” for a day.  I guess it gives warm fuzzy’s to people who don’t actually shop, live, or even visit the lower west side but I am talking about making a long term commitment to a place that are often left behind.  These places aren’t just in the inner city either.  I was outside of Ottawa a couple of years ago and some of the rural communities look like the last the good thing that happened to them was during the Diefenbaker years.  I think of what former NHLer Joe Juneau is doing up in northern Quebec. 

When I have shared these discussions previously, one of the questions that comes up is sustainability.  Of course all of the links I have given have shown sustainability over the years in a variety of ways but there is a bigger question that we don’t often address and that is the unspoken idea something has to support a salary (often of clergy) to be worthwhile.  Until we figure out a way to fight our addiction to a paycheck from the church, the mission of many churches will be to provide employment for pastors.  Are we courageous enough to take a risk knowing that it probably won’t pay off but because it is the right thing to do and do it in some of the poorest neighborhoods where they may be no pay off?

Read more…