Report from the School of Conversion p.1

I made it to San Francisco. I think the place named after Saint Francis is the perfect place to gather a group of people interested in discussing new monasticism.

I am staying in one of the 4 houses owned by Church of the Sojouners. This one is an old style row house, next to what they called The Monastery, because in it’s beginning it’s there where only single guys living on it. But that didn’t last long. There is one more house about a block from here and another one about 8 blocks away.

The group is quite inter-generational, which I was excited to see. I was even more excited when some people in the house started to converse with me in Spanish. This community is located in the Mission District which is mostly a Latino neighborhood.

There are about 16 of us that came from outside Church of the Sojourners for this School or Seminar for Conversion, as it was later pointed out. A school will take a whole life. There are people from Montana, North Carolina, Idaho, California and Washington

Our first session was lead by Dale Gish, a covenant member of Church of the Sojourners. Dale and his wife Debbie, have lived here for 20 years. They have a cute little 2 yr old girl named Rebecca, whom remind me a lot of Catie, with beautiful brown eyes.

Dale lead us in a discussion about conversion. His focus was how the people of Israel were losing their identity as the people of God at the time of John the Baptist. The presentation was very introductory, but it brought good parallels on the issue of how much Israel had forsaken their called and were influence by Roman culture with how much the western/north american christian church derive it identity from north american culture.

After the talk & discussion we went to our respective household for dinner. We had Tuna Pie for dinner in my house. I know it does not sound that appetitive, but it was very good. We had kids in our table which made the time fun and relax. We engage in a conversation about the importance of living in intergenerational communities, for 3 mayor reasons, pass along the wisdom of the old, reconciliation and for a sense of hope in something that take long to mature.

Tim Otto lead our second session. Tim have been part of this community for 15 years. His topic was an overview of God calling a people to himself but for the world. I was very impacted byt his exegesis about how the doors of hell will not prevail against the church. He spoke not that the church will be strong against the gates of hell (which is what is mostly taught) but that the doors of hell will not withstand the force of the church. What a great image! The community of the Beloved coming with all the force of love and the gate bursting down.

After that session, there was cake, tea and fruit and a lot of small discussions.

People came with different motives and purposes. Some, like myself, are part of a community and are looking to learn from others how to be more intentional about covenants, mission, praxis etcetera. . Some have read Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution and are curious about new monasticism.

We close our time together with chanted evening prayers and Psalms.