one of the things we do in hOME is explore the idea of living by a rule-of-life. some of us explore it more than others! we spent a chunk of time working on it at the weekend away. there are a number of aspects to what we do in hOME that are influenced by the monastic tradition and this is one of them. it starts from a recognition that, left to our own devices, we don't live the way we would ideally like to live. we tend towards a lack of focus. a rule-of-life is a tool to help us to overcome this. we wanted our Rule to be one that was holistic in nature i.e. traditionally discipleship has been thought about in terms of the 'spiritual' parts of our lives. we wanted a tool that would help us to be whole-life disciples. so our Rule operates in 4 areas (see diagram below) which help us to be holistic. we make S.M.A.R.T. commitments in each of these areas that we ask the others in our huddles (small groups) to hold us accountable for. the 4 areas come with 4 questions:
Prayer: what are you doing to develop your relationship with God?
Mission: what are you doing to share in God's mission in the world?
Resources: what are you doing with the things you have?
Personal Development: what are you doing to help you grow as a person?
so we make commitments in each area in answering those questions. these are not things put on us by others but things that we choose for ourselves. for example, someone might commit to reading a psalm before getting out of bed each morning etc. we look to make the commitments rhythmic and sustainable. this is a TOOl. the goal is not to practice the Rule-of-Life. the goal is to get to the point where we have found a rhythm to our lives that we have internalised, that has become second nature to us, that we live out of, and that helps us to live the way we want to live.
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