“Ordered Members” of the Oikos Intentional Community share the common Rhythm of Life by ordering their lives according to the Oikos Community Rule of Life.
Worship & Prayer
Inspired by the monastic form of life, we seek to cultivate a common spiritual rhythm by aspiring to gather
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daily to pray,
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regularly for Communion, and
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weekly for Sabbath rest.
Our desire is to foster and inhabit a life and a Rule that is creative and inclusive.
We will seek to pray without ceasing – and will commit to daily prayer and scripture reading, when possible with the gathered community. We will also develope live streaming internet TV for members outside of the residence to join for prayer and meditation.
We will participate in the community’s regular Sunday worship and celebration of Holy Communion.
We will dedicate one day a week to Sabbath rest and re-creation.
Service
The context of our common worship is the teachings of our Dasa and, alternatively, our pastor. We have been called to participate, through Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, in God’s mission to bless the world, beginning from our own abandoned places in our city. The Oikos Community seeks to inhabit and proclaim the Authentic Gospel in Los Angeles and beyond.
We will maintain a missional posture towards the abandoned places of the city and the world, seeking prayerfully, and in consultation with other community members, to discern how God has called each of us to incarnate the Gospel in the context of the Oikos Community and its work.
We will seek to build relationships of reconciliation through extreme hospitality and outreach to the Inner city and homeless (as well as the prostitutes, drug addicts, alcholics), working with other members of the Oikos Community and with our ministry partners in the city.
True to the calling of discipleship, we will seek the peace and well-being [shalom] of our city. As we desire to inhabit God’s reign of peace, justice, and joy in Los Angeles, we will do so in prayerful and reflective solidarity with our neighbors. We will not seek to convert, but rather service those in need in perfect love. We will engage this mission daily.
Work & Celebration
Instead of simply being a group of like-minded individuals, in all of this we seek more to be a community who joyfully participates in the reconciling work of Christ. We seek to be a people who live at peace with one another through a spirit of celebration and a commitment to sacrificial and self-giving love.
We strive to deny ourselves daily, to pick up our cross and follow Jesus Christ fully as His disciples. We support one another with our time, our resources, and our prayers.
We will gather for times of fellowship and celebration.
Covenanted members outside of the residence will, whenever possible, attend monthly community meetings in order to share in the shaping of the governance and vision of the Oikos Community.
We will understand ourselves to be stewards of this community by offering of our resources: our time, our energy, our gifts, and our finances, as we are able.
We will treat conflict as an opportunity for transformation and commit to seeking reconciliation through an agreed upon process of conflict resolution.
Study
Our spiritual and our missional practices derive from particular historical, biblical, and theological traditions. In order to be good stewards of these traditions, and in order to maintain a critical awareness of our own context, we aspire to undertake regular practices of theological reflection through participation in community formation sessions and other gatherings.
We will participate in community formation sessions, which will consist of shared reflection on our common practices and theological education.
We will also participate, as regularly as possible, in special classes held by our Dasa, in order to deepen our understanding of the mysteries of scrioture, strengthen our bond with each other, share our stories, and discern how we will each live out our covenant with the Oikos Community.
We will look to our Dasa as spiritual leader and maintain weekly one on one sessions with our Pastor, serving under the Dasa.