The Way
The Abbey of The Way is grounded in a time-tested tool called a Rule or A Way of Life. Originally developed in monastic communities, it has proved useful to lay and ordained believers seeking to follow God throughout the whole of life.
The Abbey Way focuses on three “Vs”: the Vision of God, the Virtues of Jesus, and the Via, or a Way of the Disciplines of disciples. We Behold God, we Become Like Him, and we Behave as He directs us. This Way encourages believers in the Triune God to pursue godliness, Christ-likeness, and holiness for His Glory and for His Kingdom.
The Vision of God - beholding, listening, attending to Him - is a key concept in the biblical narrative. We worship The Triune God - The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit - Who speaks, shows, and acts to enable us to know and follow Him. As we behold Him in His Glory, we become “godly”: we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His Image with ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). St. Irenaeus said, “the glory of God is a human being fully alive”, but then added, “the life of a human being is the Vision of God.” A Way of Virtue identifies twelve Attributes of the Triune God and invites us to listen and attend to Him as He has revealed Himself to us in Word and Spirit. Holding to this Vision of God requires lifelong intention and action on the part of the follower of Jesus. Ultimately, we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
In historic Christian teaching, the shape of our becoming like Jesus is framed by The Virtues of Jesus. As we focus our attention on God He places within us and draws from us the Image of His Son in Whom we have been created and recreated. His Virtues are intended both to center us in God and to define us as we become more “Christlike” in character. The core of Jesus’ Virtue is summarized in 1 Corinthians 13:13 as Faith, Hope, and Love which abide or remain. These three summarize the Character of Jesus, the Son of Man, demonstrated in His Life here on earth, and they become a template for us to reflect in our life today. Paul advises Christians in Thessalonica to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of our salvation (1 Thessalonians 4:8). The Abbey’s Way of Virtue focuses specifically on these three abiding Virtues, and identifies four sub-virtues for each of the three, yielding twelve life virtues based on the Life Virtues of Jesus. These are not attainable by human effort but are given to us by God. By God’s Grace alone, through Faith, Hope and Love given to us in the Holy Spirit, the Virtues of Jesus get replicated in us, God’s children.
The Abbey Way is a Via, a Way of Life, a cluster of disciplines of disciples which are the means of grace for keeping us in the Vision of God so that we can receive the Virtues of God. By The Holy Spirit we become “holy”, behaving like Jesus. We live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), set apart for God and for others in everyday action. The Way of Virtue identifies three kinds of disciplines or practices, first described in the Rule of St. Benedict. We pursue disciplines which stabilize us in Faith in God, others which convert us in Hope in God, and still others which help us in obedience to the Love of God A Way of Virtue offers four clusters of disciplines under each of these three headings that can help us to center on the Vision or Attribute of God as He plants in us or draws out of us His Virtues. These “sacramental” practices - outward and visible actions with an inward and spiritual focus - are adapted to the followers’ circumstances and stage of spiritual development.
Throughout our faith journey, God offers Himself to behold as The Vision or Source of transformation and mission; He gives us the desire for Virtue, to become like Jesus in Christ-likeness; and He enables our adoption of particular Way of disciplines as tools for behaving by the Holy Spirit, to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24).
This Way can be adopted in whole or in part, as directed by God Himself. The particular Vision of God, Virtues of Jesus, and associated disciplines of disciples can form a personalized Way or Rule of Life. The Way can put us in place where The Holy Spirit moves us toward the goal of godliness, Christlikeness, and holiness. In this we can better pursue our personal and corporate part in the global mission of Jesus Christ and the building of His Kingdom.
In the outline below, there is a biblical description of each summary Virtue, followed by a listing of four attendant sub-virtues, each connected to an ATTRIBUTE OF GOD, and a core set of disciplines or practices associated with that virtue. The concluding questions in each section can assist us in self-examination and growth.
We have Faith in GOD [The Father] through Stabilizing Disciplines
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. (Mark 11:22)
Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (Heb. 11:1)
Forgiveness
We turn to GOD OUR REDEEMER for His forgiveness from the Cross and the Grace to forgive others in various baptismal practices of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation
In what ways am I becoming more aware of my personal sin and our corporate sin, the depth of the forgiveness of God, and the need and the ability to forgive others?
Acceptance
We draw closer to GOD OUR FRIEND, who accepts us as His Friends, and gives us the heart to accept others in practicing communion disciplines with Him and with them
How am I embracing my being accepted by God in Christ and by others, and how am I extending this acceptance to family, friends, acquaintances, and neighbors? How do I worship God with others?
Empowerment
We open ourselves to GOD OUR STRENGTH to be empowered to be and to do what He desires, as we Pneumatic practices of being filled with the Holy Spirit
How am I becoming powered by The Holy Spirit more than by self? How am I seeking and receiving God’s power for purposeful living, and helping others to receive it?
Confidence
Humbly submitting to Church disciplines, we find our confidence in GOD OUR KING, Whose Kingdom will never fail and Whose Subjects will live forever.
How am I becoming more connected to God’s Kingdom People, the Church, in order to receive the confidence which being a subject of The King provides, and instilling that confidence in God in others?
We have Hope in GOD [The Son] through Converting Disciplines
Put your hope in God. (Psalm 42:5)
In Christ we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him Who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His Will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might live for the praise of His Glory. (Eph. 1:11-12)
Reflectiveness
We connect with the GOD THE ETERNAL in devotional practices of Bible reading, prayer, and journaling to reflect on our past, present, and future in Him
How am I coming to understand more of God's Word, myself and my world? How am I inviting others to help me to reflect, and encouraging others to do likewise?
Restfulness
We enter into the Rest prepared by the GOD OF PEACE for His people by keeping disciplines of Sabbath rest regularly, weekly and daily.
How am I taking part in the blessing of Sunday Sabbath Rest, so that the Rest of God will become part of my way of living, and become available through me to others? How am I resting at other times?
Relationships
We embody the Relationships within GOD THE HOLY TRINITY as we draw close to one another in the Church in group disciplines.
How am I improving my relationships with others and with Jesus as I become a close and faithful friend to some Friends of God, and to those who may become His friends? Am I part of a group in Christ?
Rendering
We render ourselves to the SELF-EMPTYING GOD and to others in stewardship practices of offering all that we are and have to Him and to them
How am I routinely giving my time, money, abilities, spiritual gifts, and body to God and to others? What can I give in the months and year ahead?
We have the Love of GOD [The Holy Spirit] through Disciplines of Obedience
God's Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:5)
Beloved, let us love one another. (1 John 4:7)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37,39)
Compassion
We serve the GOD OF JUSTICE in receiving and practicing His Compassion for this world and its people as we engage in practices of social action and evangelism
How am I growing in compassion for others, especially for the poor, sick, lonely, and the unbelieving? How am I helping to advance God’s Great Commission and Great Commandment?
Wisdom
We engage the GOD OF TRUTH by acquiring His Wisdom in the curiosity and conviction of His Word in His world, practicing disciplines of study and teaching
How am I learning or teaching God’s Word, and inquiring about God’s world and its people, so that I not only know more of Him but also become clearer in the convictions about Him I can share with others?
Confession
We publicly confess our need for the GOD OF MERCY and our need for His People in practices of dependent prayer and public witness
How do I admit to others my need the help of God and His People, and how am I seeking it out? How am I caring for others in the Body of Christ even as I seek their care for me? How deeply am I praying?
Contentment
We express our contentment in the new Life with the GOD OF GRACE as we develop practices of celebration and thanksgiving
How am I learning to cease complaining or criticizing? How am I celebrating Life together with others in ways which point to God’s goodness and to my gratitude?
THE WAY IN THE STAGES OF FAITH
The Abbey Way encourages those who use it to review and reform their way of life regularly. The focus on God, the pursuit of virtue, and associated sacramental disciplines need to be adjusted during the varied stages in the Faith Journey which are observable from birth to glory. These stages in the life of faith have most notably been delineated by John Westerhoff (Will Our Children Have Faith?), and Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich (The Critical Journey).
· The Experiential Stage, in which the young child relates to God primarily through personal experience. Regular experiences of security and chosenness in the family and encountering the goodness and creation can help the child feed God’s Presence.
· The Affiliative Stage of the pre-teen describes how the experience of God at this stage comes primarily through relationships in the family, supportive adults, the church, or believing peers. This enhances a sense of belonging to God’s Family and the privileges of being a child of God, and also reveal that people have fallen from this grace.ds
· The Searching Stage of adolescence, when youth push back at prior faith development can be a difficult season differentiation and challenge, but also an opportunity to learn and explore new dimensions of life in Christ, leading towards an authentic life in Christ.
· Within the Searching Stage, there can be a season of reckoning for the soul, The Fence, a time when adolescents feel either fenced in by the folds of faith, and/or fenced out from a deeper and more personal relationship with The Good Shepherd. It’s a confusing period of dise-ease leading either to a discovery of faith or its disintegration. God points to Himself as The Gate, either sending the soul out to “greener pastures” elsewhere, or in to good pasture with Him as He and His People are embraced in a deeper way.
· The Recognized or Owned Stage of young adulthood, or later in life, in which individuals embrace Christ wholeheartedly, secure their standing in Christ as they surrender to God and His Call, receive the New Self recreated in His Image, and experience personal redemption of their sin. This is what many believers describe as “becoming a Christian”.
· The Disciplined Stage, in which the believer restructures his or her new life in Christ around what they are learning from the Scripture, receiving from the Holy Spirit, and gathering from the Christian Community. They reorient their life around The God Who loves them, retooling themselves in His Image and consecrating themselves to His Mission and the service of His Kingdom.
· The Productive Stage, when followers of Jesus engage God’s particular calling to bear fruit for Him, sees them discerning their Life Purpose, being more fully transformed in His Image, and pursuing world transformation around them through the Holy Spirit.
· The Seeking Stage, in which the maturing believer begins to respond to broader faith questions, exploring the deeper dimensions of life in God, abandoning the self to the mysteries of Christ, and exploring engaging the world within and in world at large. This stage parallels the earlier Searching Stage of adolescence, and can be more intense for those who never engaged in that search in that prior stage of faith.
· Within the Seeking Stage, The Dark Night of the Soul or The Wall can occur, involving a season of disorientation, dismay, and doubt in which God invites an expansion in faith, delivers real hope through suffering, and refines true love in learning humility.
· The Serving Stage, marked by faith integration, involves a settling of the redeemed self, and a deeper sanctification in love. It parallels the prior Productive Stage, but with a greater emphasis on being as well as doing, and on the gift of the redeemed self as well as the call to redemptive action.
· The Love Perfecting Stage, a rarity, reveals a palpable holiness or wholeness of faith, satisfaction in one’s hope in God, and more fully surrendering in love to God and to others. Fear and shame are being cast aside by the Perfect Love of God.
These Faith Stages aren’t necessarily linear in their development, nor are they delineated by time or chronological age, but rather are recognizable responses to the Presence and Plan of God for each individual and community. An online faith stage assessment tool for adults created by Janet Hagberg (https://homeworld.ejay563.com/Spirit/survey.php) can be helpful in this discernment process.
The Abbey Way also identifies a state in the Faith Journey called “Homecoming,” when believers on the journey of life realize that they are soon to die. In this state, which can occur at any age or stage in the Faith Journey, those beloved of God are invited by Him to move from faith to sight in the glory to come, to enhance their expectancy of the Blessed Hope, and to prepare to finish the work of this life. In so doing, they can ready their bodies, souls, and spirits as much as possible for eternal life realized in the restored reunion of heaven and earth.
For each stage and the state of Homecoming, varied disciplines of sacramental practice are proposed for each aspect of Vision and Virtue. A schematic diagram for The Way of Virtue gives a picture of the interaction of Vision, Virtue, Practice, and Stage, with varied disciplines suggested for each stage, from childhood to adult and for Homecoming. An additional addendum further describes the disciplines collated by the stages of faith. The many disciplines here are intended as potential suggestions for the potential application of the Way of Virtue and are certainly not recommended to be adopted as a whole. They are described only briefly. Some are more fully explained in Adele Calhoun’s The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.
FOLLOWING A WAY OF VIRTUE
A Way of Life can take many forms. It can be as simple as St. Augustine’s “Love God and do what you will”, or as detailed as St. Benedict’s Rule, which included specific times for meals and sleep. If it is to be useful in helping you to grow deeper in living in, like, and for Christ, it should come from God and be addressed personally to you. Coming from God, it should be in accord with His Word, the Bible, and involve prayerfully seeking the Holy Spirit in communion with other believers in your life or church community, and with Rules of Life from church history. Addressed to you, a Way of Life should fit your personality: if you are a free spirit you might need more structure to help you to grow, beyond the limits of your personal freedom; if you are hyper-responsible, a very detailed Way of Life might induce a sense of failure, and so a lighter touch might take you beyond the limits of your self-discipline. Also, your Way of Life needs to be appropriate to your life situation, and therefore should be reviewed regularly for accountability, and occasionally for revision.
The Way of Life that The Abbey recommends identifies a desired life outcome, expressed in terms of a Christian virtue, and then suggests some spiritual disciplines or habits that will put you in a place where God can enable you to attain the virtuous outcome. With the encouragement of the Holy Spirit and His people in your Christian community, you could choose one or several of the twelve virtues as an outcome, and consider one or several of the suggested spiritual disciplines to help you, or develop your own discipline or habit. Commit this discipline and its anticipated outcome to the Lord, and to His people.
Those who pursue a Way of Life are encouraged to keep things simple, as the whole involves way too much to digest and practice. One might focus on the vision, virtue and discipline that God seems to be highlighting, and proceed from there. Or one could consider one’s current stage of faith and develop a way of life that helps not only in living fully in that stage, but also in preparing for the next. Or one could walk through the year, focusing monthly on the particular Vision of God, virtue from God, and sacramental disciplines appropriate for one’s stage of faith. Or it could serve as a way of tweaking, broadening, or deepening a Way or Rule of Life which one is already pursuing. Keeping the whole of The Abbey Way in some sort of view can be helpful as one pursues and develops a Way of Life consonant with their person and their community, and reflecting the Life of Jesus Christ in us in this world.
Pursuing a Way of Life is meant to be done in the company of other believers. Though Rules of Life are personal, they aren’t to be conceived personally or followed individually. They have best been associated with a Christian community or group, and are then individually personalized with the encouragement of others who are similarly seeking to walk in that Way. Several groups - The Followers of The Way, The People of The Way, The Shephers of The Way, and The Forerunners Fellowship - are described at the top of this page. You are welcome to contact The Abbey for assistance with learning more about or getting connected with others in this Way of Life.
Meeting with a Spiritual Friend or Director can be helpful in discerning and living The Way of Virtue. Such a person can help the one who seeks to follow this Way to discern how The Lord is directing them. The Abbey of The Way can help to connect you with such a person.
DEVELOPING A WAY OF LIFE
Make a list of your existing spiritual disciplines to look at your current Way of Life, whether it’s something you have written out or something you haven’t really thought about.
Evaluate it in the light the Abbey Way of Life. What is one area of your life you want to grow with the Lord’s help?
Which of the 12 Attributes of God are you most drawn to explore further, or are you least familiar with?
Which of the 12 virtues in the Way of Life outline is most “attractive” or “needful” to you?
Which of the 12 clusters of spiritual disciplines might be mosts helpful to you or are you drawn to explore further?
When, where, and how will you start?
What help do you need?
Who can guide you or pray for you as you begin?
Who might be willing to join you in pursuing a Way of Life so that you are not alone?
To whom will you be accountable as you step forward?
Above all, pray, pray, pray; practice, practice, practice; and believe even in your unbelief. Both of these spiritual disciplines are essential and, obviously, God is indispensable.
Almighty God, Whom truly to know is everlasting Life: grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that we may steadfastly follow His steps in the Way that leads to eternal glory, though Jesus Christ Your Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You, in the Unity of The Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A HISTORY OF A WAY or RULE OF LIFE
The first followers of Jesus were often called “Followers of the Way”, or, more simply, “The Way”. Found most frequently in the Book of Acts (9:2; 19:9.23; 24:14,22; 22:4), it was the name chosen by believers in Jesus to describe themselves. The title referred to those who followed the One Who is “The Way” of Truth and real Life (John 14:6). But it also described a Way of Life in God which followers of Jesus Christ came to adopt, covering all aspects of living, setting them apart both from the Jewish or Gentile manner of life from which they emerged, and from the cultural way of life in which they were all immersed. Starting with Jesus’ teachings, such as The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), this “Way” of living developed further in the early church after His death, resurrection, and ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:37-47 for one summary of this Way of Life). The later New Testament includes further development of this unique way of life in Christ, summed up in Philippians 1:27 (Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ) and Colossians 3:17 (Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him). In the post-biblical period, documents such as “The Didache” (“The Teaching” of the Apostles) clarified in detail what it was like to be a follower of Jesus Christ in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Unfortunately, with the melding of Church and Culture in the so-called “Holy Roman Empire” of the 4th century and beyond, the term “Followers of the Way” fell into disuse, as did the common adoption of a defined Way of Life to clarify one’s faith and living. In subsequent church history, however, churches and communities that sought to live more clearly in Christ and to resist the pressure of their culture have crafted a Rule or Way of Life for their life and mission together. The “Method” adopted by Anglicans under the Wesleys, and the baptismal or catechetical covenants in many churches are also examples of a Way of Life. In the 21st century, many missional micro-communities are developing with defined Rules of Life.
We invite you to explore this ancient and contemporary practice, following our Lord Jesus Christ in an intentional Way of Life informing all aspects of your living, totally surrendered to His Authority and the Direction of the Holy Spirit in every area of your life. May God give us grace to help one another to find and follow the One Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.