Sharpening Our Mission - reflections on what we've been learning
It’s been a truly wonderful summer at Iona House (animal losses aside). We’ve been watching with great joy as the Lord is building the Iona House community and shaping the identity / character of this marvelous place. We’ve welcomed guests from near and far while enjoying a regular, growing community of local volunteers and participants who are bringing life and vitality to our rhythms of prayer and life together. We have been so blessed to have a wonderful resident family (Lou Family) with us for the summer, bringing life and joy to this place.
The past few weeks our core leadership team spent some time reflecting on some of what we’ve been learning the past few months. Below are a few of the reflections. I’m not sure any of these are new ideas or significant pivots from what we set out to do. But these represent increasing clarity and a tightening of our focus.
Regarding our Identity:
Echoing the ancient celtic monasterium, we are a center of Christian formation & contemplation.
We offer overnight accommodations as part of the mission of Iona House. But, we are not a conference center: we do not offer rental space for groups to come up and do an offsite; we are not a small boutique place for a church retreat or ministry team strategic planning retreat. We do not host other conferences. Groups can experience Iona House as a group. But they are always immersed into the existing ecosystem and rhythm that we practice. [All of this represents a sharpening of our vision]
A Question we wrestled with: Is Iona House more of a retreat center in which local volunteers assist… or is Iona House an ongoing local community into which guests come to experience a retreat? We all agreed: the latter.
At the core of our identity and mission is an ongoing rhythm of life sustained by a local community of participants, volunteers, residents, and staff. It is this rhythm of life, this ecosystem, that is CENTRAL to the identity of Iona House. It is what allows guests (whether day use or overnight) to experience a distinctive setting in which all of life is oriented toward Christ. It is INTO this ecosystem, culture, rhythm that guests are invited to enter. It is this distinctive ecosystem that carries much of the formational freight (regardless of how much individual guests choose to participate in it).
Some Implications:
The rhythm of prayer, the ongoing pattern of prayer, study, and silence, the animals, the garden - all of it matters!
The resident program is central to our mission and essential to the success of Iona House. It’s worth having less overnight guest capacity initially (until phase 3) in order to have an ongoing on-campus life into which guests can enter. Residents are vital to our mission.
The continuous engagement of the local community is vital to the ongoing health and vitality of Iona House. These volunteers and participants are not “accidental” or “randos” who happen to drop in. They are vital members of the Iona House community and essential to its full fruition.
Iona House is not a performance-based setting. - i.e. we do not “put on” retreat performances (which is inevitably exhausting). Instead, we extend monastic-style hospitality to guests and invite them into the life we’re already living. This gives the campus a sense of integrity and constant rhythm. We’d be doing most of what we’re doing even if guests weren’t there.
The campus development is a joyful co-creation between staff, residents, local community volunteers, and guests. It’s not a project to complete in order to welcome guests.
Eg. - We paint the barn because the barn needs painting… not in order to impress the next set of guests.
We seek to offer the highest quality guest experience possible because every guest is to be welcomed as though he or she was Christ (- from the Rule of St. Benedict).