The 1-Year Celebration of the Village
We were blessed to welcome approx. 125 guests to joyfully celebrate a phenomenal first year of the village (the village being the 40 acres that have homes, outbuildings, animals, etc. on them). We offered tours, a chance to meet our animals, appetizers, evening prayer, and a delicious dinner. We also featured a couple of panels to hear about the experience of various folks: participants in Iona House and Residents at Iona House.
Executive Director / Cofounder Rev. Ryan Jones shared a few thoughts on the importance and purpose of Iona House at the event. You can find a transcript below.
Vision Comments - 1 Year Celebration (5/18/24)
When I think about Iona House and what we have to offer, it strikes me that what we have to offer might seem somewhat mundane or even trivial. We have land, a few houses, a bunch of animals, a garden, and a lot of trees.
We don’t have a solution to world hunger; we don’t have an answer to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine; we can’t solve drug addiction, gun violence, political polarization, cancer or homelessness.
What we have to offer is something far more basic and foundational… but I might argue important: We have a place to encounter God… a place to learn a way of life characterized by Communion. We offer sacred space and sacred time - amidst a beautiful, ongoing community of others who all desire the same.
We are convinced that amidst many challenges in our world, our most acute need is not first and foremost a solution to our next pressing set of circumstances or the next urgent crisis. Our most pressing need is union with Christ. Our most pressing need, the thing that is most important, most vital is to learn to abide in Christ.
As Jesus tells Martha in Luke chapter 10 in the famous story of the two sisters from Bethany: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed - indeed only one.” He is, of course, referring to what Martha’s sister Mary is doing - sitting at His feet, completely enraptured by Him… totally attuned to Him.
In a world full of many, many needs and concerns, Mary of Bethany shows us the way. The long history of the Christian tradition tells us that one thing takes priority over everything else: Contemplation. Contemplation precedes action… both in priority and, ideally, in terms of chronology, because contemplation informs and guides right action. Our invitation is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to gaze upon Him, to delight in Him, and to make our home in Him.
But here’s the thing, while many of us will likely nod our heads in agreement (in theory), what we discover in practice is that it can be quite difficult to live this way. We might learn a few disciplines and read some books. But to really learn to live this way, we need more.
And this is where the vision of Iona House fits in. What we are partnering together to cultivate here is a place to learn this way of life. It’s a place where everything about what we’re doing is seeking to draw ourselves and others into the contemplative way of life. The way we talk about it is that Iona House is a place to reimagine all of life in reference to Christ.
What we’re pointing to in that phrase is the Mary of Bethany way of life. Jesus is the reference point for everything. We’re a little village that lives not in reference to the agenda of your boss or in reference to the political drama playing out in our society. We’re a little village in which all of life is oriented toward Christ. And this little colony of heaven is not so much a retreat from the challenges of life as it is an advance toward what matters most in life.
I might be a bit biased, but I believe with all my heart that what we are cultivating here matters. It has eternal weightiness to it.
The vision that God gave me and Elizabeth nearly 6 years ago now was not merely a “retreat center”, but a place that had the potential to reshape imagination. Because what matters most about Iona House is not what happens here, but ultimately how it reshapes peoples’ lives back home in their domestic settings.
And the key to this is imagination. Imagination is that unique capacity that we have been given by God to picture, feel, sense, and conceive of a life that is different from how it currently is. This is not primarily a cognitive thing. Imagination is rich and multifaceted. And if you drill into it, imagination is most potently shaped by experience, particularly holistic communal experiences. We are, after all, social creatures.
It’s one thing to read a book. It’s another to go and taste and see a different way to live… to feel it in your body and to experience it in action. This is why Iona House is not merely the equivalent of a Christian AirBnB or a remote cabin in the woods. No, this place is a living community that can only happen because of on-site residents and a local community that is engaged in the rhythm of life happening here. The communal nature is essential… as is the rhythm of life that includes mundane things like manual labor and shared meals.
Our vision does not merely stop at Iona House. It continues into households and churches. We believe that part of our mission is to inspire a richer, more beautiful communal life in churches back home. This is a place to see, taste, and experience that vision.
We want people to be able to imagine a life that exists beyond consumerism and the greed of capitalism. This is why it’s not accidental that everything about Iona House happens according to a gift economy, which is anchored in the very character of God and is most prominently exhibited in the sacrificial generosity of Jesus Himself.
How do we learn the way of grace and generosity that we know to be the theological heart of the gospel if everything about our life is transactional and driven by profit or motivated by fear of scarcity?
Anyway, the point of what I’m saying is that we must EXPERIENCE a different paradigm. And it must be a potent enough experience to reshape our paradigms. Otherwise all we’re left doing in life is trying to cram a little bit more of Jesus into an American, consumerist, individualist paradigm of life.
We’re convinced there is a better way. A way that is filled with wonder and spaciousness and joy. A way of life that is shaped by hospitality and generosity. One that is rich in relationships and which requires interdependence. A way of life that is holistic… that honors the head, heart, and hands… not just one part of our humanity. And most importantly of all, a way of life that has as its reference point Jesus - not the news cycle; not technology; not economic profit or our boss’s agenda… and most importantly, NOT OURSELVES.
We desire a place where Jesus is the center of everything - the One who is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Who is the bread of life, light of the world, who is life itself.
If Iona House is doing things right, we will operate as a little colony of heaven… a place that gestures toward the future… toward the telos… the end of all things… toward the New Creation where Christ is all and in all. Toward a way of life that is defined by Communion and abiding in Christ.
Here in the present we are easily confused about what matters and what life is actually about. So Iona House exists to bring clarity to what actually matters.
So I say all of this to tell you that what you are partnering with us to do could not be more important. In the words of Jesus “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed - indeed only one.”
Thank you for your incredible generosity, your enthusiasm, and for your participation in this mission. We are so overjoyed by the beautiful community that God is bringing together to make all of this happen. We are absolutely thrilled by what we see God doing in the lives of people here at Iona House. It’s hard to express the joy of getting to be on the front row of what is happening here.