Vision & Values
Why Iona House matters and what makes us distinctive
Our Cultural Context
Amidst all the wonders and possibilities of 21st century life in a place like San Francisco (of which there are many), we find ourselves living in an exhausted, anxious, and increasingly angry society. The pace of life is soul-sucking. The tentacles of technology and media reach into every area of our lives squeezing out space and silence and solitude. We are never alone, and yet we have never been more alone. Relationships are more difficult and fleeting. The forces and powers pushing against our formation in Christ (i.e. forming us in different ways) are numerous and potent: secularism, fundamentalism, consumerism, individualism, solutionism, narcissism, and the politicization of everything.
Holy longings
In the midst of all of this, people are experiencing holy longings; longings seeking to be fulfilled, often in well-intentioned, but misguided ways.
Meaning - People are seeking some kind of transcendence; there has to be more to life than the pursuit of mere pleasure.
Peace - Our society is overcome with stress, anxiety, anger, and exhaustion. We’re looking for a sense of peace and order - both within our own souls as well as in the broader world around us.
Roots - We’ve become severed from our roots and (apart from Christ) are like tumbleweeds. We long for something to anchor us.
Belonging - At the deepest level of our being we crave to know ourselves as beloved, to be desired and delighted in.
Integration & Wholeness- There is a great desire to bring the diffuse and scattered parts of our world and identity together, to be integrated as bodies and souls. There is a hunger to be in touch with the earth, to get away from the human-built environment, to be a creature in relationship with other creatures (and a Creator)
The Church
The Church is seeking to respond to the holy longings by proclaiming the truth that Jesus and His Kingdom are their fulfillment. But how can people actually experience this tangibly? How do churches cultivate a community-life that richly embodies the fullness of what it means to belong in Christ? How do we call people to a thick expression of the gospel such that our everyday life is increasingly oriented toward Christ and His Kingdom? How do we live all of life in reference to Christ?
The Church in our era has to work against the current of society in many ways. The deck feels like it is often stacked against the Church. And yet, we know that in the power of the Spirit, not even the gates of Hell can prevail against the Church. So what can the Church do?
Returning to An Old Pattern
In pre-Christendom eras when the Church made up but a small fraction of the society, the Church often operated in different ways than it does now. It understood the challenges of the time and responded in turn with strategies appropriate to the task of deep and abiding formation in Christ. We have much to learn from those who have gone before us, in particular, from the pre-Christendom Church and from monasticism.
Building on the pattern of Jesus, Christians must find ways to regularly separate themselves from the incessant counter-formational pressures in their lives in order to hear the Father’s voice. This was at the foundation of Jesus’ ministry; it’s what He invited His disciples to practice; it’s what underlies the vision of Iona House. We exist to offer a powerful, communal place to find margin, sacred space, and sacred time. The goal is to hear the Father’s voice in order to return to our lives with new clarity, new vitality, and a strengthened sense of who we are in Christ.
Values and the Culture of Iona House
Transcendence & Holiness
Iona House is a place cultivated to recapture a sense of wonder and awe, to discover our creatureliness, and most of all to encounter the power and majesty of our Creator. Our society has largely lost its capacity to worship. We, as a society, are increasingly self-referential and horizontally oriented. Transcendence has disappeared from our awareness; we have lost our sense of the sacred. Iona House exists as a place to encounter the “otherness” of God.
Christian Hospitality
The spirit of Iona House can be seen in the culture of self-giving open-heartedness and generosity - as a faithful response to the generosity of Christ. Relationships and people are the focus. Our emphasis on Christian formation takes place in the context of a culture of sincerity, warmth, gentleness, laughter, connection, and joy. As those inspired by the monastic tradition, we see Christian hospitality as central to our mission.
Healing
The goal of all Christian healing is to bring a person into communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Everything at Iona House is designed towards this end. Thus, healing is not an additional program at Iona House. The focus on Christ, the disciplined times of worship and prayer, work, feasting, fasting, and study are all ways that we are invited out of an orientation toward ourselves and into a participation in the life of the community centered around Christ. This act of being pulled out of our turned-inward state and into embodied connection is a kind of healing which can uniquely happen in a context like Iona House. While it is important to be pulled out of our inward-orientation, that doesn’t mean that we ignore those places in our soul that are experiencing wounds and brokenness (often seen in feelings of anxiety, shame, guilt, fear, anger, etc.) These emotions have the potential to reveal important things about our relationship with God and with others. Thus we believe it is helpful to explore them and often necessary to articulate one’s story to another person. To facilitate this, Iona House offers spiritual direction, the ministry of confession, and pastoral counseling - all grounded in Christian teaching and oriented toward Christ and His Body, the Church.
Forming a Monastic Imagination
Though the majority of Christians will not take vows and enter what we think of as formal monastic life as a monk or nun, there is a sense in which all Christians are called to a monastic posture. This is, as one author calls it, “the monkhood of all believers.” Monasticism is best understood as the impulse by which souls become single-mindedly attuned to God. Historically this has taken on various forms, from making life-long vows to a community to engaging in seasonal retreats with the purpose of realigning oneself toward single-minded devotion to God. Iona House is a place designed to stoke the imagination for what life is like when lived fully in reference to Christ, within a communal setting. An ongoing monastic rhythm of life is embodied by the staff, those in our Resident Program, and members of the local community who participate in the life of Iona House such that guests can enter into this already existing rhythm. Iona House is not meant to provide a “mountaintop” experience that is so often sought as the goal of retreats. Instead, it feels more mundane: dishes still need to be done, beds made, wood chopped / stacked, weeds pulled, etc. But in the midst of it all, we seek to do everything in reference to Christ. Our focus is on integration rather than ecstasy. There is a communal context for everything going on, even if one is seeking and experiencing solitude.
Sacramental Living (a.k.a. Becoming More Human)
So much of our modern existence is designed as an escape from the limits of our bodies. Our focus is so often centered in ideas, abstract concepts, and digital technologies that we forget that we are embodied creatures. The Christian vision of life is one in which matter matters. The incarnation of God in human flesh in the person of Jesus is the ultimate affirmation of the goodness of creation. The body is not something to be escaped, but something redeemed and ultimately glorified. Embodied life is at the heart of what is meant by the word sacramental. A major goal of Iona House is for guests to experience God through the mundaneness (and glory) of having a body. Iona House includes learning and ideas, but it is equally about experiencing an embodied life in which all of creation becomes transparent to the glory of its Creator. People often notice that something happens to them when they can engage meaningfully with the natural world through hiking or gardening or farming (things which can be difficult to experience in urban or suburban contexts). Iona House cultivates space in which we intentionally seek to encounter God in and through His creation making use of all of our bodily senses.
Digital Technology Detox
For most people most of the time, digital technology is a necessary part of 21st century life. However, as many people are aware, digital technology often proves to be an impediment to being present with those around you and with God; it fragments our attention and distracts us. It is often a way that we escape or avoid; it can be a means of masking our emptiness or sadness. At Iona House our focus is on community life, silence, worship, and prayer. In order to facilitate this, we do not offer wifi or TV. We request people to not use laptops/iPads in public spaces (they can be used in one’s personal room or in the library for study / writing purposes). And, we will encourage people to leave their cell phones in their rooms and to borrow a wristwatch if they need a way to tell the time. We believe it is important to have time/space without digital technology in order to know how to more appropriately use digital technology rightly in everyday life.
Silence & Solitude
Our world is noisy; it is filled with the sounds of many voices: demanding bosses, clamoring children, frenetic media, not to mention our own internal anxieties. In the midst of all of this noise, it can be difficult to hear the voice of God. Iona House is a place where silence is protected and solitude is available to all guests. To this end Iona House features a contemplative prayer chapel, a library, prayer walks, private hermitages, and well-designed guest suites. We offer a children-friendly zone on the campus (in the Village area) for families visiting in order to maintain a contemplative setting for those seeking silence. Iona House is a pet-free zone.
Nurturing Deeper Roots
We live in an era in which the Church is in many cases malnourished, captive to confusing theological and cultural ideologies, and ill-equipped to withstand the confusing currents threatening to undermine our faith. Iona House will exist as a resource to strengthen and support Christians who desire to live as an alternative community, as resident aliens whose identity is first and foremost as citizens of the Kingdom of God and members of the Body of Christ. Iona House and the Institute for Christoformity are a resource for those hungry to experience the rich 2,000 year, global tradition of Christianity. Often, due to the fractured state of the Church, Christians are only exposed to the practices and faith expression of their particular group / denomination. Guests of Iona House are able to explore and experience everything from historic liturgy, music, and iconography to healing prayer, spiritual direction, and the practice of confession of sin - all rooted in the Great Tradition of Christianity.
Thick Culture | Thin Place
Unlike some conference / retreat centers, Iona House does not attempt to create a “neutral” space for groups to bring in their own culture and ethos. There is a spirit to the place (the Holy Spirit, we pray) that shapes the experience of each individual. Iona House is a place with an identity that is rich and multifaceted, a place where guests can enter into and participate in the ongoing life of a community. One of the ways that Celtic Christians described holy places was as being “thin places”. Thin places were places where the separating “membrane” between heaven and earth, between creation and God’s glory, becomes translucent. Thin places are places like the burning bush, where one is confronted with the holiness and transcendence of God. Iona House seeks to be a thin place for guests.
Temporary Withdrawal In Order To More deeply Missionaly Engage
Many people mistakenly assume that the monastic impulse with its focus on prayer and contemplation are somehow an escape from the world and in tension with being fully engaged in a life of mission. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus Himself spent forty days in the wilderness before launching His public ministry. While carrying out His public ministry He spent many a night and day away from the crowds (and even away from His disciples). When we look at the lives of the most impactful Christians who have ever lived, we notice a pattern: they regularly withdrew in order to more effectively missionaly engage. Christians, particularly in urban and suburban contexts, need sacred space to withdraw so that they can re-align, renew, and recalibrate their hearts and minds to full devotion to Christ. Iona House is designed to be this kind of space for pastors, leaders, and Christians of all kinds.