A Monastery As the Best Of All Worlds

A phenomenon I noticed as a Protestant is that there were good things available but they were seldom all together. For example, this church had good preaching, that church had good music, this denomination had liturgy, that denomination was welcoming to the Holy Spirit, this ministry work with the poor, this ministry emphasized personal accountability, etc. One attractive feature about the Orthodox Church is that you don't need to keep looking or hopping churches. Unlike Protestant churches that need to discover forgotten treasures of the authentic, ancient faith, the Orthodox Church never lost them.

When people ask me why I would consider entering a monastery, there is no simple answer. But I have thought of an illustration to make it a little bit more accessible: A monastery is a place where many of the best aspects of Protestantism have been organically coming together for the last 1,700 years:

Feature	Example in Protestantism
Full-time, residential discipleship program like those under Elisha (2 Kings 2, 4 - 6, 9) or Jesus.	YWAM's DTS (http://www.ywam.org/Training)
Communal life like in Acts 4:32 – 37	Jesus People USA (http://www.jpusa.org/)
Retreat Center	http://www.bethanyministries.com/personalretreats.htm
Hospitality. Monasteries provide 3 days free lodging. Before the development of commercial hotels, this was the main way that people traveled.	http://www.christianhospitalitynetwork.com/
24/7 Prayer	IHOP (http://www.ihop.org/prayerroom/history/)
Servant-leadership Residential leadership development program (all bishops in the Orthodox church are selected from monasteries)	Willow Creek conferences (http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership)
Self-sufficient communities	Amish (http://www.amish.net/faq.asp)
Hospital for the soul	Leanne Payne (http://www.leannepayne.org/); Mario Bergner (http://www.redeemedlives.org/)
Personal Accountability	http://www.promisekeepers.org/