St. Benedict’s Rule of Life begins with the word listen. One small word that could be easily overlooked shapes the foundation for the entire Rule. In a world where we are inundated with noise Benedict reminds us to listen deeply. It is listening that shapes how we love God and our neighbors.

The Rule provides a helpful framework for modern church placemaking. The goal is not for each church to become like a monastery; we hope that guidance of the Rule becomes like a trellis for the work ahead. When we listen to God and our communities we have the opportunity to participate with God in the work that is happening all around us.

What does it mean to have an Arc or Trellis?

I grew up in Randolph County, North Carolina and my parents farmed a couple acres of land so we had vegetables year-round. I remember my dad hammering stakes into the ground for tomatoes and stringing twine between some of the stakes for beans. I didn’t know then that he was making a trellis. Beans that run grow better on a trellis, it guides them and provides support so that they don’t just lie on the ground.

St. Benedict’s Rule of Life is the trellis for the communal life of monasteries and the monks who live in the monastic communities. The act of placemaking is not prescriptive, it is organic and communal; it is a posture, and one way to live into that posture is to be guided by a trellis. The trellis does not make the beans grow, it does not nourish or cause the health or production of the beans, rather, it helps create the environment where growth is possible.

Why is St. Benedict’s Rule of Life important for Placemaking?

Benedict’s Rule helps the church in America make an important but subtle shift from focusing on the health of an individual church to the thriving of the community through the way we follow God. This shift is both theological and economic grounded in the idea that placemaking like liturgy is the work of the people, the work of the community.

The Rule works as a container or trellis that guides the work rather than prescribing the work or the outcomes. Over the last decade, helping lead projects around adaptive reuse of underutilized church space, I have come to find the Rule hopeful and helpful as a theological thought partner. In my work I have begun to identify four arcs that guide our church placemaking work.

A. Presence
B. Table
C. Work
D. Dwelling

Four Arcs of St. Benedict’s Rule

A mentor and friend, Elaine Heath codified one way to live into a contemplative stance: Show up, Pay attention, Cooperate with God, and Release the outcome. The contemplative stance along with St. Benedict’s Rule of Life helps guide churches through the act of placemaking and adaptive reuse. As a starting point the Rule provides a four part arc for listening, discernment, and action. Presence, Table, Work, and Dwelling.

Presence: The arc of presence is a re-posturing of a local church to listen, to pay attention, to be present without pre-determined outcomes in mind. Our presence comes from our commitment to being rooted in place while we participate in bringing Shalom with God and our neighbors. This is not a strategy, it is a way of life, we are present because we are called to love our neighbors.

Table: When Jesus presided at the table for his community, he did so for all of our neighborhood tables, at Christ’s table there is always another seat available for the next person to join. In the Rule, St. Benedict demonstrates that in our communities the way we approach food and table determines whether there is enough for all. Eating together; cultivating community around table, hospitality, and equitable food practices is fundamentally part of our call as followers of Christ.

Work: Each monk in a Benedictine monastery has a job and work as part of the life of the community. I am constantly thankful for people who work in jobs where I would be a terrible fit. And yet our work can be part of the flourishing of a community. Whether we realize it or not how we work is part of our neighborhood economy. And we can either participate with intention or have our participation be coopted by the larger economic system. Discerning the role of space as part of the neighborhood economy and having our work be shaped by how we intentionally participate in the economy guides us to what it means to be neighbor.

Dwelling: Place matters and mutual thriving is tied to the places we inhabit. Not only does dwelling includes shelter it also includes safety and wholeness for all of the community. Benedictine monks do not own the places where they dwell, yet they are secure and find meaning and wholeness in the community. Stable living conditions are essential to health and security for all. With dormant assets churches are uniquely positioned to be part of the solution to housing and belonging. How we live and dwell together in community matters.

These arcs are guideposts that help create containers for our work of church placemaking. It is through the posture of listening and discernment that we partner with God and the people of our communities to participate in shalom for all our neighbors.

One Final Thought

When we look at our underutilized space or dormant assets the work of placemaking is about faithful stewardship through a posture of listening and discernment. The arcs guide us to the work where we are called through partnership with our neighbors. And it is in the process that we recognize where God is at work and join in. You may find that one or all of the arcs speak to you and your context. God is at work in your community, it is now our work to discern how and find where we can participate.