First Semester Reflection  

Posted by Jordan Bunch in , , , , , ,

I was thrilled yet nervous about initiating and leading this new covenanted community, “Pirate Monks.” I wasn’t sure if there would actually be anyone that would be interested in making this kind of commitment, nor how I would be as a leader of this type of community. Yet I was determined to be faithful to this call that the Lord put on my heart.

Pirate Monks has been a truly a phenomenal expression of covenanted communal discipleship. They have been far more committed to these rules than I could have ever imagined and it is transforming them deeper into the image of Jesus day by day. When we gather together we start by giving our no excuses number. This is the number of disciplines that we failed to participate in over the last week. We then do a group workout to correlate with the number that we missed. For example... if the 10 guys together missed 25 disciplines and we decided that we needed to do 20 push-ups per discipline missed then we would do 500 push-ups together. Some can only do a few and others pick up the slack for them by doing extra. We go in a rotation until we finish all 500. Its actually a lot of fun.

After that we have made a regular practice of reading through the sermon on the mount a section at a time. We meditate on this scripture by reading it 3 or 4 times with several minutes of silence in between each reading. As we are doing this we ask Jesus to speak to us individually and communally. "Lord Jesus, teach us to follow you through these words in Scripture, through the power of your Spirit, and through our monk brothers in this room."

We then share with each other what we feel Jesus is speaking to us. What he is saying in these words and through His Spirit? What is he calling us to do? How can we obey His words?

We then share stories with each other. During this time we speak to the Jesus we have seen in each other throughout the week. This is our brag on Jesus time.

After this we pray and bless one another to close our gathering. It is a truly beautiful expression of Christ's church.

The Beginning  

Posted by Jordan Bunch

The following is a journal entry I did at the very beginning of Pirate Monks...

Last week we had an interest meeting where I shared a few martyr stories and gave them the daunting list of commitments to try and scare away anyone not interested in going to the extreme for Jesus.

Either I failed, or Jesus had a great victory! All but 2 (because of a prior conflict) came tonight to make a commitment. The other 2 have expressed their desire to commit, but will have to do so next week. The 10 men are:

Michael Van Huis
Roy Cervantes
Daniel Marolf
Andrew Saucedo
Jacob Coffman
Hart Mendenhall
Joshua Brandon
Kevin Sorber
Stewart McGreggor
Alex Cobb

In all honesty, I can hardly imagine any two of them becoming friends randomly outside of the fact that they are brothers in Christ and Pirate Monks. None of them could be any more different than any one of the others. I find that to be incredibly refreshing and a lot of fun!

Today was a non-stop busy day, so my plan for preparation for the night fell on the Spirits guidance and leadership. I literally showed up with all the guys waiting at my door, hung out for 10 minutes, and then transitioned with ...so... Not knowing what to say or do next. Foolish, I know... But thus is life. Then the Spirit stepped in and took over for me. We started by having everyone make a commitment statement, in the hot seat and in their own words (partly because I was unprepared for an official statement) but this turned out to be an awesome idea! Credit, Jesus.

Each man shared their heart and committed to the hard way of Jesus. After each individual shared their commitment we laid hands on them and I prayed a prayer of blessing over each of them. I then sat in the hot seat myself and committed to the same rules as they did, but also committed to being their Spiritual Coach and Guardian.

We then talked about our soul friendship. And I told them we would allow space for Jesus' leadership in how we choose our soul friends. We prayed for his guidance, I instructed them briefly on how to pay attention to Jesus' leadership here, and then we shared what we felt the Lord calling each of us to. We are calling these soul friendships, or churches of 2 or 3. These relationships will meet regularly for prayer, confession of sin, and confession of heart (SASHET) and respond with words of encouragement.

We then talked about what we wanted our defining scripture to be. This will be the scripture that we read 3 times a week with the intent to put it to memory. We will meditate on this at our gatherings. We will pursue a life that is modeled after that scripture. Several ideas where shared and voted upon. Once we narrowed it down to 2 choices, 1 John, or the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) we had a split vote. So on a whim I decided to cast lots for the scripture with the group. Which I had zero experience in by the way... They asked, how do we do that and I said, I don't know! So I went to the kitchen to see what I could scrummage up. I found roasted sunflower seeds and grabbed a handful (it turned out to be 12). We set a lanyard on the floor in a straight line and designated one side to 1 John and the other to Matthew 5-7. The one that had the most seeds on it was chosen. So the lots fell to Matthew 5-7. It was 5 seeds to 7. They had a blast with this! After this, we talked a bit more about what our gatherings might look like and then we left.

God was so good to us! Let the adventure begin!



The next blog entry will be a reflection on the last semester. I will then attempt to do something a little more regular.

Who are the Pirate Monks?  

Posted by Jordan Bunch


The Pirate Monks are a group of freshmen, sophomore and junior students at Abilene Christian University that live in Edwards Hall together. They are committed to living in community under a common rule of life.

The purpose of Pirate Monks is 2 fold.
1) To develop a conversational relationship with God in prayer
2) To learn to love the Triune God, monk brothers, and all of creation more deeply

The principles we live by are the following:
1) Authenticity: True to Christ and true to his Body
2) Relational: Kind to People
3) Missional: Taking the Gospel to the men of Edwards Hall, the campus, the city and the world

Our practices are the following
1) Practice a daily rhythm of prayer.
a) “10:02 prayer” (a prayer for more harvest workers)
b( Conversational prayer
2) Commit to a soul friendship in whom you will have regular times for prayer and confession
3)Read a significant TBD piece of scripture 3 times a week with the intent to put it to memory (this year the scripture chosen by the group is Matthew 5-7)

Our "Commitment Statements" to each other are:
1) I will always take the place of a servant. In any situation I find myself in I will look to others needs above my own.
2) I will cultivate the contemplative life of a monk, by practicing silence, solitude, and fasting. I will enter the dangerous way of prayer. Specifically, I commit to fast one meal (lunch or dinner) a week and spend 15 minutes a day in silence before God.
3) I will meet with my monk brothers weekly for fellowship, encouragement, pirate challenges and prayer.