Our brotherhood is pivoting to be open to more people.
Would you pray for me/us?
Seven years ago the Nashville Family of Brothers (NFOB) was established to build lifetime, lived-in family for Christian men called to vocational singleness.
Earlier this spring, the other guys in NFOB and I started discerning an invitation from the Lord to pivot to a different kind of intentional Christian community. NFOB was limited to people living in the same house, only for men called to lifetime celibacy, and pushed guys toward lifetime commitments.
Instead, we’ve felt the Lord calling us to organize a different kind of community that is dispersed throughout Nashville, open to single Christian women and men of all kinds (including singles who are dating and single parents), and involves recurring 1-year commitments.
The other guys and I are excited about this opportunity to offer community to more people, but it also involves giving up part of our hopes for lifetime family.
Part of my hopes.
Back in 2023 I made lifetime commitments to vocational singleness, to be generous with my time/money, to God’s word, and to live in the Nashville Family of Brothers for the rest of my life.
With NFOB changing to something else, all of the guys in the house are released from our commitments to NFOB (including me).
We’re continuing to live together as we build this next community. And my other three lifetime commitments to singleness, generosity, and God’s word remain! But this change does mean I have no guarantees who I’ll be living with 5 years from now.
We’re privately processing this bittersweet change while we take early steps toward this new expression of intentional Christian community.
Eventually I might post on here about what we learned over the past seven years. I certainly made plenty of mistakes along the way. For now, if you’ve been following our journey, you’re welcome to pray for us and for what comes next.
Moreover, I want to say thank you to all of the friends and extended family who helped us along the way.
I’m deeply grateful for the companionship this family offered me for a season, and I’m hopeful about what’s to come.
P.S. I don’t want to make a big thing of this and I’m not sharing for sympathy or pity. I just know some of you have been following along, and I wanted you to know where our community is at these days :)
(TLDR for new friends/followers: I’ve posted consistently for the past 5 years about NFOB and our dreams of having 4+ guys make lifetime commitments to celibacy and family with each other. I made lifetime commitments back in 2023 hoping that others would follow suit. The ceremony was a bit extra, but that’s kind of par for the course with me. So this is a pretty big change. But thankfully, day-to-day life for me isn’t changing. We’re still living together, praying together, sharing meals, and doing holidays. We’re just taking longterm commitments off the table.)
Pieter, when we talk in January let's talk about this "3rd order" movement. I think I've already mentioned that a widowed Anglican priest here is in early stages of organizing a nonresidential order for widowed women (our Bishop has suggested as a name the Order of St. Anna). I've also mentioned that a number of other unmarried women (both divorced and never married) are interested in such an order. Would you have time to chat in the first three weeks of January, before my next project heats up?
Dear Pieter
You may already be aware of this: in the Church of England, as well as the Catholic church, a number of religious orders who live together in intentional community, for life, have long also had 3rd order or companion groups. These are for Christians who may live anywhere, who are committed to the life of prayer, study of the Bible, and particularly the charism of the order. I am myself a companion of an Anglican order. Could NFOB work still as an intentional community of those committed for life to vocational singleness and each other, but with non-resident companions? Just a thought...
With prayers and best wishes
Ian