Traveling to the Edges as Voluntary Exiles is one of three practices by which we Serve the Church and the World, the other two being offering hospitality to all as Hosts and advancing the kingdom through our vocational callings as Ambassadors.
Traveling to the edges of established expressions of Christendom is a kingly practice of being Voluntary Exiles.
As Voluntary Exiles, we heavenize earth in the name of Christus Victor, advancing the Kingdom in fresh and innovative ways that no one has done before. Just as Jesus went into the desert as a Voluntary Exile to track down evil and crush it, and just as the Desert Fathers left the comforts of Byzantium both to preserve and advance the faith, and just as the Celtic saints who lived on the edges of the civilized world were thereby perfectly positioned to save civilization, so we gravitate to the edges. From the edges we are perfectly positioned to go in two directions. First, we’re positioned to “go East” to the center of Christendom where the faith has already been established in order to both share and receive treasures new and old. Second, we’re also positioned to “go West” in order to expand the Empire of God in places and in ways few if any have yet dared to imagine.
