Well, he took his remote cues from Catholic orders like the Franciscans. Francis and his first followers were laymen, seeking to live holy lives, and afterwards there was always “Spiritual” Franciscans who wanted the return to a simple rule. His immediate influence, of course, was the Moravian brethren. The big difference is the top down rule. Gays are very much in favor of this sort of thing, because this way a militant minority can fill the top offices and then dictate to the mere “members.”This is how they seized control of the Episcopal and other churches. But of course, everyone seems to overlook that the name is
METHODist!
>>Well, he took his remote cues from Catholic orders like the Franciscans. Francis and his first followers were laymen, seeking to live holy lives, and afterwards there was always “Spiritual” Franciscans who wanted the return to a simple rule.
I’m sure he took his real cues from the disciples and apostles themselves. The unintended consequence of Monasticism is that it takes the spiritual people out of the population and sets them on a pedastal, while allowing the average Christian to say, “Well, I’m just not cut out to live like a monk” so they can return to their earthly pursuits. Bonhoeffer writes about this quite a bit about this phenomenon in “The Cost of Discipleship”. You need your spiritual people acting as salt in your congregations and accountability groups and not chanting behind a wall.