After at least four years of residential discernment, brothers eventually make four lifetime commitments to the Nashville Family of Brothers: family, vocational singleness, obedience, and simplicity.
The Commitment of Family
Our commitment of family is a commitment to live permanently in the Nashville Family of Brothers and to see each other as family, fulfilling God’s design for human family by pointing us back to the permanence and intimacy of God’s family. This commitment is in response to discernment that God has called the individual to commit to the Nashville Family of Brothers as his family—a family he will not abandon relationally or geographically.
We are convinced that those called to vocational singleness need committed family just as much as married people. We believe a call to vocational singleness is a call to just as much human intimacy as married people and no great intimacy with God than married people. We all need to know who will greet us when we return home each day to share a meal and stories from our day—and we need to know that those same people will be there thirty years later.
Our Commitments
The Commitment of Vocational Singleness
Our commitment of vocational singleness is a commitment to give up romance, dating, marriage, sex, and children for the purposes of doing kingdom work that parents do not have the time or energy to do.
Scripture, 1500 years of Christian history, early Church Mothers and Fathers, Early Reformers, modern Protestant theologians, and the streams of Christianity that represent the majority of Christians today and throughout time have a strong consensus about vocational singleness: vocational singleness is distinct from the universal period of abstinent singleness. Like the vocation of marriage, vocational singleness is committed, permanent, has specific theological purposes, has specific practical purposes, and involves a provision of grace to do it well. Vocational singleness is a call to renounce romance, marriage, and sex for the purposes of doing Kingdom work mutually exclusive with raising children. Vocational singleness is of equal theological and practical beauty as marriage. Every person has the same inherent (and incomplete) capacity to do vocational singleness or marriage well, and everyone should ask God to which vocation He has called them. Our relational vocation is given and called, not chosen. And vocational singleness is a call to no deeper relationship with God or any less relationship with others. It is still a call to deep relationship in the context of committed family.
The Commitment of Obedience
Brothers commit to live according to our Community Covenant. We will provide detailed practices and principles in the Community Covenant so that expectations of brothers are as self-evident as possible. In addition, our community will elect Stewards to faithfully carry out the practices and principles described in our Community Covenant. They will be responsible for finances, accountability, recruitment, community mission, family rhythms, etc.
To be clear: brothers are not submitting to human leadership. They are submitting to the Community Covenant. The Stewards of the Nashville Family of Brothers are not masters of any brother. At the same time, when a brother makes a Commitment of Obedience, they are submitting to each of their fellow brothers through the Community Covenant, relinquishing, in part, their right to be the absolute master over their life.
The Commitment of Obedience
Brothers commit to living simply for the sake of the kingdom. In 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, Paul encourages every Christian to live as if their physical possessions were not their own. Our home, food, and service will be in common, but even in our personal finances, we will seek to minimize waste and maximize the impact of our finances on the gospel.
Simplicity does not mean a brother is compelled to purchase the cheapest option at every opportunity or give away all of their savings. It is an encouragement to live modestly and generously.
