Postulancy

Explore our rule of life through an eight-month formational journey.

 

Postulancy is an eight-month formational experience designed to be walked out with a cohort community and lived out in daily prayer and reflection. That means you’re given intentional support in your spiritual journey and that you can balance it amid family, ministry and work.

If you’re exploring a felt invitation to join the Order of the Common Life, this is one of your first steps. We spend time exploring each commitment in our shared rule and where you may be invited to nurture them in your own life.

 
 
 
 

What to expect

 

Postulancy is a journey with others and with yourself. You can expect a regular rhythm of:

  • Cohort meetings every other week (90 minutes each)

  • Monthly one-on-one spiritual direction (1 hour each)

  • Weekly reflection assignments (1-2 hours on your own)

Each cohort meeting, we’ll discuss one or two themes or commitments from our rule of life. In between, you’ll reflect deeply on weekly assignments and “try on” various practices, all oriented toward discerning the shape and rhythm of life to which God is inviting you.

Finally, meeting with a spiritual director is meant to provide personalized attention to your journey, not just in terms of postulancy content but in a holistic frame of your life with God, yourself and others.

 

FAQs

 

  • Postulancy is a shared investment—by you, your church, and the Order—for the sake of God’s transforming work in you and for the Church.

    The Order invests in each postulant’s formation by covering one-third of the $1,500 cost. For the remaining $1,000, we’ll invoice you directly, and we ask you to engage your church leadership, share a video we’ll provide, and explore if they might contribute up to $500 toward your formation.

    We understand not every church is in a position to contribute, and some may be able to fund more than one-third. Because postulancy will bear fruit in proportion to what you commit to it, however, we want you to share at least some of the cost. If cost is a barrier, apply for a scholarship here.

    Note: Postulants must meet monthly with a spiritual director, which is not included in the program cost. Sessions typically range from $50-80.

  • We would love to help pair you with one of our spiritual directors. We encourage this because our spiritual directors are personally familiar with the Order's formation process, either from going through it themselves or from accompanying others through it. However, if you already have a trained, certified spiritual director, you're welcome to continue with them.

  • Cohorts typically consist of eight to 12 people.

  • Our next cohorts will begin in late September with interest meetings hosted the spring.

  • Each cohort is led by either the Order’s founding director, Jared Boyd, or another leader in the Order who has been in formation with us for several years or more practicing this shared way of life.

  • People who join a postulancy cohort include people discerning membership in the Order as well as people just exploring what an intentional shape and rhythm of life might look like for them. They’re working parents, pastors, professors, students, married couples, people reconstructing their faith and people building on a long-established faith.

  • The Order (from postulancy through vows) includes married as well as unmarried and celibate individuals. Among married couples, one person can begin by themselves, both can join together, or each can make their own journey through formation.

 

Our desire for you

 

Every experience is formational and can contain unanticipated gifts, and while we hope this is especially true for postulancy, we’ve designed it for some key outcomes:

  1. That you’ll better understand your present way of life, plus the rhythm of life into which God is inviting you

  2. That you’ll get a better sense of our community, our way of life and our shared mission

  3. That your journaled assignments over the course of your cohort will provide the basis for your own rule and rhythm of life

  4. That you’ll have discerned how you’re being invited to move forward, whether that’s continuing your formation in the Order as a novice or just implementing new practices in your life.

 
 

How to get started

 

Applications for postulancy cohorts starting in late September 2025 are now open.

To help you prepare, we encourage you to spend time in a free self-paced or cohort curriculum (called “A Contemplative Foundation”) developed to lay important groundwork for postulancy with some of the basic tools that support a contemplative life in community.