www.christianweek.org/reviews.php?id=54 -
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Published on: 6/8/2009
Last Visited: 9/3/2009
"It's hard to be a Christian in America," says Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
Wilson-Hartgrove is a leader of New Monasticism, a catchy moniker for a growing movement of Christian men and women who feel called to literally leave places of affluence and relocate to places of poverty and suffering.
They don't wear robes or take vows of silence.
New Monastics are everyday men and women doing everyday things at the margins of their communities, living as a people united in love, finding Jesus in "the least of these."
New Monastics practice intentional community, peacemaking, hospitality and generosity seven days a week with friends and enemies.
It is radical, says Wilson-Hartgrove, because Church is radical—a people called by God to follow Jesus and be a witness of love.
It looks peculiar because North American Christianity has closely aligned itself with the dominant culture rather than with Jesus and His call to be a people marked by service, peace and, above all, love.
Wilson-Hartgrove writes to the American Church, where a state-blessed version of Christianity conflates faith and patriotism.
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Wilson-Hartgrove reminds us that Christians should not be primarily known for moral clarity, political expediency, economic viability or effectiveness for ministry.
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BY JONATHAN WILSON-HARTGROVE
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