The "New Monastics" got another cover feature, this time from
Christian Century. The article isn't available yet online, but if you check back at their
site in a few weeks, it should appear. The differences between this article and the one by
Christianity Today a few months ago is rather interesting. In both cases, however, I find myself wanting to visit some of the places that are highlighted, and I feel some conviction / enthusiasm about pursuing portions of our own vision that haven't been made into reality yet. I also feel a definitive spirit of kinship with the places that are described. Yet I also can't help sensing that the Oak Grove Abbey has some distictives in its core DNA (and by that I don't mean better or worse, simply different). I think this is a good thing, as there are no templates to follow in this regard. Different communities will be draw to various aspects of the "old" monasticism and will also embody various noteworthy features of Christ's Body in their respective contexts. This, in stark contrast to the typical evangelical church planting paradigm, is one of the most pleasant flavors of what is now being short-handed as "the new monasticism."
On the shadowy side of my thought process is a growing fear that all things monkish are now becoming the lastest flare up of "hipatitis," that is, a trendy buzzword that can easily be co-opted by people who want to sound like they know something fresh, but aren't going to ever change anything about themselves except the fashionable words that rotate in and out of their vocabulary. Just as large churches have been reasonably successful in amoeba-ing terms like "postmodern," "emerging," "missional," and "community," I have nightmares that we are about to see a flurry of books and Sunday School curriculum with titles including "monk" or "monastic." Some of the people I have already shared this fear with try to console me that monasticism is not so easily co-opted as the aforementioned words. I know this from experience - it's one thing to say "I live in an Abbey" and quite another to live a truly monastic life. But at least we are re-ordering all aspects of our lives to give it a go.
Since I can't do anything to change what may or may not be about to happen, I will strive to find the way of Love. Even as I loathe the idea of monasticism being cheapened by curious spiritual consumers (am I not one of them to a certain extent?), my prayer is that all those who aspire to learn more about the history of monastic movements will be challenged to change their lives in profound ways so as to more beautifully live a life in tune with the Way of Jesus Himself.
