Is It Time for Evangelicals to Strategically Withdraw from the Culture?

Four evangelical thinkers consider what Rod Dreher's Benedict Option means for the church.

“In a time of weakening institutions and in an increasingly pluralistic age, what is the best way for Christians to strengthen their local Christian community?”

What is the role and mission of the church in times like these? For if the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it, as Jesus said (Mt. 16:18), one can presume that the church is not going anywhere, no matter how dire things external and internal are.

Christ’s body, with him as head, is the institution that ultimately matters, that binds and looses as does no other. That much our respondents no doubt agree on. But what exactly is the best way forward to renew the church and its mission? That faithful Christians disagree about the answer does not surprise us, but only suggests that the way forward is a beautifully complex and challenging one. Read More

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The Benedict Option’s Vision for a Christian Village

To my way of thinking the more attractive model is that of the Celtic monastic community. It was in the world but not of the world. The early Celtic monks did not live in a cloister, separated from the world. They were active in engaging the pagan world around them and spreading the gospel. They were responsible for evangelizing most of the British Isles and a large part of Northern Europe. They may have even sailed as far as the New World.