Books on Community Part 1

I just finished The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I guess a book doesn't have to be inciting to be worthwhile, but it helps. This book definitely doesn't hurt.

I'll give the bad news first, since I mostly enjoyed this book. Mr. Claiborne tells his perspective on faith, community, and following Christ through stories of his experiences. When he does this, it's effective. When he repeats himself, I loathe the apparent lack of an editor.

The false starts at the beginning serve as an example of this. There's a preface, an introduction, and come-on-and-start-telling-your-story-already. Once it gets started, it works well.

I won't touch on all the issues, but he makes some good points. Others seem overly idealistic, but can you really fault a follower of Christ for striving towards the ideal?

I like the fact that he actually went to Iraq instead of just protesting the war. He backed up what he believes with actions and risked his own life to do so. That's consistency.

Part of his reasons for going to Iraq were fuelled by his vision of community. He wanted to visit Christians and churches in Iraq. The point he made was how much we limit community to "people like us". This extends to what kind of job we have, how much we make and what we look like as well as nationality and skin color. Unfortunately, we often become respectors of persons.

As I read the book, I wondered what the "New Monastism" would look like. The community Mr. Claiborne is a part of is in the inner city of Philadelphia. The new monastics aren't cut off from the world, but smack dab in the middle of it. They don't just throw money at the poor, but they spend time with them. They build relationships. They try to actually make a difference.

I called the book inciting, but what I appreciated about the author was his lack of anger. Even when he laments the church's spending more on building projects than the poor, there's no rage. Because, as he says in the book, without love, you're just a protestor.

I'll leave the argument of whether these actions further the gospel to better minds than me. However, I take from this the challenge to speak the truth more boldly and act on what I know is right. If there's no basis in love, I might as well just shut up and sit on my hands.