What it means to be intentional in a community.

It’s been more than three months since I graduated from middle-of-nowhere Wesleyan University to end up here in “inner-city” Washington DC on my second internship with a research “fact”-tank. Many of the choices I have made during the summer was borne from much anxiety and prayer, and I am amazed to see how God has led me here, here regardless. When trying to explain to beloved friends and family about these choices, it was hard for them to understand why I chose this low-income, graffitied neighborhood. I am reminded of a conversation I had with a Malaysian friend yesterday who is just starting his Harvard Phd in Physics this fall, “My parents have no idea what I am doing, so the only way I can explain it is, “Physics allow you to make things like handphone or batteries or space engines,” and they are like, “oh, like engineering!”

Well, anyway that was a bad analogy, but I just read this article in the New York Press about a pretty large intentional community in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Although our house is different in many ways (ask me how, if you’re curious) and the article paints quite a radicalized romanticized image of the community, I will quote certain similarities our communities share as part of the New Monastic movement:

While their website describes a group of people, “dedicated to living a meditative, prophetic and prayerful life, centered in Christ, engaged in our neighborhood, concerned with social justice, and led by the Holy Spirit,” their Facebook profile advertises an affinity with like-minded communities around the country with names like The Simple Way, The Mustard Seed House and the Ecclesia Collective.

Like backpackers who meet each other at youth hostels, coffee shops and dive bars to share stories from the road, progressive in-the-know evangelical pilgrims travel regularly among these communities, meeting each other in these safe spaces of fellowship and devout faith. At the Hart Street house, there is a permanent “hospitality” bedroom where these “pilgrims” from around the country are invited to spend the night.

Many of the residents hold jobs as educators or social workers and occupy their spare time with volunteer work.

P.S. What is New Monasticism?