The New Monastics and Mosaic Leadership: Otra Voz by Gabriel Salguero
A Historical-Contextual Perspective: This is no small point. Often in the public presentations, books, and conferences of these aforementioned movements, they are presented as something new going on. (I don’t think this is intentional.) I have been on college campuses and multiple emerging leaders’ gatherings where many well-intentioned next generation Christian leaders see these movements as if something new is happening. This dangerous omission often makes many indigenous grassroots workers feel like there is some type of cultural-capital being cashed in at the expense of life-long indigenous Christian leadership.  Present-day movements should continue to clearly tie and partner, when possible, with the legacy of the Black Church, the Latin-American and Latino(a) grassroots communities, abolitionists, faithful women’s movements, the South-African church, etc. around the world. Also the New Monastics, Emergent Church, etc. could learn and partner with the work of storefront Pentecostal and indigenous congregations who have lived and worked in economically challenging contexts for some time. Some of these leaders and pastors did not choose to relocate; they were born, raised, and chose to stay in these contexts.

Read full post at God’s Politics

Do not miss this insightful and provocative post from my friends Jason and Vonetta Strobakken from Radical Living Community in NYC. This is a first in a series of posts and responses in God’s Politics Blog about the subject of multi-cuttural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic expression in new monasticism.

Reconciliation’s Challenge for New Monastic Communities (by Jason and Vonetta Storbakken)

The key players in New Monasticism have made important strides in raising awareness of issues pertinent to disenfranchised members of our society, yet these leaders often make some of the same mistakes as their conservative counterparts. One of the Twelve Marks of New Monasticism is the “lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.” Although most do “lament” the racial divisions in our society, one is hard-pressed to find a leader in New Monasticism who is not a middle class white male. However, the problem is not with their class, color or gender, but that there has yet to be an “active pursuit” of reconciliation realized within the myriad intentional communities that have sprouted across the United States. And after some good private conversations with some those leaders, we agreed to open a public dialogue about this issue because by their very natures both this conversation and this movement aren’t just about a handful of leaders. It’s about every member of every community who needs to actively seek reconciliation.

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[HT -Jordon Cooper]