In his book, The Benedict Option, Rod Dreher issued a timely warning to the church. In an attempt to engage the broader culture with the Gospel it had failed to create a distinct Christian culture and instead been coopted by American consumer culture. The result was an anemic church ill-prepared to face a quickly darkening cultural landscape and civilizational decline. In response, Dreher argued, it was time for the church to develop new ways of “doing” church. It was time to create new institutions and strategies to help it better form disciples, minister to the broader culture, and survive the years ahead. It was time for a “Benedict Option.” This is my attempt to provide the leaders in a local church a blueprint for developing their own Benedict Option community.

 

Building the Benedict Option focuses on the early Irish Monastic movement's strategy of building "monastic towns" that helped urbanize a rural Ireland, and re-civilize and evangelize a Roman Empire (in the West) that was devolving into barbarism. In the process it provides an introduction to Architecture, Urban Planning, placemaking, and real estate development, and explains why these disciplines are necessary for creating a healthy, effective faith community today.

 

A strategy for the Chuch in dark times.