Description
The search for what it means to be the people of God has led many in recent years to community. In almost every Western nation Christians have begun to gather together to share a common life. The growth of communities is not limited in any way to a particular denomination or tradition, but reflects a grass roots movement worldwide. Whether Catholic worker, radical evangelical, charismatic or monastic, the communities exhibit a profound desire to recover the value of a shared oneness in lifestyle, mission and worship.
The call that Art Gish directs to Christians everywhere is to recognize that participation in the kingdom of God means living in community. His is by no means a lone voice or a new one. His understanding of the church grows out of a strong tradition of community life that has shaped the radical arm of the church as far back as the early gathering of Christians described in the Book of Acts. From the time of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, the Anabaptist tradition has maintained a personalized and non-institutional view of the church. This has repeatedly resulted in its followers being severely persecuted and ostracized. Only recently have Christians generally come to recognize the contribution the Anabaptists have made as a prophetic voice calling the church to obedience and the way of the cross, and are studying afresh this valuable yet comparatively unknown tradition.
