Why Become an Urban Monk?

Individuals become Urban Monks in order to learn how past and contemporary Christian reformers, including other Urban Monks, solve and end social issues and injustices, and to discover or rediscover Christian spiritual practices that strengthen their ability to overcome social issues and injustices like the reformers.

Over time, this Christ-like commitment transforms Urban Monks into agents of change and healing. Such dedication includes confronting the social and economic issues and injustices that family members and friends experience as well as those experienced by neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, and strangers. Such faithfulness involves daily acts and a life-long course of action that lead to implementing solutions to end social wrongs.

These daily and life-long actions are guided by an Urban Monk’s Rule of Life that includes personally selected spiritual practices that integrate their actions and reactions with the actions and reactions of the people and places that make up their everyday world. Such integration helps them become agents of transformation and reconciliation.

Thus, an Urban Monk seeks to solve and end social issues and injustices in the tradition of past and contemporary Christian reformers. Such issues and injustices have left neighborhoods, cities, counties, states or even entire nations pained and conflicted. Urban Monks believe that God desires to use them to administer justice and bring healing as taught in the Christian scriptures.

Individuals also become Urban Monks in order to be part of a growing world-wide community of Urban Monks who share with one another

• nurturing spiritual practices;
• integrating spiritual practices into acts of charity;
• using spiritual practices to solve and end social issues and injustices; and
• caring for yourself and those closest to you through spiritual, social, and recreational activities.

Such sharing is achieved through audio conferencing, video conferencing, white papers, published articles and books, web sites, webinars, seminars, workshops, conferences, and social media.