A Missional Community (also known as an “intentional community”) is a group of people, (normally between six and fifteen people) who live together, work together, and help each other to grow closer to God. Missional Communities are often referred to as “New Monasticism”, since they are built on much of the wisdom of the monastic movement. A few key differences between a traditional monastic community and a missional community like the one we will be starting:

• People normally commit to living in a missional community for a specified amount of time. This may be six months, a year, two years, etc.
• Missional communities normally locate themselves in places marked by suffering and poverty and seek to know and love the hurting community in which they are located.
• Members of a missional community normally do not take the traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

One of the most well-known missional communities is The Simple Way in Philadelphia, founded by six university graduates (one of whom was Shane Claiborne). Here is their description of their community: http://www.thesimpleway.org/about/.

See also The Simple Way’s Twelve Marks of New Monasticism.