If the church is more than just a building, what could it mean to live in it--to inhabit it as a way of life? From their location in new monastic communities, Otto, Stock, and Wilson-Hartgrove ask what the church can learn from St. Benedict's vows of conversion, obedience, and stability about how to live as the people of God in the world. In storytelling and serious engagement with Scripture, old wisdom breathes life into a new monasticism. But, like allmonastic wisdom, these reflections are not just for monks. They speak directly to the challenge of being the church in America today and the good news Christ offers for the whole world.

Jon Stock is a member of Church of the Servant King, publisher of Wipf and Stock, and proprietor of Windows Booksellers in Eugene, Oregon.

Tim Otto serves as an Associate Pastor of the Church of the Sojourners in San Francisco. He is also a part-time nurse at the San Francisco county hospital, working with AIDS and cancer patients.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a member of Rutba House in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author ofTo Baghdad and Beyond.