The New Friars

Taking their leadership from St. Francis of Assisi, the new friars are using downward mobility to leave the comfortable trappings of the West & serving the poorest of the poor across the globe. With usually nothing but the love of Jesus in their hearts and the determination of fulfilling their God-given purpose, they move to slums, garbage communities and impoverished urban “neighborhoods” to show that love and help in what meager ways they can. Often they find sickness and death, but also a surprising hope amid the tragedy.

Many times people ask how God can sit by and watch the travesty of poverty – not American poverty, but poverty that has sucked you down so much there is no human way of escaping – and not do anything. The eew friars have asked themselves that same question, and their answer is that He is not standing idly by, He is calling them to go and be.

Scott Bessenecker “believes there have been in each generation those who long to gather like-minded individuals to be set apart in service guided by a rule, order or set of disciplines. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there are places on earth that cannot be truly changed by the kingdom of God without people willing to make Nazarite-like commitments.”

Mr. Bessenecker describes some of the work these New Friars are doing, where they go, and with whom they work for and with. According to Mr. Bessenecker, there are five qualities that both the old and new friars have in common. They are-

Incarnational – they don’t just preach the gospel, they strive to be the gospel.

Devotional – they have a set of spiritual commitments or a “rule” that governs their life.

Communal – they live with others, sharing their lives and possessions.

Missional – they strive to stretch the borders of the church into the geographic fringes.

Marginal – they are bound to people at the edge of society, often ministering to those who no one else wants to be around.

Mr. Bessenecker paints a portrait of those old friars and their work & correlates it to the work that the new friars are doing and accomplishing. He then talks to those of us who are not specifically called to slum communities and the like. He shares what we can do to further the gospel and the mission of the new friars. This is a very informative & captivating book which describes some of the hope that the gospel can bring to even the most desperate situations.

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