Most people in Christian communities are seeking fellowship and a place to live their faith in the way of early Christians. Some are protesting society's values or hoping to spark a renewal in churches. Others follow a charismatic personality, waiting for the end of the world. Researchers estimate that there are 3,000 Christian communities in North America, representing more than half of a growing movement of people living in all kinds of communities. In 1995, the Fellowship for Intentional Communities listed 540 communities in its directory, up from 325 in the 1990 edition.
Christian communities are as old as the faith itself.
During the Middle Ages, Europeans started monastic groups like the Franciscans that continue today. In the early 1800s, Americans founded groups such as the Oneida and Amana communities. The 1960s brought a wave of communities, many of them Christian groups protesting war and working for civil rights. Today, on the eve of the new millennium, Janzen said, the communities movement is finding new appeal as people are rejecting materialism and seeking relationships with others. When Joe Gatlin arrived at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee in 1970, he plunged into student activism, helping to stage war protests and working on George McGovern's presidential campaign.