A reader e-mails the most personally encouraging thing I’ve read in a while. I’ve edited it slightly at her request to protect her privacy:

FWIW, the Christ-following Evangelicals in our neck of the woods [the South], likely more right than left, do think the The Benedict Option is relevant, valid, and important.  So important that our thoughtful pastoral leadership, mostly comprised of gentlemen in their mid-30s, are convening a Ben-Op discussion group with a small cadre of Evangelical professors  to discuss what this means for us — personally and collectively — as a community of faith.

This is a Southern Baptist church–a Southern Baptist church that incorporates the reading of OT, NT, and the Epistles–as well as Corporate Confession of Sin–into its weekly Sunday liturgy.  (You might not know this, but that is not the usual MO for traditional Southern Baptist churches).

I know of several other Ben-Op discussion groups that have or will be sprouting up in our area.

Do know that despite the many ostriches with their heads in the sand, people are listening.  And discussing.  And praying.  And, prayerfully, taking action.

Thank you so very much for this news, friend. A journalist asked me in an interview the other day what led me to write this book. I told him that more than anything else, I wanted to do my part in making it possible for my children, and my grandchildren, and their descendants, to hold on to the faith through the very difficult times we’re in now, and that are to come. And I want to help make it possible for other Christians to do the same.

What’s more, I am convinced that this is a project that is going to require the friendship and cooperation of all faithful small-o orthodox Christians. It cheers me up immensely to hear from readers like this one, and to know that the book I’ve written has planted a seed. We are going to have to be a “creative minority” in this post-Christian nation, and it sounds like the Bible-believing Evangelicals in that part of the world are well on their way to figuring out what that means for them in their own place, coming out of their own particular tradition.

Thank you, friends. Let us help each other, in prayer and otherwise. Please write to let me know what you’re thinking about all this after you’ve met. There are a lot of us who are eager to learn from you.