Shane Claiborne is a lanky, bohemian Christian who favors loose-fitting homemade clothes in dull earth tones.

He has a goatee, fixes a handkerchief to his head and fashions his hair into long, extravagant braids that tend to flop about like captured snakes whenever his excitement grows as he's speaking about his favorite subject: what he thinks it means to follow Jesus.

Claiborne's look is closer to John the Baptist than Pat Robertson or even Rick Warren, and no doubt that is by design because the 35-year-old author and adherent of urban, communal living is drawn to a brand of faithfulness that the earliest Christians might recognize but conservative 21st-century evangelicals consider weak on salvation. Going on 12 years, Claiborne has led an experiment in Christian counterculture. He and a band of partners share simple quarters in North Philadelphia and minister to the brokeness and poverty in their neighborhood. Claiborne says they are on a journey of trying to follow Jesus' example and seeing what happens when you actually love your neighbor.

Standing-room only

The relative novelty of what Claiborne is doing — a movement called the New Monasticism — has turned him into something of a celebrity in some Christian circles, and he is in demand as a speaker at churches and college campuses across the country and overseas.

On Tuesday night, Claiborne came to Lancaster Church of the Brethren as a guest of Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness and a war tax resistance group called 1040 for Peace. An overflow crowd of more than 1,100 filled the pews, clogged the aisles and settled on the floor about the chancel as Claiborne spoke with earnestness and folksy humor.

Anyone expecting to hear about abortion, the mosque near ground zero or converting the unsaved would have gone home disappointed. Those topics don't rise to the top of Claiborne's agenda.

His bigger concerns are that Christianity has gone astray and a new reformation is in order.

"If you ask the average non-Christian what Christians believe, they can tell you a few things, such as Jesus rose from the dead," Claiborne said. "But when you ask them how do Christians live, they're struck dumb."

Worse, he added, is what a Barna Group survey found when it asked non-Christians ages 18 to 41 what they think of when they think of Christians. The No. 1 response was anti-gay; No. 2 was judgmental; No. 3 was hypocritical.

The church suffers from an image problem not of Jesus' making, Claiborne insists, but of his followers'. Christians too often are obstacles to people open to knowing God.

Actions matter

"A Gospel that's only about individual salvation falls short," Claiborne told me before his talk. "So I go back to Jesus. What did Jesus preach? What did Jesus embody? Almost every time Jesus talked, he talked about the Kingdom of God, and it's not just what we hope for when we die, but it's something we're to bring on earth, as it is in heaven."

Claiborne elaborated in his talk, saying those seeking to emulate Jesus must practice nonviolence, share freely and love those who are hard to love. If you live your faith, as the Amish did in modeling forgiveness after the 2006 schoolhouse massacre, Claiborne said, then the world takes note.

"Christians are supposed to remind the world of what Jesus is like," Claiborne said. "Christians at their best are able to say, if you want to know what I believe, then watch how I live."

jhawkes@lnpnews.com