Brainstorming about Community...

Over the later part of summer, I made the transition from student ministry to Pastor of Community Life. The transition has been good from the sense of seeing God do some neat and cool things. So over the past few months, I have had many discussions with people like yourself about 'community.' We have talked about what it looks like, walks like, acts like, ways to develop it, cultivate it, and so on. Through these open deliberations, I have been able to see God at work. God has been developing in me a way to go about experiencing deeper community in our church and in my own life. I want to share with you some ways that I would like to see us organically go about reaching community together. 

 

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Groups to Assist in Community Building:

1. Ministry Team Representatives (MTR's)
2. LifeGroups
3. Community Building Team 

So these are the three groups I would like to see begin working on community.  

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Venues from which we can cultivate community: 

1. LifeGroups - during regular scheduled meeting times, special events, etc.
2. One-Time Ministry Events - (Love Our Neighbor, reFUEL weekend, etc.)
3. Affinity Groups - (Sports/Recreation, Book club, shopping, etc.)
4. Ministries - Within each ministry, a natural sense of community is being formed
5. Newsong University - short term classes designed to strengthen our faith. Could also be short-term LifeGroups assembled to meet short-term needs.

This list should not be seen as a complete or exhaustive list but rather a beginning point.

I am curious what your thoughts are on these ideas. 

Do I Belong?

For the past two weeks, we have had in-law company from out of town. Now, more often than not, this might stir up many thoughts for you. Some good and some not so good. I was unsure of what this visit would be like for us. I am happy to say it was a great visit. It was during this visit while sitting around the table one night, we had a short and yet powerful discussion about church. While discussing church, we talked about the different levels and layers of belonging to each other. You will hear me discuss a lot about Joseph Myers books: ' The Search to Belong' and 'Organic Community.' We discussed the four ways people belong to each other as described in these books. The four levels of belonging are: Public, Social, Personal and Intimate.

An amazing revelation came from this time around the table. The revelation is this: There might be people who are regular attenders at our church -- quit possibly even members -- who actively participate in what is happening: They participate in ministry, in events that have been planned, in worship, and in other areas of the church. And yet, even though they participate in what is going on around them, they may not really feel like they belong to people or the church. They may not feel like they belong to anyone at all.

What do you think about this? Do you think it is possible for people to be that involved in church and not feel like they belong? What does belonging look like for you? What does it feel like? What is the one thing that you believe helps you 'belong'? What do you believe prevents you from experience any level of belonging? Is there an idea that you have or can throw out that would open our eyes to something new in this area?  

Cultivating Community

This is the first blog of many to come. I have tossed around ideas in my brain about the best possible way for us to discuss and dialogue about 'cultivating community' at Newsong. There are so many ideas, so many thoughts, so many directions that we can go. However, because of a great book I have recently read by Joseph Myers entitled "Organic Community," I have learned collaboration is a much better approach than cooperation. I want us to dream together. I want us to discuss ideas and wrestle with this concept of community as a team. Team implies that we win and loose together. If I experience community on a personal level, as an individual I win. However, if as a church there are those who do not experience community, as a team we loose. 

What is it going to take for our team to win? What is going to take for each person at Newsong Fellowship to experience community? Is that to lofty a goal? Are we set up for failure before we start due to the notion that we should all experience community? These are all questions that I have running through my head at this time. Quit honestly, I want to make sure the awareness level about community building is raised to a new level. 

I am very interested in what your opinions are about these questions and more. If you have other thoughts, ideas or questions of your own, please post them. Let's get it out in the open so we can discuss it.