Hi folks, how we all doing? This week we will meet at Platform 2 at 7.30, it would be great to see you if you are able to join us. This weeks reflection is written for us by John Cooper and he tackles ‘a question of community’.
As we begin, I’d like to think about the communities you are, or have been, part of. What makes them community and not just a club, society, organisation or church? Are all these associations and gathering always communities; or is community something else which grows within them?
Take some time to think and write down or record your thoughts.
I believe community isn’t something that just happens; neither is it something that can be manufactured. Instead, it’s something that can be nurtured, it’s something that can be fed – it’s like good soil or fresh water that allows for things to grow.
One analogy which is sometimes used is closed or centre sets. Imagine sheep farms in the UK. Fields are surrounded by walls or fences to keep the sheep from wandering. Now imagine the sheep farms in other places around the world where water is scarce. The farmer sets up their farmhouses near the source of fresh water. There’s no need to hem the sheep in because they will naturally come to the place where the water is. Now think of the groups you thought of earlier. How many had rules, regulations, memberships etc. which designated if you were in or out. How easy was it to join?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote the go-to book on Christian community – “Life together”. The most famous quote from it is :
“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”
Bonhoeffer set out that we can have an idealistic view of the groups we join. We may think they are the answer to all our problems, or that we are the answer to all theirs. But either view is flawed and doomed to fail. Each group is just a bunch of ordinary human beings just like us – a bit clueless and messed up and searching for something bigger than ourselves. And therefore, if we join thinking it will change us into something else or we’ll change it (in an idealistic way) then it won’t.
However, Bonhoeffer suggests that both changes can happen when we join and commune at an open and honest level with those other there. When we listen and learn, allow ourselves to be vulnerable, slowly learn to trust, find out what we love about people, and what really irritates us about them. And when we commit to being alongside them, nevertheless. It’s here that community grows – when we pull down the idol of community in the name of living together with those we meet with in any of these groups.
The Northumbria Community describe community as a response of living life together. It changes as we change, we change as it changes. We make room for new people and that alters who we are and who they are, ever changing – ever reinventing – in flux – dancing with each other in community. In this view community is the act of self-giving and service. It is reciprocal. As we give and look to others in the group; so, they give and look to us. In a lot of the churches I’ve been in I think I’ve been tolerated because I’m willing to do a lot of stuff, and not welcome because of who I am. So, Instead of what people can do we could possibly focus more on who people are. Yes, gifts and talents may come to the fore, but our position in. the group should not be transactional, instead reciprocal.
Lastly, I think groups that are outward looking and open breed community. And groups that celebrate diversity and difference. This may seem counter intuitive, but the need to search for, remember and work at what binds us in all our glorious difference helps to build community. Each year at the Northumbria Community they retell their story, examine their values and ask: where are we living them out and where have we wandered off the path? Sometimes the changes which have happened in the last year are growth, and sometimes there needs to be a course correction. Sometimes values change. But this is told within the story and those who have been there years, and those who are new are all invited to input. I’ve seen this same instinct in BFX and I like it. It invites people to own and participate in the shared values, while bringing all their diversity and difference with them and I believe its in the spaces between these things that community is built.
Community happens as we accept and are accepted “warts and all” in a group. But it’s also creates a space where change for all concerned can begin.
Questions
What movies, TV programs or books offer the best picture of community?
What is the best example of community you’ve experienced?
What makes a group a community and not just a club, society, organisation or church?
What groups have you been part of that seem to have walls that “keep the sheep in”?
What make you feel part of a community?
Do you agree with Bonhoeffer’s quote about community?
What values draw you to BFX?
Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
Comments 1
Thanks John… great blog