Musings on Spiritual Matters

What is the level of community in your congregation?  Most people are seeking an intimate level of community in the church.  Here are four levels of community:

Pseudocommunity: This is a congregation that desires community to the point that it rather pretend or make believe that they have created an instant community.  The members are pleasant, avoid embarrassing others, and shy away from saying or doing anything that might upset the other person.

Chaos: This is an awkward and confusing stage.  It has no rhythm and no grace.  The various groups will preach at one another in the attempt to fix or convert the other party.  People talk down to one another.

Emptiness: This is the realization that the group is not a well-knit team after all.  It is the realization that they have a long way to go before they will be an authentic community.  They know now that the community they claimed was a lie.

Community: This is the stage of development in which the whole group is greater than the sum of its parts.  The synergy from the group is greater than each individual need or perspective.  There is a whole new level of acceptance, trust, and insight.

Community is a process that sometimes travels through conflict to arrive at the true destination.

Related posts:

1. In Search for Community
2. Review of “Taking Your Church to the Next Level”
3. The Level of Implicit Instruction
4. Community Public Prayers
5. Reliving Pentecost: The Church Community

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 11:45 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.