Day 19 – Cultivating Community

Today’s devotional expands yesterday’s discussion life as a small group. Warren addresses the common criticisms of churches as places devoid of real community. This is a primary reason I hesitate about joining a congregation that merely goes through the motions and then reverts to ugly human behavior once the doors open again.

Warren talks about turning the real fellowship into a real community. I’m not going to rush right out an open a church once I’ve established some fellowship, but the nature of the thought is intriguing.

Point to Ponder: Community requires commitment.

The difference between people who say they are a community and people who really are is the commitment to one another. That commitment is demonstrated through action, not slogans and mottos. We’ve become so pacified by PR and marketing departments running amock that we think if we say a thing it becomes true and real. Warren gives these simple guidance measure for building commited community:

• Authenticity
• Mutuality
• Sympathy
• Mercy
• Honesty
• Humility
• Courtesy
• Confidentiality
• Frequency

When I read this chapter and in particular the 2nd to last paragraph where Warren sums up the 9 points above I thought about two things in my experience. First is during classes I deliver. I work hard to outline and enforce rules of safe conduct, in essence building a learing community that is both real and commited. Second is the nature of my core group of friends. We gather weekly for a night together. We’ve been doing this for the last few years, after being friends for roughly 20 years. Our commitment to each other is demonstrated by the candid conversations we have, the brand of love and fellowship we demonstrate, the frequency and regularity in which we gather. I’ve long described my friends as the main reason I remain where I am, they have supplemented my family.

Question to Consider: How can I help cultivate today the characteristics of real community in my small group and my church?

Well, I have not followed Warren’s advice on joining a church. Is that wrong? I think church is more than a building, it is a community (as Warren points out). My friends have become my community. Does this make them my church? If so, representing the 9 points above to my friends at each opportunity to do so satisfies my cultivation of community. If not, I need to really dig further into a church or group that relates to my sense of Christian spiritualism.

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