The Elusive Ideal of Community

What if, perhaps, creating ‘community’ were not a #1 goal in Christian organizations? What does the word ‘community’ even mean? Aren’t we all individuals? Doesn’t the Bible encourage us to aim for living in ‘communion’ with each other? What do these concepts mean for leadership? For instance, is it even possible to lead a ‘community’? This book is not so much a ‘feel good’, cozy, approach to the idea of community. Rather, it aims to answer these questions and more with regard to human beings living in relationship with each other and with God. In doing so, it explores aspects of individualism and what it might really mean to live in a society, a community, a collective, or to live communally. Understanding these categories will help us to see more clearly what is happening in the relationships within our groups, and why we behave in various groups as we do. Comparisons are made with other cultures so that we may better understand our own, and some reasons are given for why ‘Christian community’ may be so difficult to truly achieve and maintain.It is hoped that as you read and think on the many deep, yet subtle, implications of the distinctions between types of relationship groups, you will be challenged to reconsider the implications for you as a member or leader of your own!