How do you build community?

Last week I posted some thoughts on building online community.
I didn’t get many posts here but it did spur some further discussion over on Flickr at the Church Marketing Lab.

Also last week my new blogging buddy Johnny Laird (thanks Thomas) posted some thoughts on the community group that meets at his house.

He discussed several ideas he’s looking at for future meetings at his house.

After a little questioning he shared some additional insight:

…other Groups meet at other times too – basically whenever it suits.

On top of that we have a monthly “Walking Fellowship” that meets on that same Home Group Sunday to walk together around some the rural areas outside of Croydon. This is an important group for us too.

The Sunday evening meetings are worked on a rota basis too, as follows (with some variations):

“First Sunday” A very trad Salvation Army Gospel Praise meeting, featuring music from the Band & Songsters, congregational singing, soloists & Bible teaching.

Small Groups – On the second Sunday of each month

“The Journey” A more intimate Sunday evening meeting with shared study, issue based topics for 21st Century life, often with musical interludes & guest speakers.

Youth Church/ Cafe Church – alternate months

I asked him a bit more about the Walking Fellowship. He responded:

The Walking Fellowship walk together in the countryside, and the individuals hang out & talk with other people from the Church who may not always get the chance to spend any good quality time with. Usually they will end up at someone’s house after about an hour to an hour an a half walking. They drink coffee, eat cake, share some Scripture & prayer.

There’s no particular prayer walking with this group, but we have others who do.

Today he added a bit more to his explanation.

…forgot to respond to Jonathan’s question about whether it was a typical SA initiative.

In response to that, no – it’s not especially typical.(but then again what is?) I guess the thing about The Salvation Army – in the UK and globally – is no longer a homogenous one-size-fits all denomination in terms of method, but rather it is a very diverse Church, where all kinds of different expressions of service & ministry sit along side each other.

Last month, Laurie and I saw a story on ABC News about a woman in Philadelphia that has built a community of runners in a group of homeless men. She loved running and noticed a number of homeless men just hanging out during her morning jog – so she built a community with them.

Anne Mahlum is a 27-year-old marathoner. And on her predawn runs in Philadelphia, she kept passing a group of homeless men.

“They would say, ‘Hi’ or they would say ‘Hi Anne’ or ‘There’s the crazy runner.’ ‘How many miles are you doing?'” Mahlum recalled. “And they would smile and sort of applaud and cheer for me, while I would start my day.”

But one day in May, Mahlum said, “I looked back, and I was like, ‘I am cheating these guys. Why am I just running past them and leaving them there?'”

“Running is so simple you know. You really only need a pair of shoes. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You need heart and dedication,” Mahlum said.

Anne thought to herself, “Maybe running could make these guys feel as good as it makes me feel.”

So she decided to start a running club for the homeless and started asking businesses for help.

All of this got me think about other ways we form community.

• Online
• Online gaming
• Book Clubs
• Work
• Dinner Clubs
• Sports Clubs
• etc. etc.

Laurie and I love having our Dinner Club dinners. We took the idea from our friends Tim & Amber who hold monthly cuisine nights. A cuisine/theme is picked and everyone brings their favorite dishes. We were going to their dinner club but figured with the distance we might as well start our own. Everyone seems to have a great time when we do get together for the (somewhat) monthly meals. One of the things I have fun doing is trying to get people who might not normally get to spend time together to come to the dinners together. They may be friends of mine and Laurie’s but they may not know each other much at all. So it’s fun to see our friends mix it up.

We also have our encounter community group that meets every Tuesday night. I’ve loved watching our group grow not only in numbers but also in closeness with one another and with God. You can bet Tuesday nights are reserved for our community group.

But in addition to our 6 or 7 community groups at encounter there are other groups that meet throughout the week as well. On Wednesday mornings, there’s a group of 6-10 guys that meet at the local What-a-Burger for breakfast, Bible study and discussion before heading to work. There’s a new women’s Bible study that will begin soon. There’s also a group of guys that love motorcycles and get together on Sunday mornings before church to go ride and then meet to hang out at Chick-Fil-A on Thursday nights.

The key to all these groups I believe is a shared interest and the interest in sharing life with other folks around us.

I wonder what other ways we can build community in our churches and our neighborhoods. What are you doing?

Maybe before too long we’ll have an encounter walkers group, disk golf group and or joggers group or maybe we’ll take the time to build community outside our own church walls and have a neighborhood walker’s group, disk golf group or jogger’s group. Any takers?