Organic Community

For the next several days, I am going to use this space to put down in cyberspace some thoughts on a book given to me by a sister in Christ who belongs to the church I pastor. Each post will include two chapters. Joe Myers, author of Search to Belong, calls his latest work, Organic Community, a how-to book unlike other how-to books. It's a book on how-to change your thinking regarding community (18-19).

Myers believes that community should operate with a "language of possibilities" (30). Organic order is the title he gives the strategy for community, but strategy is a bad word; perhaps "personality" would be a better word. Knowing we cannot control or predict the future, we must create the appropriate environment for community and keep it changing...keep it brimming with possibility. To do this (read: to start thinking this way; to start becoming this person), Myers
gives 9 tools.

The first tool is Patterns. Individuals operate in patterns, or rhythms for their life. For example, some people are morning people; some people are night people. Myers says that we can have prescriptive or descriptive patterns. The former tells people how to operate; the latter finds out how people operate and works with them. Because people have four sections of connections (public, social, personal, intimate), he suggests offering community for all levels in many ways.

I like Myers' approach with this first tool. One must always start with where people are and help them move forward. The biggest challenge for me is not to see "moving forward" as "becoming like Aaron." Of course, Paul did say, "Follow me as I follow Christ," but I think I'll refrain from calling myself St Paul. I also like Myers' focus on character and person. I can see how living this way, and facilitating community in this way has got to be very selfless and one must be very patient.