Organic Community (a book series)

Joseph Myers writes this book (Organic Community) for people and organizations who are interested in helping people experience and engage community (and my assumption in his writing, in helping people grow spiritually).

I will post on a chapter or 2 at a time with some questions, and hope that it’ll help us (Westside and our community environments like groups, gatherings, pizza nights, etc.) move toward our goal of community and spiritual growth, not just the fulfillment of a program or event. I don’t agree with everything Myers says, although most is really helpful, but I do find that his thoughts provoke me to think deeper and ask better questions as I try and help people grow in their relationship with Christ and with each other, not to mention my own.

PLEASE comment and dialog through it (I really hope we do)

INTRO:

“People seem to long for a more organic approach to life—even church life” (18)

If this is true, where can we do better. Myer’s says, “In our desire to help people with their lives and answer the question of how, we program community, which sometimes harms more than it helps. We are discovering that it is more helpful to nurture environments where spontaneous community can emerge.” (19)

Myers challenges us to ask the right questions if we’re looking for different answers to our pursuit to create places where people connect naturally, believing that the same questions will just bring the same results.

He quotes Peter Block for insight on the importance of questions: “Transformation comes more from pursuing profound questions than seeking practical answers. …if we want to know what really works, we must carefully decide which are the right questions for this moment.” (18, 20)

What are some questions we usually ask? Here’s some I fall into too easily:
HOW MANY people are committed and showed up to a small group?
HOW MANY people attended a church gathering?
 what are better questions that will help us see results in people growing in community and spiritual growth?

Chapter 1: Organic Order: synchronized life, moving from master plan to organic matter.

Myers defines our normal way of ‘doing’ or ‘programming’ church as “master planning.”
He compares community to art and writes about how art cannot be manufactured.

Master Planning: community based on programming.

“Organic community has the human complexities that promote artistry over mechanics. In our worship of ‘how-to’ pragmatism, we have in some cases treated the church as an object and programmed the life out of it. It would do us well to remember that our job is to help people with their lives rather than build infrastructures that help institutions stay alive. Sometimes we focus so much on building a ‘healthy church’ that we forget to tend to the health of people.” (27)
(THIS IS MY FAVORIT QUOTE OF THE CHAPTER)

Master Planning tries to control the future and tell people it’s all going to work out this way, removing anxiety and fear and also garnering hope for a desired outcome.

“Master plans might work if we had the ability to foresee the future, but we do not. We barely know what we know today, let alone tomorrow.” (29)

Myers says this works great for manufacturing cars, but not people or community. The result at the end of an assembly line calls for ‘totalitarian order’, but “living things yearn for wholeness, not for totality.” (30)

Organic Order: community based on environment

M.P. uses the language of ‘ought’ and ‘should,’ where the future ‘must’ look like this. O.O. “presents a language of possibilities.” (30)
(I do see the need at some points to present vision as we ‘must do this’, or move in this direction, especially if people aren’t seeing God’s picture of the gospel and the church; but I see Myers addressing a different topic here)

M.P. has one end point in view. O.O. sees a horizon in view.
M.P. asks, “where are we headed?”
O.O. asks, “what are we hoping for?”
Myers’ sees the organic question more valid because it includes the journey, not only the destination.
“Where” (MP) is more of a future outcome, “what” looks deeper, to the substance of what results from the journey. I.E. not just where are we going, but who/what are we becoming.

Myers’ shares an example of small groups. He doesn’t say throw out the small group plan, but asks what are small groups doing. “At their best, small groups supply an organic-ordered environment for some people in some seasons of their lives to grow their sense of healthy community and belonging (I’ll add spiritual formation here), At their worst, small groups deliver a manufactured environment that is promoted for all people and for every season of life.”(34)
(I THINK HE’S TALKING 2 EXTREMES, but it’s something to think about)

Myers calls us to make the shift from programmer (m.p.) to environmentalist (following the principles of o.o. to create and shape environments).

Questions:
How is the church helping people become a certain kind of person/community?
Are you personally becoming a certain kind of person (transformation) and growing in your engagement of community (relationships)?
What’s the difference b/w an environment and a program?
Are we teaching people to fulfill tasks or to live?
Are we teaching people to relate or believe… to engage or just show up?
Other thoughts?