Sunday Lab: Authentic Community (Introduction)
Sun | Jan 06
6.00pm at St Paul’s
Spring 2008: Authentic Community
Reflection
James used four directions to look at what “authentic community” looks like from different angles - and then we used four different stations to meditate on them.
Community looks inwards - we are there for each other, but also there to make ourselves vulnerable before each other.
“There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.” - M. Scott Peck
Community looks outwards in that we need to be welcoming and inclusive and constantly trying to bring others into community with us - Jesus told us to be lights that shine, but not hidden in a church or the top room of the Pen & Wig or under a bucket (one of those is Jesus’, two I made up ;-).
“In every community there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart there is the power to do it. ” - Marianne Williamson
Community looks upwards because Jesus is the point of it all, and the whole point of community is to point to Him.
And community looks downwards because it’s all about serving and sacrifice - finding the part we can play, what our brick looks like in the wall, and doing it.
Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
