Lorelle VanFossen wrote on Blog Herald, yesterday, a post titled “Exploring Social Media: It Starts With One”.
While the post is specifically about Social Networking on the computer, it also speaks to building any kind of community.
She writes:
A community doesn’t start with millions. It starts with one. If you serve the one, the one will tell one, who will tell two, who will tell six, and so on and so on. If you don’t serve the one… and each one after… bye bye, community.
I think this especially true in the church.
For years we have been talking about discipleship and evangelism and missions–but we neglect the nature of what the Early Church demonstrated and that is community. One of the things that can be learned from Social Media is that it is all about Relationships.
She continues:
Social media is about the social as well as the community. This means that you have to service the individual’s needs for them to come together as a whole.
Building community is vital to our world. Building community is vital to the future of the church.
One of the biggest reasons that I hear of as to why people leave the church relates to this issue right here. Many times people “get offended” by a certain event in the church. But, if the community had already invovled the person, would they have been offended? We get offended when we feel as if we are the outsiders. When we are a part of the community, we tend to support a decision whether or not we disagree. But we take into account the relationships and the trust we have built.
Building community starts with building a community with one other person. This community with one person one day will become two, and four, and eight, and sixteen.
We talk about church growth–my degree is in Church Growth–to not build a relationship with each person is the biggest mistake that a church or chapel can make. If we can not bring every member into this community (or at least make the honest attempt to) the the church is too big. Because it has outgrown it’s ability to reach the needs of the people inside its own walls.
The challenge therefore is to build community–at every stage of the process. It is possible, but it takes hard work.
Chaplain Andrews says
Thank you, Cindy for thinking of me. I feel very appreciated by the many people that have dropped notes to me over the past couple of days. Thank you for yours!!
Cindy Swanson says
Hi Chaplain! I try to read your blog fairly regularly, but I’m so sorry I missed yesterday, Veteran’s Day. Let me say a belated but heartfelt “thank you!” for the job you’re doing for your country! Know that it is very much appreciated by many, including me.
Monica says
Good post!!