Wherever we are in life, we are building communities of some sort, be it family, a church life group or a whole congregation. In my role leading our new 3pm Blunham location, I’ve had the opportunity to learn quite a bit about building community and I’ve boiled down to these top five things I’ve been learning:
1. SMALL TALK, BIG TALK
Building community, small or large, requires people to connect and form relationships by talking to one another. To this end, we should always be asking ourselves, how am I making it easy to talk to each other in this community?
We have to make space for small talk: the weather or the football. We also have to make space for big talk, or else our community becomes just a social club. For us at Blunham, we love catching up over a coffee after services and prayer meetings, and we also love building time into our meetings to talk about the bigger things in life.
Small talk by itself won’t grow a community. Big talk only can become intense. In your community, are you building in time for both?
2. BUILDING COMMUNITY TAKES TIME
There is no replacement for time spent in one another’s company. There is no shortcut for this.
To truly know one another, we need time in each other’s company and time to develop trust to be vulnerable. Have you ever tried being vulnerable with someone you’ve only just met? Me neither. These things take time.
Communication is more about listening than talking, and so in your community, are you taking the time to listen well?
3. THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL
The rewards of building community are huge. One of my favourite weeks as a Sunday location was in March when we met as a community to have lunch. The overwhelming majority of the community came along and we had a great time of connection over some delicious home-cooked food. They had wanted to be part of it. This would never have been possible without having put the time in first.
4. BUILDING SOMETIMES MEANS BUILDING (FLATPACK)
One of my favourite moments in building the community at Blunham was the afternoon we literally spent doing some building! We had a delivery of flat-packed sofas and chairs to help refurbish the rear hall in the building. I made an appeal for helpers and was amazed at the number of people who showed up with their expertise, tools and time. What spurred us on was the fact that we were all working towards an endpoint we valued.
We wanted to see the room transformed, and what I learnt was that having a sense of common purpose bound us together.
5. ADVENTURE WITH PEOPLE YOU TRUST
Building a community of any sort is an adventure in itself, a step into the unknown. The future of your community might face unexpected challenges. The only way to approach this healthily is to go on this adventure with people you trust, people who you know will stand by you and fight for the community.
I have been so grateful for the community at Blunham who have been so trustworthy and dependable in all we have ventured in together, willing to help out in so many ways. I know that we can see through anything that comes our way.
Let’s continue building healthy, strong community around us as we become all that God has called us to be.
Much love,
John Wright and the eFocus team
If you’d like to see how building our Blunham community is progressing, or even considering joining us for a season as we seek to build and grow, we would love to have you! We meet on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month at 3pm.
Find out more at kingsarms.org/blunham