Helpful and Relevant - In some ways... | Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect...

Well Worth a Read | Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect (emersion: Emergent Village resources for ... | Joseph R. Myers

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	• Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect (emersion: Emergent Village resources for ... Joseph R. Myers Baker Books, 2007 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Going Green in Ministry

You know a book is going to be good when you find yourself underlining stuff in the forward. After reading "Search to Belong" and "Organic Community," I think I would be willing to plop down money for just about anything that Joseph Myers writes. Like most of my favorite authors, he drives me crazy. I tried really hard to not like him. I wanted to brand him as anti-small groups. I tried to zoom in and focus only on the areas where I disagreed with him. But I just can't. Joseph is writing from lots of a experience and from a heart that truly desires to see people grow in real, authentic community. Anyone who works with small groups, discipleship, or community needs to read this book. Like me, you may find yourself disagreeing with certain things or getting defensive, but you still need to wrestle with it.

"Organic Community" challenges us to create environments where true Biblical community can flourish. It is not a step-by-step master plan or some new model for ministry. Rather, Joseph presents nine ideas that we need to consider when designing community experiences that allow community to "emerge" instead of being fabricated. He gives principles for going green and becoming an environmentalist instead of a master planner. I found two chapters particularly helpful. The chapter on "Patterns" helps the reader identify how and why people connect. The chapter on "Partners" challenges our ideas about accountability and encourages a new approach of editability. I have lots of good, constructive questions after reading this book. For instance, what are we measuring and why? Are we measuring the right things? What are we really trying to accomplish in the small group environment?

"Organic Community" is easy to read, and the tone is straightforward. I still have some bones to pick with the author about certain issues lingering from Search to Belong, but that's a good thing.

If you have not read "The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups," I would recommend reading that first. If you are interested in reading more about community, I would also recommend John Ortberg's Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

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Helpful and Relevant - In some ways...

This book is a follow up to The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups by Myers and asserts itself as a "how-to" manual for various characteristics of a community life of faith. Ten characteristics are addressed and for each a contrast is made between qualities of a master plan and organic order. The characteristics addressed are: organic order, patterns, participation, measurement, growth, power, coordination, partners, language, and resources.

Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the great strengths of this book is the emphasis on a community of faith moving forward. Myers recognizes the transitional state of community life and is concerned with movement and avoiding status quo. One of the weaknesses of this book was lack of a clear understanding of the nature and structure of the church. At times, the content seemed quite disconnected from an actual worshipping community.

Relevance to The United Methodist Church (my denomination)
I believe that The United Methodist Church has things to learn from this book about the value of transition and movement in congregations. However, there were several clear references to a disregard of several key Methodist ways of life, including the pursuit of Christian perfection and the practice of accountability.

Relevance to The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (my local church)
I believe the clearest area of relevance of this book to Resurrection is around the topic of measurement and the transition from gathering the data of numbers and gathering stories to be shared. I think that there is the potential of incredible power and transformation if we were able to more effectively share the many stories of transformation with the congregation and in the community.

Recommendation
I tentatively recommend this resource to those interested in a different way of thinking about the practices of church.

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Well Worth a Read

Joe's first book changed the way I look at community and how people belong in my community.

Joe's second book continued to help me do that by giving some very helpful, effective and "common sense" approaches to leadership of this kind of community.

I have found that many pastors who read Joe's books find themselves uncomfortable with the ideas he presents. But, I have found that many "lay people" (for lack of better word) read his stuff and say, "yeah, duh. isn't that the way its supposed to be" or "man, I wish I could find a church that gave me the freedom to live like this."

The ideas and thoughts he writes about often made me say "duh, why have i never realized that." And you truly let them sink in and try take them seriously you realize they can radically change the way you look at not only Church but life in general.

A theme that I have found resonates through each book is that we leaders need to have more trust in the people in our communities. And just because they don't fit in our models of what a correct participant in our communities looks like, doesn't mean they are not living faithfully and compassionately as followers of Jesus...

I'd recommend this book to anyone... in fact, I already have to a bunch of people and pastors.

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Good Follow Up to The Search to Belong

This book is Myers' attempt to provide practical direction for church leaders seeking to create spaces within their community in which relationships can flourish naturally, unforced, and organically. This book is an excellent follow up to The Search to Belong. The material presented here provides a platform for conversation and thought which could be helpful to any church pondering the health of their environment. Though Myers overstates the case at times concerning the way church programming and organization has been conducted in the past, I consider this book a helpful resource with many ideas that could enable church communities to be more effective in ministry.

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Community is a fundamental life search and one of the key aspects people look for in a congregation. But community can't be forced, controlled, or easily created. The problem, says Joseph R. Myers, is that churches are too focused on developing programs instead of concentrating on environments where community will spontaneously emerge. Organic Community challenges key leaders to become environmentalists--people who create or shape environments. Outlining nine organizational tools for creating a healthy environment, Myers shows readers how to diagnose their current situation and implement patterns that will develop possibilities for healthy communities.

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