Why is community one of my seven strategies? In this blog I share with you one statement and three answers to common questions. The book I am currently writing called The Freedom Strategy, encourages us to see Community as one of the seven ‘vertebrae’ strengthening our spiritual backbone. This overview builds upon the previous strategy blogs: Boundaries; Decisions; Beliefs; Rhythm; Fitness; Perseverance.
‘Community is the womb in which we can be loved and grown into our fullest potential. I believe it can take different forms according to our season in life.’
The Freedom Strategy, Martina Davis
What does Community look like? I’ve said that I believe it takes different forms according to our season in life. It can be large or small, and you may even have several types of community around you. In broad terms, geographic location is a type of ‘community’ – all who live there. In some countries, tribe is another. Church is a community. However, I am writing here about the type that is focused on actively supporting one another; interacting and growing as people together. Church is meant to do this. Church can be anything from two or three gathered together, upwards. Church is made of people gathered around the centrality of Jesus Christ, not an institution. During COVID we went to church online as our community. My husband Richard and I led, from our home, the online welcome team of our large Vineyard church – to which we would normally have travelled. Later, those of us who still could not gather when churches reopened, had to make decisions. Many developed networks of individuals. My main community, my church, consisted of three close friends – and in fact was deeper and more challenging in that season, in safe relationship. It was a time of true growth, healing and transformation.
Can I have different levels of Community? Yes indeed! Now that I can gather with people in larger groups, we are a part of a small, very local, Anglican church. We no longer feel the need to travel long distances to a large and vibrant one, in this season. Our faith internalised and deepened in the COVID season and in times of having to stand separate until able to gather like others. We share life with those who are imperfect like us. Because we are small, without all the ‘bells and whistles’ of modern worship, each of us plays a part in the service in simply being there, singing with zest, each taking full part rather than observing, and sharing our faith at whatever stage. We simply support, encourage, help practically where necessary, and all welcome visitors. At the same time, I practice silence and contemplation, sharing deep fellowship and support with an old friend, weekly. I continue to grow, sharing struggles and encouragement within my scattered community of three close and trusted friends at various times.
Why do I need Community? I am an introvert. As an introvert myself, I have had to learn over many years what helps, and what hinders, me. As a Christian believer, I have lived with the knowledge that God created us to interact and live in community with one another. Sometimes that has triggered guilt, when I have needed time and space alone. But then I discovered that this was actually healthy and improved the quality of the community times I had. I lived also with the commandment to go out into all the world, to speak and interact with others. Yet I grew up very quiet. So I developed extrovert habits, which became what I seemed to be. They were coping mechanisms and they exhausted me. Eventually I began to learn the strategies I am writing about in my new book. Now I find peace in simplicity and in who I am, loved as I am by God. Now, as a writer and artist I love the time I have alone, and that too is a refreshing birthplace of creativity, a place of community with the Trinity in human solitude. My writing and art reach out to varied communities. However, human company is something that God provides for us to enjoy, a mirror into which we can look to readjust, and often the mouthpiece through which He speaks into our lives.
Take some time to understand the kind of person you are and help yourself with a few of the strategies I’ve written about in these blogs. The journey IS a journey – we are not required to ‘get it right’ all the time.
Community is the final strategy in the book I am currently writing. I am considering beginning a journey through my first book, The Posture Principle: A practical guide to embracing your true calling (Esther 4:14), in my next blog.
The first two books of my series are available on Amazon at this link: Equipping Unexpected Warriors. You can buy them both or separately. Read reviews here on my website: Books.
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