Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308436 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
A practical guide for those struggling to build a community of believers in a culture that wants to experience belonging over believing Who is my neighbor? Who belongs to me? To whom do I belong? These are timeless questions that guide the church to its fundamental calling. Today terms like neighbor, family, and congregation are being redefined. People are searching to belong in new places and experiences. The church needs to adapt its interpretations, definitions, and language to make sense in the changing culture. This book equips congregations and church leaders with tools to: * Discern the key ingredients people look for in community * Understand the use of space as a key element for experiencing belonging and community * Develop the "chemical compound" that produces an environment for community to spontaneously emerge * Discover how language promotes specific spatial belonging and then use this knowledge to build an effective vocabulary for community development * Create an assessment tool for evaluating organizational and personal community health

Customer Reviews

Is Intimacy Everything?
Fascinating book, drawing on the work of Edward Hall (proxemics) on the different spaces we all inhabit: public, social, personal & intimate. He argues that we need to be active in all spaces to belong and is critical of the assumption made in many church circles that intimacy is the only authentic Christian way of being. His conclusions about the value (or otherwise) of small groups in church life are very provocative and worthy of thought and discussion.
At a time when the very definitions of 'church' are being re-examined, this is a useful contribution to the debate.
Richard Seel.