The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups

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Zondervan, Jan 4, 2011 - Religion - 192 pages
A practical guide for those struggling to build a community of believers in a culture that wants to experience belonging over believingWho 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
 

Contents

Coach John Wooden
2
Longing to Belong
23
Group Chemistry
59
Trading Spaces
87
Searching for a Front Porch
119
What Now? Finding Harmony
135
Bibliography
156
Index
176
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About the author (2011)

Joseph R. Myers is a multiprenuer, interventionist, and thinker. He is a founding partner of a communication arts group, SETTINGPACE, and owns a consulting firm, FrontPorch, which specializes in creating conversations that promote and develop community.

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