Baseline practice: A commitment to regular participation in a Soma community and weekly worship on Sunday
We are created by and for community. Spiritual transformation occurs in the context of relationship, and the gospel of the kingdom is creating a new community that we are called to join and nurture, to be formed further into the image of Christ. Jesus-centered community is the laboratory of love for living out discipleship in the real world.
Community
The Four Callings of Community
01 | Be family around a table
To apprentice under Jesus is to join a new kind of family – a highly relational, joyfully-connected kinship group that follows Jesus not just around a stage, but in growing intimacy around a table.
02 | Share your joys and sorrows
In an individualistic culture prone to despair, followers of Jesus form micro-communities of defiant joy that resist the black hole of fear and anger, and mutually carry burdens of sorrow and pain.
03 | Confess your sins
Many modern barriers to community are symptoms of shame. But as we learn to courageously name our wickedness and woundedness in the presence of loving community, we begin to heal.
04 | Stay together to grow
As we draw closer in community, periods of conflict, pain, and disillusionment are inevitable. But as we accept these challenges and remain connected, we grow into mature love together.
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• What have been the most formative community experiences of your life? How did you experience joy or healing in them? How did you experience brokenness or wounding?
• When you think of “community,” what deep desires stir in you? What hopes, or fears, or questions?
• What feel like the biggest obstacles to true community in your life? Which of those factors do you have some control over, and which are outside your control?
• What seeds of community exist in your life right now? What steps could you take to cultivate them?
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Experience
The Community Practice (a four session learning and practice experience from Practicing the Way
Join a Soma community (MC or discipleship group)
Participate in Soma classes, cohorts, and events for community connections
Use the Community Audit reflection tool if you're not sure where to start
Read
Made to Belong, by Jay Kim
When the Church Was a Family, by Joseph Hellerman
Life Together in Christ, by Ruth Haley Barton
The Connected Life, by Todd Hall
The Relational Soul, by Richard Plass and Jim Cofield
Listen
“Life Together” (Soma Midtown teaching, 11/10/24)
“The Way of Community” (Soma Midtown teaching, 9/24/23)
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• Add intentional discussion to your household or community meals, perhaps using Table Conversation cards.
• Plan a retreat or vacation with your close community.
• Ask a close friend to hear your confession of sin on a regular basis.
• Read and discuss some of the recommended reading above with your community.
• Start a new rhythm of “face to face” (deep conversation) or “shoulder to shoulder” (serving together) opportunities with your community.