This is another post in my series of reflections on my two days with Eugene Peterson at Q Practices.

Our focus was on Cultivating the Inner Life in an Age of Distraction.

It was such a rich time… and I continue to process and pray my way through my notes.

Our third session on Day 2 was focused on Community.

Community, as we all know, has become an increased focus of the Church over the course of the last decade or two.

The Church has come to realize (or maybe, begin to emphasize) that when casual congregants are connected to intentional community a few things happen.

1. They become a more consistent participant.
2. They begin to grow and mature in their faith at new levels.
3. They begin to look for ways to invest or give back to the ministry.

Community is one of those things we hope to establish — or have established — and invite others into.

Community is something that college students crave… in many ways it’s become a life-blood for them.

Community — during the college years — is something different. It takes on a different look, a different feel, than in just about any other context we might find ourselves.

For Peterson,

College was a time of “widening the circle” — a community of diversity.

And I think, for the most part, we find this to be true of our students today.

The lines between “saved” and “unsaved” blurred.

Many of the social, religious, political, economical and ethnic boundaries that once would have divided us as members of a unique community — into numerous sub-communities within the larger whole — seem to be much less prevalent on campus today.

Students today are much more willing to look beyond their differences, or even dismiss them as unimportant, for the sake of co-existing within community.

It would seem that today’s students embody the notion of ‘global community.’

We become community, we enter community — but we can’t create community.

Community is the fruit of working together. Crossing previously identified boundaries, setting aside differences, and working for the common good — or at least, a common goal.

Children help to create community. As a parent I’m beginning to see this. Gatherings for school functions, sporting events, Church activities — all of it can bring together a diverse collection of individuals/families… and have the potential to lead to relationships — community.

Involvement in community helps to breed community.

As Christians, our community should run counter to the culture!

Community is not exclusive, it meets needs. When we start to exclude people from community for one reason or another — or choose to focus our community too narrowly around something… we make it exclusive and restrict or confine its potential.

We’re a part of something huge!! There is so much richness to be experienced within the Body of Christ and God’s grand creation.

Some final nuggets of wisdom from Peterson…

Pastors are a very lonely group. We need to find ways to be in community. We need to identify times when we can take off our many “hats” and simply be in community.

We need to stop trying to be someone we’re not. We need to be what we are… Based on who we are and how God has created us to be. It doesn’t work to copy.

Finally, we need to be deliberate with our spouse and kids — if we have them. This was one of Peterson’s great successes — as attested by his wife of 50+ years — who was in attendance over this two-day event.

More great stuff from Peterson…

What’s your one takeaway from (my scattered notes on) Peterson’s thoughts on community?