How to Build Community

What day is it? What week is it? Many of us draw blanks to these questions as our routines have shifted into a new normal. A new isolated normal. The weekly markers of online church, online community group, and even trash day have helped keep my mind in a semblance of routine. 

One thing I have been absolutely craving is to get back together with “my people.” I miss getting to share meals with friends, neighborhood events that last for hours, or venturing out to go see a movie with my small group. I miss people. Poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” We were not meant to live in isolation. Genesis 2:18 reminds us that “it is not good for man to be alone.” We were meant to be in community, to help one another, and to love one another. 

What I have found fascinating during my time hunkered down in my house during this pandemic is how much intentionality people are pushing for as they continue to live in community. This takes effort, and people are doing it. We can continue to live in community, even by ourselves. We have begun using technology and handwritten letters to reach out to friends and family that we haven’t talked to in far too long, reuniting with some long lost friends of yesteryear. This has been an interesting, odd, wonderful season. 

Because of this, I decided to kick-start an eBook series to be released from Bible Studies for Life over the next several months with a title on this topic. How to Build Community is a short how-to guide with some practical tips on how you too can build community with those around you, both in coronavirus isolation and after. It is my prayer that you find these guides useful and relatable to everyday life, that you might implement some of the ideas from this eBook into your group and be able to develop deeper, richer relationships with “your people.” Included are 9 ways that my community group intentionally attempts to function at its best.