Community has become a buzzword in the church in recent…
““Community has become a buzzword in the church in recent years. Overbusy individuals hope they can cram it into their overstuffed schedules like their membership to a health and fitness club (which they never have time to use). Churches hope they can conjure it with candles, programs, or training videos. Anabaptists know that community is far more costly than that: one cannot add it to anything, rather one must begin with it in order to enter it, practice it, and preserve it. They realize that community involves proximity, and that proximity involves land, and that our ties to one another can never be separated from our ties to the land, the watershed, the local economy in which we live. They have an instinct about the deep ties between community and sexuality, community and freedom, community and economics. I suspect that Anabaptists know more than they know that they know in this regard, and I hope we all can learn from them before they forget.101””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
Community is not an add‑on but a foundational, land‑tied practice that shapes sexuality, freedom, and economics; it must be lived, not scheduled.
In simple terms: Community must be lived, not scheduled, and is tied to place and deeper values.
Key Takeaway
Prioritize lived community over superficial programs.
Themes
community
spirituality
place
economics
freedom
Mood
reflective
serious
Type
theological
social
When to use this quote
- church gatherings
- urban planning
- environmental stewardship
Key Concepts
social ecology
theology
Anabaptist practice
Questions to Reflect On
- What does it mean to “begin with community”?
- How can churches embed community in daily life?