Building Authentic Community

Daniel Hill

October 4, 2011

I had the opportunity to sit on a leadership development class this morning led by Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil. She was in the midst of training a group of pastors who share a core commitment to racial reconciliation and social justice as manifestations of the Gospel. The topic of instruction was the challenge of building authentic community, particularly in cross cultural settings. She used Scott Peck’s model of community from the book “A Different Drum.” Peck says there are 4 necessary stages a group of people must travel through together to experience authentic community. Below are the 4 stages as summarized by Wikipedia:

Stage 1 -Pseudocommunity: This is a stage where the members pretend to have a bonhomie with one another, and cover up their differences, by acting as if the differences do not exist. Pseudocommunity can never directly lead to community, and it is the job of the person guiding the community building process to shorten this period as much as possible.

Stage 2 – Chaos: When pseudocommunity fails to work, the members start falling upon each other, giving vent to their mutual disagreements and differences. This is a period of chaos. It is a time when the people in the community realize that differences cannot simply be ignored. Chaos looks counterproductive but it is the first genuine step towards community building.

Stage 3 – Emptiness: After chaos comes emptiness. At this stage, the people learn to empty themselves of those ego related factors that are preventing their entry into community. Emptiness is a tough step because it involves the death of a part of the individual. But, Scott Peck argues, this death paves the way for the birth of a new creature, the Community.

Stage 4 – True community: Having worked through emptiness, the people in community are in complete empathy with one another. There is a great level of tacit understanding. People are able to relate to each other’s feelings. Discussions, even when heated, never get sour, and motives are not questioned.

The teaching and discussion were great, and fostered a number of important questions/thoughts:

If these stages are mandatory even in monocultural settings, how much more are they necessary in cross cultural settings?
And if that is true, how much greater is the chaos going to be in a cross cultural setting than it would a monocultural setting?
If it does happen in cross cultural setting, what does it cost each group? Is the cost different depending on your social location and who it is that you are trying to build authentic community with?
Rev Doc talked about the “leaven” principle – before the whole loaf can be baked there needs to leaven first (something like that… i don’t really understand cooking metaphors lol). The point being that this might be a big undertaking for an entire community, but it could be a great goal for a smaller group of potential leaders and influencers to begin working on
And finally, she asked where it is that leaders are doing that “emptying.” It is important that leaders don’t try to just lead this type of community – they need to experience it first hand as well

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Daniel Hill

I am a lifelong Chicagoan, a pastor at River City Community Church, and an author who writes a lot about resisting and confronting white supremacy from a faith lens. Our church was founded in January of 2003 in the west Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago, and is centered on the core values of worship, reconciliation, and neighborhood development. We long to see increased spiritual renewal as well as social and economic justice in the Humboldt Park neighborhood and entire city, demonstrating compassion and alleviating poverty as tangible expressions of the Kingdom of God. It is also through the gift of this faith community that I have learned to see the profound historical and spiritual impact of the stronghold of white supremacy, and where I have been challenged to broaden and deepen my understanding of discipleship in the hopes of becoming a serious enough Christ follower who is able to meaningfully participate with those who have risen up in defiance of this evil principality. The lessons learned in this journey have been captured in a pair of books on race. The first, White Awake, explores the barriers that white people tend to face – white Christians specifically – when we attempt to awaken to and understand white supremacy through a faith lens. I spend a lot of time here addressing the internal defenses that are bound to go off when this journey is taken seriously, and I chart out a path for developing a resilient spirit that steadfastly moves towards truth, justice, and equity. The second, White Lies, further builds out the path for the white Christian who longs to actively participate in the resistance and confrontation of white supremacy. I spend a lot of time here exploring why it is so hard to tell the truth about race, as well as expose the lies that sustain it, within white, Christian, Bible-believing environments. I then propose nine practices that position us for engaging in this task. On the personal front, my career started in the marketplace, as I was part of three dot.com startups in the 90’s. My vocational path shifted when I joined the staff of Willow Creek Community Church in 1998, and I spent five years working there. I started River City Community Church in January 2003 and have been happily serving here ever since. On the education front, my undergrad was in Business (Purdue University), my graduate degree in theology (Moody Bible Institute), and my doctoral degree in community development (Northern Seminary). On the family front, my wife is a Professor of Psychology, and we have two amazing children (Xander and Gabriella).

2 responses to “Building Authentic Community”

Cynthia

October 6, 2011 at 3:19 pm

This is good stuff. An important factor in building community that is genuine is to have community members who are also about to be real about where they are in their process and who are open to correction, reflection, and change. What it also means is that no one who enters will leave the same. They all have to be willing to realize that their experiences and perspectives are only part of a much larger story. Just like the Bible is comprised of many books and time periods, so are we. You, we, cannot keep things the same and build communities that respectfully include everyone. That also includes persons who are gay/lesbian, and are along the continuum of sexual orientation. To build the community of Christ, we must hear their voices and choose to wrestle with the vision of what it would mean for the church family to more authentically include these persons. Our sisters and brothers, who are already a part of the family, but often forced to be inauthentic in order to receive false acceptance. Too often, the church emphasizes that they must hide their identities and experiences.

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Building Authentic Community « Reconciliation 101

October 7, 2011 at 1:45 am

[…] I had the opportunity to sit on a leadership development class this morning led by Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil. She was in the midst of training a group of pastors who share a core commitment to racial reconciliation and social justice as manifestations of the Gospel. The topic of instruction was the challenge of building authentic community, particularly in cross cultural settings. She used Scott Peck's model of community from the book "A Different … Read More […]

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