What conservatives are learning and progressives need to about community

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/conservatism-and-the-quest-for-community

This is a call for conservatives to welcome in a new kind of community to help make their values real, speaking of ways their sphere, especially its libertarian circles, will be challenged by these new kinds of local intense transforming communities. They see this as a wave of the future for conservatives at a time when progressives are turning, in their view, to more national rather than local community identity and solutions. The political conservatives are seeking to learn from new forms of religious community as well as the megachurch model of community village. There are some parallels I believe with how mainstream and progressive religious denominations also turn toward the national identity and put emphasis in a one size fits all branding and campaigns rather than shifting resources to develop these local high demand high relationship communities.

Food for thought.

As missional communities of faithfulness, perhaps we even have put so much stress on the missional component, and its differences with traditional modern attractional church, that we have not put that focus on the inner shape of the community itself as a community. I sometimes catch myself in trying not to be like traditional church neglecting the real cultivation and nurture of the bonds of the community. Communitas yes, but it is still a community even though turned outward.

Food for thought.