Letters and phone calls from people interested in learning more about community inundate our office each week. We offer the following list of resources in the hope that it will be helpful to readers and save some wear on our phones and letter openers.
For those interested in joining or starting a community, reading about them is the best way to learn, apart from visiting. For those who are already part of a common life, the following resources describe a range of examples and experiences with which to compare your own developing life and highlight areas that may need attention and growth.
Space limitations make it impossible for us to mention all the available resources. Even though we may not agree completely with the contents of all the resources listed, we believe that we have selected the best for raising valuable issues. We encourage readers to send us information on others.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. Harper and Row, 1954.
As pastoral advice to the unique community that grew up in an underground seminary in Germany during the Nazi years, Bonhoeffer's thought shows the importance of prayer, corporate worship, a shattering of idealistic visions about community, and mutual care and confession among those who are committed to political resistance and radical discipleship in the world. This book is a classic, an important reminder of both the fragility and gift of our shared life.
Cada, Lawrence, et al. Shaping: the Coming: Age of Religious Life. Seabury Press, 1979.
A fascinating historical and sociological study of the stages of growth of religious orders within the Catholic church, this book holds important implications for the life cycles of all communities. The "path of transformation" within a community is a cyclical process that always involves a period of breakdown and conflict before regrounding and reintegration. The book includes discussion about the struggle to integrate the intensity of vision embodied in the founder into the growing community as well as unique educational exercises which may be useful for clarification of a community's purpose.
Clark, Stephen B. Building Christian Communities: Strategy for Renewing the Church. Ave Maria Press, 1972..
Clark argues that the main goal of pastoral efforts in the church is to create a community which enables a person to live a Christian life. Coming from the Word of God network of ecumenical communities, this book is particularly helpful in forming definitions of community and in highlighting the difference between small groups and communities.
Cosby, Gordon. Handbook for Mission Groups. Potter's House Press, 1975.
This source book presents the structures and commitments that have evolved through the 30-year history of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C. The church is an inner-city community which explores the integration of the inward journey of prayer and the outward journey of ministry.
Gilkey, Langdon. How the Church Can Minister to the World Without Losing Itself. Harper and Row, 1964.
By tracing the development of models of church, Gilkey offers insightful historical and theological analysis to help unravel the confusion that surrounds questions of membership and identity. This book will be helpful both for those communities which began outside institutional structures and have a parish life growing up around their worship, and those which have grown up in traditional parish churches and struggle to maintain their distinctive identity.
Gish, Arthur G. Living in Christian Community. Herald Press, 1979.
This book is the most comprehensive and systematic treatment of community from an Anabaptist tradition. Gish offers a radical ecclesiology that is both theological and practical. An appendix of biblical passages on community is included.
Jackson, Dave and Neta. Living Together in a World Falling Apart: A Handbook on Christian Community. Creation House, 1974.
Though now out of print, this book circulated widely as a popular community manual, written from the Jacksons' visits to five communities in the early 1970s and their resulting commitment to Reba Place Fellowship. It is a practical book that covers issues of membership, leadership, economic sharing, work, family life, and details of household living.
Jackson, Dave. Coming Together: All Those Communities and What They're Up To. Bethany Fellowship Press, 1978.
Drawing heavily on Jackson's pastoral involvement at Reba Place Fellowship, Coming Together seeks to deepen some of the questions raised in the earlier book. Perhaps its most helpful contribution is to bring attention to the emergence of numerous covenant networks of communities around the country, highlighting the importance of communities being in relationship to one another. The most complete annotated international list of communities, which includes more than 120 entries, is included in an appendix.
Jones, James W. The Spirit and the World. Hawthorne Books, 1975.
This book is helpful for those seeking to understand the common ground between the charismatic renewal and radical evangelicalism, relating the charismatic experience with themes of social justice. Jones offers the initial sketch of a penetrating theology of community, arguing that Paul is a theologian of community and that forming community is the social strategy and primary task of the Spirit.
Keating, Charles J. Community: Learning to live in Diocesan, Religious, and Parish Communities. Twenty-third Publications, 1977. The Leadership Book. Paulist Press, 1978.
Although at times in danger of making community an organizational technique in his earlier book, Keating offers a useful tool for examining community experience. I was particularly drawn to his discussion of stages of community life, healthy and pathological forms of community, the kinds of spirituality which emerge from different personalities, and the process of leaving a community.
The Leadership Book examines recent theories of leadership and applies them to the church. Though studies drawn from organizational development will be held suspect by some, Keating's discussion about styles and stages of leadership could spark fruitful dialogue in communities struggling with the conflict between pastoral life and intensive outward ministry.
Nouwen, Henri J.M. The Genesee Diary. Doubleday and Company, 1976.
I was struck by the parallel between Nouwen's entrance into six months of solitude at a Trappist monastery and the experience of many upon joining a household at Sojourners Fellowship. The book raises issues of response to authority, identity struggles, exhaustion, impatience, and interpersonal friction. The entrance into solitude raises the same need for radical transformation within us asdoes entering into adeep relationship with others in a household context; this book covers much of the inner terrain of struggle.
Pulkingham, Graham, et. al. Renewal: An Emerging Pattern. Celebration Publishing, 1980. "An Introduction to Christian Community" (tape available for $4 from Fisherfolk Products, P.O. Box FF, Woodland Park, CO 80863) and "The Christian Community" (four-tape series available for $16 at the same address).
Renewal: An Emerging Pattern collects key articles since 1975 from Towards Renewal, published in England by the Communities of Celebration, and develops the principles of a threefold pattern of renewal: making changes in ministry and leadership, learning to share together as Christians, and bringing the presence of the church into the world. The articles include practical examples of stages of renewal within churches and the personal struggles encountered by persons involved in renewal.
The tapes narrate the crucial year of powerful change that brought the renewal of community at Houston's Church of the Redeemer. Described are the birth pangs and some of the principles of renewal that were learned in the process.
Rohr, Richard. The Natural Family and the Spiritual Family (six-tape series available for $35.45 from St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1615 Republic St., Cincinnati, OH 45210).
These tapes are an inspiring set of teachings about the renewal of church as family, based on the experience of New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio. As founder and pastor, Rohr holds forth a vision of community which is compelling and costly. I have seldom been so deeply moved by a set of tapes. They speak to the heart and have the capacity to renew when the vision of community is growing dim.
Sojourners Reprints: Community (Available for $3.50 from 1309 L St. NW, Washington, DC 20005).
This packet contains 16 articles written since 1974 about aspects of community life, such as solitude, leadership, economics, the role of confession, and the theology of community. Included are an interview with four pastoral leaders on the history of Sojourners Fellowship and articles by Jim Wallis, Henri Nouwen, Clark Pinnock, John Howard Yoder, Graham Pulkingham, and others.
Vanier, Jean. Community and Growth. Paulist Press, 1979.
This is essential reading for all who are seeking to deepen the quality of their life together as community and to understand their vocation in the world among the poor. A diverse collection of pastoral reflections on 15 years of experience as founder and central visionary of the l'Arche network of communities, Vanier's book stresses the creative role of disillusionment and hardship in community, the necessity of prayer and relationship to the poor, and the struggle to live faithfully to the essential calling of the community.
Wallis, Jim. Agenda for Biblical People. Harper and Row, 1976. 1979 Fisherfolk Worship Conference (four-tape series available for $16 from Fisherfolk Products, P.O. Box FF, Woodland Park, CO 80863).
The book articulates the themes of the first five years of Sojourners. The rebuilding of the church as a new community is put forward as the key to its prophetic and pastoral impact and as the basis for any meaningful and faithful action in the world by Christians.
This ecclesiology is more fully developed in a series of four tapes on worship, which are the basis of a forthcoming book. These tapes are the most concise expression of our vision of church renewal that is available. The uniting of worship and politics is examined in the context of two historical realities: the church's affluence amid global poverty and its attitude toward the state's military and nuclear policies in a world ruled by conflict.
Westerhoff, John H. Inner Growth/Outer Change: An Educational Guide to Church Renewal. Seabury, 1979.
For Westerhoff, integration of piety and politics is at the heart of church renewal. This book establishes a theological foundation and educational method for a curriculum of church renewal.
Bob Sabath was a web technologist of Sojourners when this article was written.
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