Community Building

I recently had to read a book called Brazen Careerist. She writes a blog alongside the book, which really shares some good points. Today's blog is titled "Teaching old tropes new tricks: Community-building with a 21st-century twist." It dives into how "its great time for new ways of thinking about community and how to make life better for yourself and those around you.

Here are five new ways to think about community:
1. Schedule community time because frequency matters.
2. Find your community first, then find a job.
3. Become an influencer by growing a community.
4. Get flexible work by leveraging your community.
5. Use community roots as a way to make a smooth transition.

I believe I am starting to follow some of these suggestions. When I think of #1, I think of my new small group. Since we've been married, my husband and I have had to deal with a lot of "go with the flow" scenarios. My mother's last year in the hospital and her death really made me a non-committal person and I had a one-tracked mind. Family first, no questions asked. But in the stages of getting back to normal (whatever that means), Skye and I decided to finally find a church and get involved with a small group. It only meets every other week, so it's not terribly time-consuming and we really needed to start making friends as a couple. We are such homebodies, so this is new to us as well. But we decided that we were going to put it on the calendar and stick to it. If something else came up, we would really evaluate it to see if it is worth missing, rather than blowing it off so quickly. It is making us stronger as a couple and also I am loving the people in the group. We don't have a set agenda and there is no pressure to speak or do homework, which is nice. You just know that you are going to be around people who care you for about two hours...and maybe watch some of "The Office."

My small group also speaks into #4. ("Get flexible work by leveraging your community.") Most everyone in my small group that I have met has someone that works or has been affected by my industry. In fact, the "leader" or "host" of my group has given me consulting advice on an area of my job that I am ignorant in, but is what he does as a profession. It's giving me a chance to really open up and expand my mind on the worship community. I have also gained a little more insight to his world and about events going on with him as a person.


Mrs. Trunk states in a bullet point for #5 ("Use community roots as a way to make a smooth transition") as "One of the most stifling parts of college is that everyone you hang around is at the same place in life you are. And one of the hardest parts of making a life transition is trading one community for another." I totally recognize this scenario. Moving into my late twenties (I am approaching 30), I quickly found out that I was in a different place than a lot of my friends. Sometimes I feel like I am running in last place in life's big transistions. I was one of the last of my crew to get married...now I feel in last place to have babies, but I do realize that I did so much more between my college graduation and even, say, my first job. I traveled all over Europe and worked abroad. Different opportunities, different agendas...But really, watching my friend's lives, it has given me the chance to view and have the internal debate about my own life choices. I was able to attend a lot of weddings and figure out what I liked/disliked for my own. I am able to watch my friends children grow, see them struggle with hardships, but learn from them. It helps me keep things in perspective.

Anyways, I could go into detail about the others, but these are the ones that spoke out to me first. If you want to read the full blog, click here.