Creating Community, Revised & Updated Edition


Book Description

Five keys to building a small group culture that fosters meaningful, lasting connections within your church community. Small groups are the key to impacting lives in your church. But a healthy small-group environment doesn’t just happen. So pull up a chair. Let’s talk about how to make it happen. Bill Willits and bestselling author Andy Stanley share their successful approach, which has resulted in nearly eight thousand adults becoming involved in small groups at North Point Community Church in Atlanta. Simply put, the five principles have passed the test. This is not just another book about community; this is a book about strategy—strategy that builds a small group culture. Creating Community shares clear and simple principles to help people connect into meaningful relationships. The kind that God desires for each of us and that He uses to change our lives. Put this proven method to work in your ministry and enjoy the tangible results—God’s people doing life TOGETHER. “The small-group program at North Point Community Church is not an appendage; it is not a program we tacked on to an existing structure. It is part of our lifestyle. We think groups. We organize groups. We are driven by groups. Creating Community contains our blueprint for success. And I believe it has the potential power to revolutionize your own small-group ministry!” — Andy Stanley




The Art of Community


Book Description

Online communities offer a wide range of opportunities today, whether you're supporting a cause, marketing a product or service, or developing open source software. The Art of Community will help you develop the broad range of talents you need to recruit members to your community, motivate and manage them, and help them become active participants. Author Jono Bacon offers a collection of experiences and observations from his decade-long involvement in building and managing communities, including his current position as manager for Ubuntu, arguably the largest community in open source software. You'll discover how a vibrant community can provide you with a reliable support network, a valuable source of new ideas, and a powerful marketing force. The Art of Community will help you: Develop a strategy, with specific objectives and goals, for building your community Build simple, non-bureaucratic processes to help your community perform tasks, work together, and share successes Provide tools and infrastructure that let contributors work quickly Create buzz around your community to get more people involved Track the community's work so it can be optimized and simplified Explore a capable, representative governance strategy for your community Identify and manage conflict, including dealing with divisive personalities




Building Community


Book Description

Insights from psychology, group theory, and theology are knit together to create a primer for Christian communities. Especially helpful are insights into conflict, forgiveness, decision-making, intimacy, and confrontation.










Building Community


Book Description

An easy-to-use guide for local leaders working to engage their community in growing a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable future Building Community is the easy-to-use guide that distills the success of healthy thriving communities from around the world into twelve universally applicable principles that transcend cultures and locations. Exploring how community building can be approached by local citizens and their local leaders, Building Community features: A chapter on each of the 12 Guiding Principles, based on research in 27 countries Over 30 knowledgeable contributing author-practitioners Critical practical leadership tools Notes from the field – with practical dos and don'ts A wealth of 25 case studies of communities that have learned to thrive, including towns and villages, inner-city neighborhoods, Indigenous groups, nonprofits, women's empowerment groups, and a school, business, and faith community. Building Community is essential reading for community leaders, activists, planners, policy makers, and students looking to help their communities thrive. Strong local communities are the foundation of a healthy, participatory, and resilient society. Rather than looking to national governments, corporations, or new technologies to solve environmental and social problems, we can learn and apply the successes of thriving communities to protect the environment, enhance local livelihood, and grow social vitality.




Blueprint for Building Community


Book Description

American cities are a basic part of the fabric of our democratic traditions. Many of these cities are served by professional city managers and administrators. Cities that succeed at an outstanding level often employ professionals. Yet the average American knows little about the role of these professionals. City managers have seldom written about their experiences. Blueprint for Building Community is a rare look at the career of a city manager. This career portrait is set in two Illinois communities --Park Forest and Woodridge--communities which hold high aspirations for their residents. City managers, partnering with elected leaders and citizens in these communities, have worked to fulfill those aspirations. This book highlights the values and relationships that must be cultivated by the city manager to successfully build community. Although the focus is on the role of the city manager, other key participants such as elected officials, citizens, and employees can gain from the insights. Community building requires connecting the key groups in the community to the mission and sacred things dear to residents. Harnessing the energy of all the players produces tremendous results. For the many people who worked to build Park Forest and Woodridge, and so many communities across this country, this book is a tribute to their efforts. This book is written to encourage the next generation of city managers to pursue the challenge of building communities. The author chronicles the lessons and principles that add to success as a city manager. He conveys the inspiration, passion and excitement to those who consider public service.




Building Community


Book Description




An Engaged Learner: A pocket resource for building community skills


Book Description

Not many of us get a chance to share their teaching-learning experiences with others. Here I am, sharing my experiences by focusing on a fact, that, students we teach are on transit; they eventually leave schools and proceed with their lives in their respective communities. Our social and pedagogical obligation as educators is to teach them skills to use after exiting educational institutions, that is, helping them gain community skills. The development of community skills starts with an understanding that communities and schools interlink. That is, learners who go to school expect to use the knowledge they gain to serve their communities. This calls for a broader vision of learning that goes beyond the four walls of classrooms. It is an ideology that persuades educators to produce graduates with apposite levels of academic achievements as well as broad community skills like ability to think, be responsible, make decision and solve problems. Everyone, almost every day, uses these skills. Educators thus are pressed to think of ways to knit together learning and community's aspirations. This can be done by engaging learners in activities that help build their community skills. Every educator teaches these skills, consciously and unconsciously. This resource contributes some ideas and processes that can enhance educators' role of imparting community development skills.