According to Jean Vanier, the founder L’Arche, argues that three activities are absolutely vital to create community:
1. Eating together around the same table. How can think creatively to foster this in 2014, especially in our larger churches? I think we have a lot to learn from immigrants and ethnic churches on this!
2. Praying together. What might it look like to pray more as a lifestyle as a community, outside our prayer meetings? How do we infuse prayer in a way that everyone participates and no one feels intimidated?
3. Celebrating or having fun together. “By celebrating,” Vanier writes, “I mean to laugh, to fool around, to have fun, to give thanks together for life. When we are laughing together with belly laughs, we are all the same.” (see Living Gently in a Violent World, p.17). We have an intergenerational New Year’s Eve Party each year at New Life. We dance, party, sing, eat, laugh, and dress up according to a theme. It is one of my highlights of each year.
May God give us all grace and strength to build healthy communities that eat, pray, and “belly laugh” in 2014!
