Posts in Community
What Type of Community Are You In?

Throughout this series, we’ve been talking about “community” as a general blanket term. But there are many different types of community. Not just spiritual community versus other reasons for gathering, but forms of collectives that have different purposes and general ways of being together. What are the reasons that we gather together?


Commonalities of some kind are what bring us together in community. They are the gathering principles of attraction and bonding that form collectives. These may be shared experiences, common intent, similarity of beliefs, access to resources, related needs, associated risks, and more. 


On one level, geographical location has long been a major determining factor for access to communities, though as we have already described, that is changing rapidly. With this limitation drastically altered, nonlocal communities can form with much greater specification and specialization. 


Many communities come together simply to engage in a shared activity, like a book club or choir. Here, we’re considering those with some sort of higher purpose.


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Evolution, CommunityLuke HealyMystical Community, DevelopmentComment
When We Evolve It Will Be Together

One of the tragedies in our time of hyper-individualism is the loss of our larger stories of meaning, purpose, and transformation. 

Religious narratives of eternal judgment to heaven or hell have largely lost their fearful grip. Commercial narratives of economic triumph are insatiable and ultimately unfulfilling. 

National narratives of political salvation coming from the State not only continue to fail, but generally aren’t encompassing enough to bring about holistic transformation.

What is your larger collective story?

Is it big enough for the immensity of your longings? For the immeasurable value of your soul? For the highest purpose and deepest meaning of your ultimate being?

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CommunityLuke HealyEvolution, Mystical Community, DevelopmentComment
Navigating Natural Rhythms of Community

Phases of Group Development
Practicing Community – Part Thirteen

It is the nature of life to grow and evolve. So too, every group and community that is alive will go through change and growth. Unfortunately, many spiritual communities instead take a static approach to community life. They try to keep things the way they are, reinforcing the traditional patterns and set processes that bind the members to a repetitive cycle.

But if the spiritual community continues to evolve, it can be a synergistic process of personal growth and communal evolution working in tandem.

Let’s look at some natural phases of the process of community life and where that can lead us if we navigate them with wisdom and grace.

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Community, Practice, WeSpaceLuke HealyMystical Community, WeSpace, Evolution, DevelopmentComment
The New Architecture of Transformative Community

Last week, we considered the need for new structures and ways of coming together in spiritual community. Recognizing that many of the old forms are not equipped to handle the new wine of evolving spirit in this time of great change, we looked at our own personal place in the midst of these great transitions. Where are we meant to be? Where is spirit calling us to live and contribute with our unique gifts and presence?

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CommunityLuke HealyMystical CommunityComment
Living in Our Communal Body

The Body of Christ Becoming
Practicing Community – Part Ten

As we begin to awaken to the experience of our shared interiors, of the we-space that constitutes communal energy, mutual knowing, and interbeing on a mystical and very real level—that which is “in here” together—we expand beyond this limited story of individualism. We come into the experience of our intersubjective reality. This is where the subject of the sentence becomes plural: from I to We. Not just as a collection of separate parts, but a real and dynamic collective. How do we experience this?

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Community, PracticeLuke HealyMystical Community, WeSpace, EmbodimentComment
Our Vital Need for Spiritual Intimacy

Deep Relationality at the Heart of Evolution
Practicing Community – Part Nine

“You can go no further alone.”

This was the phrase I heard at a turning point of my spiritual journey, at the great shift from individuality into the call to deeper community.

The ironic thing is that I had been living in an intentional community and had long pursued various forms of church expressions, small groups, and spiritual friendships. “What do you mean?” I thought, “I have sought community my whole life!”

But I knew. It was the mystical journey that had reached the end of its isolation. The unfolding and awakening could no longer be something that only I experienced inside myself—for I had begun to come into the experiential knowing that these interior realities were not confined to my individual space. They could no longer be felt and engaged with apart from the dynamic and lively field of interbeing, of interconnection, of WeSpace.

A new intimacy was beckoning beyond the realm of myself, beyond the external forms of commonality that brought me together with others, beyond just the sharing of ideas and ideals.

It is the call of mystical love.

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Community, WeSpaceLuke HealyMystical Community, WeSpace, Heart PathComment
Community as Symphony

Understanding and Appreciating Types of Personalities
Practicing Community – Part Eight

While we love a great solo, the best music comes from an assembly of instruments playing together. There is just something to the joining of different sounds in resonance that creates something truly special. As is often said, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, and it is through playing together that we create beautiful music.

This is the symphony of community which is made up many different types of instruments, each playing with their particular pitch and tenor but into a harmonic wholeness that co-creates the collective song.

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Community, PracticeLuke HealyMystical Community, Types, EnneagramComment