Pohl, Christine | Living Into Community

Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us
Christine Pohl

Paperback: Eerdmans, 2011, 219pp.
By C. Christopher Smith

Introduction

Christine Pohl’s book Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us is undoubtedly one of the most practical and helpful books on living the Word in our local church communities. Living the Word is about living together in a manner faithful to the way of Jesus (the “Word of God”), but to understand Jesus as Word is to understand that something is being communicated through him. Pohl thus begins the book with the assertion that “The best testimony to the truth of the gospel is the quality of our life together. Jesus risked his reputation and the credibility of his story by tying them to how his followers live and care for one another in community (John 17:20-23)” (2).

The four crucial practices that Pohl explores in Living into Community – ones that are “central to community life and to God's character” (12) – are gratitude, the making and keeping of promises, living truthfully, and hospitality. Together these four practices help congregations cultivate the sort of grace, truth, and fidelity that make “communities safe enough for people to take the risks that are necessary for growth and transformation. That same combination makes it possible for groups to handle disagreements without being torn apart and to minister to the world in ways that are far greater than the sum of the individuals involved. Shaped and sustained by gratitude, such communities grow by making room for others, whether friends or strangers” (4). The book had its origin in a research project that Pohl led, in which a couple dozen church leaders and scholars reflected on their experiences in their own Christian communities, and many of their stories are interwoven throughout the book. 

Participatory Worship

Although Pohl does not use the precise language of participatory worship, Living into Community is primarily a book about this key practice. Learning and growing in the four practices that Pohl identifies is an act of worship that bears compelling witness to God’s character and redemptive work in creation. And these practices, as she describes them, are ones in which all members of a church community are called to participate. “Each of the practices we will be exploring,” Pohl writes, “is important to the biblical story and to expectations about the ways in which the people of God should live. Each is also at the heart of God's character and activity: we worship a God who is faithful and true, gracious and welcoming” (6). Pohl’s four practices are not just for church leaders (although it will be vital for church leaders to embody them), and they are not just to be practiced at Sunday church gatherings, but they are the threads with which a holistic life of Christian worship is woven. 

Although all four practices are vital for a life of worship, Pohl devotes the most energy to making explicit the connections between gratitude and worship. She writes: “When, as a community, we remember Jesus' gift to us in bringing salvation, we are also drawn into the heart of worship. Costly sacrifice and gratitude are profoundly intertwined at the Last Supper… As the church enacts the Eucharist or "Great Thanksgiving" regularly, our small expressions of gratitude are joined with Jesus' gift of himself; together they form a life-giving liturgical expression of thanksgiving and hope. In Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, we can see how a cycle of grace, gratitude, and gift strengthens community and brings glory and thanks to God. Their experience of God's grace led the Corinthians to respond with gratitude, expressed by giving financial gifts to the church at Jerusalem. That, in turn, led to the Jerusalem church's response of gratitude to God for the Christians in Corinth, and the cycle of gratitude and grace strengthened all of them in their ties to God and to one another (2 Cor. 8-9)” (23-24)

Hospitality, as Pohl describes it, is a means to receiving one another as gifts of God. An important part of a community that participates together holistically in worship is this sort of receiving one another – along with all the gifts and challenges we bring – in gratitude for God’s provision. Pohl writes: “Often, the best gift we can give another person is our time and attention. Human beings need a place in which they and their contributions are valued, and a hospitable community finds ways to value the gifts people bring. Few experiences are more lonely or isolating than finding oneself unwanted, unneeded, or unable to contribute. People come to life, however, when they and their offerings are valued. This means that communities and the folks within them must be willing to receive. Only as we recognize our own vulnerabilities and incompleteness are we open to what others can contribute” (170).

Table Worship-Fellowship

Table fellowship is an important part of how Pohl understands the practice of hospitality, and in this part of the book, she gives a number of examples of congregations sharing meals together. “When the Eucharist is more explicitly connected to regular expressions of hospitality in shared meals, caring, and friendship,” she writes, “a distinctive Christian identity and way of life are reinforced” (176). Pohl emphasizes that our homes can be vital spaces in which hospitality (and table fellowship) are cultivated: “When we view our homes as personal spaces that are simultaneously crucial to God's work in the world, we discover many opportunities to create a place for healing, personal transformation, and community-building” (171).

Radical Kinship

Following in the tradition of the early Christians, Pohl sees an intimate connection between table fellowship and radical kinship: sharing meals across the lines of class and ethnicity is one of the most important ways that radical kinship is cultivated in the church. “By God's grace and power, and because of the sacrificial welcome they had experienced in Christ,” Pohl notes, “[the early Christians] learned to sit down at a table and share their homes and lives with people they had previously viewed as dirty or less than human. They sorted out this new way of living and valuing in the context of offering one another hospitality” (162).

Promise-keeping and Living Truthfully

So far in this summary, Pohl’s practices of promise-keeping and living truthfully have only briefly been named, but since they are in such short supply in the political climate of our present times, they might both merit a little more attention. Trust is key to both of these practices, and trust is a sort of glue that holds human communities together. “Commitments and promises that have been tested and proven are at the root of our ability to trust one another,” Pohl writes, “and without some measure of trust, it is difficult to do much of anything” (63). Of promise-keeping, Pohl notes: “Because it is often taken for granted, promise-keeping is usually overlooked when it is functioning well. Recognizing acts of fidelity, and occasionally naming ordinary ones as important, can strengthen the practice” (104). Truth-telling works in tandem with promise-keeping: “People who love truth build others up with it rather than using it to tear them down; much of our truth-telling should involve affirming what is right and good. … Being truthful is not only about speaking hard things, but discerning the whole picture with gentleness, humility, and patience” (114).

Christine Pohl, in Living into Community, has given us a rich vision of what it means to live the word: to live our word faithfully with our sisters, brothers, and neighbors, to live faithfully with the Word of God, and to live faithfully to the witness of God’s Word.