Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us

by Christine D. Pohl

Every church, every organization, has experienced betrayal, deception, grumbling, envy, exclusion. They make life together difficult and prevent congregations from developing the skills, virtues, and practices they need to nurture sturdy and life-giving communities.

In Living into Community Christine Pohl looks at four specific Christian practices gratitude, promise-keeping, truth-telling, and hospitality that can counteract these destructive forces and help churches and individuals build and sustain vibrant communities. Drawing on concrete congregational experiences and interacting with the biblical, historical, and moral traditions, Pohl thoughtfully discusses each practice, including its possible complications and deformations, and points to how these essential practices can be better cultivated within congregations and families.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Theology, Spirituality, Religion, Christian Living, Church

263 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2011

About the author

Christine D. Pohl is Associate Provost and Professor of Church and Society/Christian Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, where she has taught since 1989. She received a B.S. in Special Education at Syracuse University, 1972; a M.A. in Theological Studies, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1986; and a Ph.D. in Ethics and Society at Emory University, 1993. She is best known as the author of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition.

Reviews

[Jon Anderson]

The church might be in a healthier state if we took seriously Pohl's vision of practicing gratitude, promise-keeping. truthfulness, and hospitality

[Monte Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This book will focus on several practices that are basic to human life. IN families, communities, and congregations that are vibrant and sturdy, we notice certain patterns in relationships. We see folks making and keeping promise, living and speaking truthfully, expressing gratitude, and offering hospitality.” (5)

“Each of the practices we will be exploring 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)

“We begin with the practices of gratitude because the Christian life is most of all a response to the grace we have received. Christian community begins in gratitude, is sustained by our promise and truthfulness, and is expressed in hospitality. But things ware never really that linear or sequential. The grace to which we respond is expressed in God’s welcome to us. That elicits and strengthens our practice of hospitality. Our promises are rooted in God’s fidelity to us, and our truthfulness finds its home in the grace and truth of Christ.” (13(

[Mitch Vanyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a thoughtful reflection on how a few key values and practices blend together, affecting the life and flourishing of a community in Christ. There were quite a few examples, and I particularly appreciated the entire chapters looking at how things can go wrong.

I was hoping for more discussion or examples specifically focused on intentional Christian living communities (to be honest, that's what I thought the entire book was about), but I was forced to widen my vision of communal life to include church congregations as well as other areas requiring healthy group dynamics.

I found a good chunk of the content to be somewhat obvious in the moment, but it nevertheless has lots of distilled wisdom worthy of a second and third look. There would be a lot of value in going through this book together with the other people in your community, where it would be easier to encourage one another to strengthen these practices.

[Colton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great companion to Pohl's book on hospitality, Living Into Community focuses on the practices of gratitude, truthfulness, and promise-keeping as key to forming a Christian community. At its best, this text serves as an honest and straightforward guide to those looking to foster good communication and healthy relationships, especially in a church leadership setting. Some sections did drag on as the practices verged on becoming too abstract, but Pohl always brings it back to practical application in the end. The book ends with a short chapter on hospitality that functions as a bit of a summary of Making Room . It is such a rich summary and full of helpful perspectives on the topic.

Making Room has long been on my list of books that I think all Christians should read, and I would partner these two together if I could.

[Briana · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is not well-written but I forced myself to get through it because there seemed to be some interesting concepts about what's needed in healthy communities. However, overall, the book feels very disorganized and negative, and in the end, when I went back through the highlighted points, I realized that the best concepts or quotes were actually not even from this author. For example, the author quotes Hannah Arendt when talking about promises, and this is a great point/concept - that when we make and keep promises, we create islands of predictability amid the unpredictability of human affairs and the unreliability of human beings.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pohl lays out how hospitality integrates the practices of gratitude, truth-telling, and promise-keeping. Knowing this, I am challenged to view Christian actions (evangelism, hospitality, communal church life) in connection to spiritual practices (like those listed above). Indeed, we can’t leave any of them out and have true Christian love for God and others. Very challenging read, especially the section on gratitude.

[N Perrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not every important reminder need be nested in witticism or profundity. While not particularly eloquent, the simplicity of this book's message still rings with truth

[Hunter List · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and the four community practices that the author understands as integral for healthy biblical community: gratitude, promise-keeping, truthfulness, and hospitality.

[Dennis Henn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Community is marked and grown through the practice of gratitude, truthfulness, promise making and keeping, and hospitality. Anecdotal and practical. The author gave me plenty to work on as I recommit to participating in church rather than just running a church.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading the introduction I found myself wondering at points whether Pohl had been given a report about the very congregations I have served in. The fact that her description of what unhealthy communities look like could so easily have been a description of communities I have spent time in speaks to the common difficulty of truly living in community with one another.

Community, as Pohl defines it, is more than just the accumulation of persons with which we interact. It is more than just a neighborhood, office, or church. Community is only community when there is an intentionality to live our lives in an intimate and edifying connection with one another.

If I had been asked to elevate three qualities that lead to healthy community, I am quite sure I would not have come up with the same ones that Pohl did. But after reading the book and considering how gratitude, promise-keeping and truth-telling can so quickly build community when attended to, and even more quickly destroy when neglected, I believe she is on to something.

There is much here that will be helpful to those seeking community, especially to leaders who are charged with its active cultivation. Probably would have been better to reconcile the 2nd and 3rd chapters of each section because there was so much over-lap, and I think the tie-in to hospitality at the end was a bit of a stretch, but I appreciated the insights on the whole and found the mix of theory, observation, and story to make this an enjoyable read.

[Emily Lund-Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely, thorough look at how a few key spiritual practices can sustain our communities.

Pohl focuses on four practices: gratitude, promise-keeping, living truthfully, and hospitality (though the hospitality section is a brief one, as she's written a whole other book on the topic!). Her treatment of each practice examines: 1) the role the practice has played in the Christian tradition (cue lots of rich quotes from theologians and famous figures of the church), 2) the things that complicate the faithful living-out of the practice, and 3) what weakens and what strengthens the practice. Pohl has a clear and compelling voice--I went into this book with some baggage attached to the concept of "community" (it's a bit of a buzzword, right?), but Pohl presents the idea of faithful, loving community in such a way that my cynicism started to fade.

Why I didn't give this book 5 stars: it's not Pohl's fault, but this book was published in 2012, and one of the figures she quotes and relies on ideologically, Jean Vanier, has experienced a "fall from grace" (to put it mildly) since his death. It's uncomfortable reading words on hospitality, community, love, etc. from a man who committed such vile acts, and that discomfort cast a bit of a shadow over the reading experience.

[Josh Bucher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. On first glance, it was easy to wonder how community can be sustained on three seemingly easy practices (and hospitality, which isn't easy), but diving in, I quickly found out how complicated life gets even in trying to do simple practices. This book had lots of practical ideas and examples that can help me in community, from interpersonal relationships all the way to small groups and congregational life. I appreciate these practices are character focused and not as much growth focused. Growth might not happen, at least not quickly, even if we are doing these practices well. As a personal takeaway, in some of my relationships and participation in communities, I can bring these ideas to the table to help strengthen community, and in other situations, the book pointed me toward ideas of how I might be frustrated with community, where they are falling short in some of these practices. The book frequently reminded me how the practices need to be rooted in a relationship with God, or even these won't work in community. I highly recommend reading this book with another person and discussing it together.

[Sarah Pascual · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated Pohl's perspective on community. She argued that healthy and long-term communities are sustained by gratitude, making and keeping promises, living truthfully, and practicing hospitality. I hadn't previously given much thought to promise-keeping and honesty in the way that she emphasized, so I appreciated the insights that were offered. I'm not sure I would recommend this book as a starting place for a study of of community, but it definitely added value and depth to my own understanding and conviction about community in the Christian life.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel split on this one. There is plenty of good thinking and research here, and it's presented in a very clear, consistent structure. It's very choppy, though. In an effort to cover broad concepts quickly, Pohl has written something more like a handbook to community -- or, rather, a handbook to gratitude, promises, and truth, with a side of hospitality. I feel like my (relatively plentiful) highlights will be useful, but it never felt like that deep a read.

[Brian Hui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtful practices for —not a perfect community—but a graceful and truthful one

Pohl’s book outlines four practices for building a community of Christ:
1. Gratitude
2. Promise making
3. Truth telling
4. Hospitality

These aren’t things I’ve seen in other discussions of “building community”. They aren’t guaranteed to grow anyone’s church. But they speak to the character of the type and quality of our community - regardless of size.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted this to be awesome but it was just okay. Good points, but the four topics discussed were frequently dealt with as their own freestanding topic devoid of any substantial unique connection to community. So yes, communities should have these marks: gratitude, promise keeping, truth telling, and hospitality, but I got more out of discussing these topics with others than just sticking to the writing.

[Josefina Zhu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is practical and realistic with some interesting ideas. However, I sense the author was trying to cover too many things in a small volume, which made some concepts not well explained and discussed.

When I am reading it, I feel like it jumps around too much without diving deep in any specific area.

I think Part I (Gratitude) is most well written. Part II & III, which for me are supposed to be the most interesting parts of the book, are not that well crafted.

[Anne Ahrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at 4 practices vital to a thriving Christ centered community. The author looks at gratitude, promise keeping, truth telling and hospitality in a helpful way. She helps readers understand where and how these might break down and in turn encouraged me to be a part of building them up in my personal community.

[Scott Gann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful collection of thoughts on community, particularly in the context of church. I think all of the points on grace and truth were really enlightening. On one hand I liked the stream-of-consciousness style but on the other it was difficult to follow at times. The stories were revealing and helpful to provide some reality to some of the higher ideals that the author presented.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

a good read on Christian community

A great reminder of what healthy Christian community looks like. So often we settle for less. This book was a great reminder of why and how we live out Christian community.

[Kyle Copeland]

A helpful companion as I enter into church communities again (i think these ideas can play out in other relationships too). I appreciated Pohl having two followup chapters for the messiness and issues with living each pillar. It was a healing read for me.

[John Pate · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful call to intentional practices of gratitude, promise-keeping, truth-telling, and hospitality, practices which are often overlooked but absolutely essential to real community. I walked away with several points to apply to my own life in community.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Churches and church communities can become really unhealthy, and Living Into Community describes what might be called corporate spiritual disciplines. Practices of gratitude, truthfulness, and keeping promises help keep church communities vibrant.

[David Clouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book on community. The sections on gratitude and truthfulness were really good, but the others were nothing special.

[Tomy Wilkerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good content. Writing just feels a bit stiff at times. Reads like a research paper. But still, lots of takeaways here.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great topic and information, but book is not well written.

[Graydon Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about communal, spiritual disciplines. Anyone who is deeply connected to a Christian community would benefit from Pohl’s book!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is designed for leaders, not for people new to the faith. It is insightful and a good discussion book.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sections on promises and living truthfully were particularly insightful and helpful.

[Dennis Erwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Important practical steps on engendering a healthy community.