Joe's first book changed the way I look at community and how people belong in my community.

Joe's second book continued to help me do that by giving some very helpful, effective and "common sense" approaches to leadership of this kind of community.

I have found that many pastors who read Joe's books find themselves uncomfortable with the ideas he presents. But, I have found that many "lay people" (for lack of better word) read his stuff and say, "yeah, duh. isn't that the way its supposed to be" or "man, I wish I could find a church that gave me the freedom to live like this."

The ideas and thoughts he writes about often made me say "duh, why have i never realized that." And you truly let them sink in and try take them seriously you realize they can radically change the way you look at not only Church but life in general.

A theme that I have found resonates through each book is that we leaders need to have more trust in the people in our communities. And just because they don't fit in our models of what a correct participant in our communities looks like, doesn't mean they are not living faithfully and compassionately as followers of Jesus...

I'd recommend this book to anyone... in fact, I already have to a bunch of people and pastors.

You know a book is going to be good when you find yourself underlining stuff in the forward. After reading "Search to Belong" and "Organic Community," I think I would be willing to plop down money for just about anything that Joseph Myers writes. Like most of my favorite authors, he drives me crazy. I tried really hard to not like him. I wanted to brand him as anti-small groups. I tried to zoom in and focus only on the areas where I disagreed with him. But I just can't. Joseph is writing from lots of a experience and from a heart that truly desires to see people grow in real, authentic community. Anyone who works with small groups, discipleship, or community needs to read this book. Like me, you may find yourself disagreeing with certain things or getting defensive, but you still need to wrestle with it.

"Organic Community" challenges us to create environments where true Biblical community can flourish. It is not a step-by-step master plan or some new model for ministry. Rather, Joseph presents nine ideas that we need to consider when designing community experiences that allow community to "emerge" instead of being fabricated. He gives principles for going green and becoming an environmentalist instead of a master planner. I found two chapters particularly helpful. The chapter on "Patterns" helps the reader identify how and why people connect. The chapter on "Partners" challenges our ideas about accountability and encourages a new approach of editability. I have lots of good, constructive questions after reading this book. For instance, what are we measuring and why? Are we measuring the right things? What are we really trying to accomplish in the small group environment?

"Organic Community" is easy to read, and the tone is straightforward. I still have some bones to pick with the author about certain issues lingering from Search to Belong, but that's a good thing.

If you have not read "The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups," I would recommend reading that first. If you are interested in reading more about community, I would also recommend John Ortberg's Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them

I soak-up most of the emergent writings because, like many others, I'm hungry to help create life-giving, sustainable, organic communities of faith. Meyer's books is a helpful nudge in that direction, but like so much of the emergent literature on the market today, this book is loaded with false dichotomies in an apparent effort to distinquish itself as a radical alternative to the exisiting church. I continually found myself asking, "Would these arguments even hold up if actual antonyms were consistently juxtaposed against each other instead of the word-pairings Meyers chose?" Hmmmm. Probably in some cases, but maybe not in others.

Mr. Myers deconstructs a top-down "master plan" approach to encouraging (or, more accurately, forcing) community, and urges readers to foster community organically with nine practical tools. This book will expand your imagination, challenge your thinking, and help you create spaces where community naturally happens. A church resource, but also good reading for leaders of any stripe. See Myers' website at http://www.languageofbelonging.com/

Can a real church community be created using master plans and strategies? Sometimes, says Joseph Myers, an entrepreneurs whose consulting firm has helped churches develop community. But such connections tend to develop naturally, without artificial manipulation, and ORGANIC COMMUNITY: CREATING A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE NATURALLY CONNECT is an invaluable church resource to understand this process. Chapters use plenty of case history examples to show how projects develop naturally and fuel parisher interest in the process. Any library catering to church and organization needs will find ORGANIC COMMUNITY an appealing addition.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch