Latter Day Struggles 110: This Might be One Reason Why Second Hour at Church is Challenging
In this episode Val and Nathan explore what it takes to form a psychologically healthy system…whether this system is an immediate or extended family group, a relief society class, priesthood quorum, Sunday school group, or any combination of people who come together regularly to share some part of their lives, thoughts, feelings, or experiences.
Val and Nathan walk through the four stages that all groups of people must pass through to become a safe and vibrant place for human growth and development in an interpersonal setting.
The four stages of healthy community development are:
- PSEUDO-COMMUNITY (faking common experience, belief, and agreement in the majority narrative)
- CHAOS (someone shares a differing idea, experience, perspective, and others frantically try to reconvert them back to their way of thinking, feeling, believing)
- EMPTYING (the mandatory inner work of emptying ourselves of self righteousness, expectations, pride, the need to convert, heal, and save others)
- TRUE COMMUNITY (Where people come together and support one another in their own unique journey, accepting others exactly where they are and allowing love—not same belief—to drive connection and unity)
Join Val and Nathan as they break down these concepts, share personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings about the challenges of pseudo-community, how to invite healthy community, why community building is especially challenging in systems created around a foundation of supposed right belief, and how even an ongoing personal “emptying” is healing and helpful in cultivating healthy relationship with others when larger scale community building seems daunting.
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