Non-coercive Community Pt 1: Is there a way forward?

Episode 107: This is the first in a series of conversations with Shane Meyer-Holt about the possibilities and challenges in building non-coercive communities and collectives. In particular, we're interested in what church looks like for those of us who feel done with high-control/high-demand forms of religion, who are unable to go back to certainty, who have no desire for the "carrot & stick" based motivations for community life, and who want  something much more inclusive.

This is not a "fix-it" series for the church. We get that many in the wider church are actually pretty happy with the way things are and we are not trying to convince them to listen to us. Nor are we building the next idealised model for how we think church should be. This is a series for the people who want something different... and we are going to try and tackle the variety of cross pressures that occur in modern western neoliberal culture when we hope to build non-coercive communities of care and meaning. 

In this episode Shane and I talk about the church communities we help to lead. Shane co-leads a church in the inner north of Melbourne, Aus (Fitzroy North Community Church) and I (Michael) lead a church in Auckland, NZ (Edge Kingsland). We talk about why we're still doing this kind of thing... and start to discuss the hopeful things and the profound challenges that arise when trying to build non-coercive community where people are able to be honest, to care about each other and to belong in meaningful ways.