Community is where our shared image of God, personal freedom, and responsibility to one another come together to bless the world. Our experience of God is both personal and relational:  not solely or primarily based on the authority of someone else, but also lived best in connection with others. The church is a unique laboratory for us to experiement with both the truth of community and the truth of individual freedom.

SLIDE GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING

Community can remind us that we are called to love, for community is a product of love in action and not of simple self-interest. For in community, one learns that the solitary self is not an adequate measure of reality, that we can begin to know the fullness of truth only through multiple visions. Community can teach us that our grip on truth is fragile and incomplete, that we need many ears to hear the fullness of God's word for our lives.   

—Parker Palmer