By Amanda Farris

So lately I’ve been thinking a lot about gathering people together and why it’s important and why I enjoy it so much.
It does not stress me out at all to have people over at the house, set a table setting for a small dinner party, or organize a sports game with friends.

But it does stress me out to do crafts, sing publicly, sew anything, or pick out paint colors.

I think it’s important to gather people together and build community because we aren’t meant to live this life alone.

You can build community around yourself no matter what your interests or strengths are.

You may not like to host dinner parties or themed get-togethers in your home , but you might be really good at teaching someone how to craft, shopping with someone to help them be more decisive ( I need this!) , or just calling a few friends for an impromptu  night out to eat.

All of these things are meant to be done with someone. It requires you to be around people and invest in them.

I’m sure your life is the same as mine and as all your friends. The overall key word is BUSY. It’s hard with all of our schedules, commitments, jobs, and to-do’s  to really stop and make time for building community and investing in others.

I’ve learned that it takes intentional effort and sacrifice of your own agenda to really slow down and pour into people.

But I can also testify that building community is worth every bit of effort and sacrifice that it takes.

So this season as we enter into the New Year and a “fresh start” as you might call it. I encourage you to start something right where you are that brings people together.

Think about your interests and schedule as you do this.  Make it a priority to become good at relationships. Gather, Grow, and Connect.

 

For me personally I am going to start and host and online book study for women. I realize that it’s important to pour into others lives and have others pour into your own. But I also realize the realistic scheduling limitations of my schedule and season of life as well as others schedule limitations to have a regular tangible meeting time and place.

I’m going to host this “community” online so that everyone who participates can provide input according to their own schedule.

Then once per month or once every other month I will host a face to face get together for everyone who can make it. The date will be set plenty in advance so that hopefully everyone can carve out a couple of hours to sit back relax and enjoy face to face fellowship without the scheduling pressure of meeting on a weekly basis.

Stay tuned for details to be posted on my blog if you are interested!

So today I encourage you to start the New Year with a new expectation of  community. This post is not meant to cause any guilt because I know we are all limited on time. But it is meant to encourage you to build community right where you are taking your schedule, strengths, and interests into consideration.

Community doesn’t have to be hard or stressful, just intentional.

So go- Be Awesome- Start Something new this year!

Here are some ways to start building community:

• Start a book club
• Lunch date with a friend once per month
• Start a running club
• Monthly Pinterest Party
• Girls Night Out once every couple of months
• Start a monthly meal swap
• Get another family on board and commit to getting together once per month alternating each other’s houses

What others would you suggest?

What are you most interested in that you’d love to build community around? 

Amanda Farris is a wife to her super hero hunk of a husband and a mother to 3 little kiddos. Amanda is a teacher/coach who hung up her coaching whistle after she got promoted to motherhood. She is a runner who loves all things sports and outdoors. She loves early morning traveling, long coffee chats with her husband, and fresh flowers on her table. She is an adventurer at heart and has a great talent of unintentionally becoming over-busy (that’s a bad thing). So she is constantly reevaluating her life priorities which keeps her on her toes and helps her to live life passionately and deliberately.  Come Join the Adventure.