The buzz phrase for the bloggers and online marketeers today is ‘community’, and has become the poster child for all things involving social media (a.k.a Facebook, to the average user). This, essentially, means for most of them: ‘create’ a community around what you want people to talk about.

Church is often made to work with this same principle. ‘Create’ community by doing church the way you want people to like it. Or how about small businesses that start out selling a product that they themselves are the ones, and the only ones, who’d buy it – and now are forced to ‘create’ an audience / community around this niche idea.

But, shock, horror, community is made from two words: Common Unity.

You don’t create common unity. You find it, and nurture it. For every wannabe blogger, engaging in the incestuous blogger-to-blogger economy, stop ignoring the massive internet audience that isn’t saturated with social media experts – the average internet user. Find out what unity you have with them. Find out what matters to them. Work with them to create change.

For every church member who wonders why they don’t have a full Sunday service – stop expecting people to turn up. Go and find out what common unity is shared in your community and get involved in it. Find the hurt, and heal it. Find the need, and meet it.

Finally, social media is changing the way we do this. If you aren’t a digitall but you’re a digi-not, ‘social media’ the snazzy word for Facebook / Twitter / YouTube – all media that is social. Start thinking outside of the ‘what are you doing’ box – and start thinking how you can find, or even be the one who brings common unity together online.