Non-coercive Community Pt 3: The limitations of self-reliance and "opportunity"

Episode 112: In this episode Shane Meyer-Holt returns for another conversation about the journey of engaging in and building non-coercive communities. We talk about how individualism and capitalism have profoundly shaped so many of us in themes of self-reliance and the importance of opportunity (as well as the freedom to take up those opportunities). These are deeply inbuilt into the psyche of our societal assumptions - and they happen to make regular sustainable commitment to communities of care and mutual obligation an incredibly difficult prospect. If we ultimately believe (and in many respects, understandably so) that we are on our own in keeping our heads above water - then commitment to community can come into conflict with our need for self-reliance. And if we think that we must be free to take every opportunity available to us, then mutual care and genuine healthy obligations to one another may well get in they of those opportunities. In many respects, all modern collectives are struggling with this new reality. Some embrace a model of high-reward, high-punishment community as a mechanism to sustain participation. But what happens if you don't believe in that kind of church or collective dynamic? We come to this conversation as people involved in leading church communities (Shane, at Fitzroy North Community Church in Melbourne, and Michael, at Edge Kingsland in Auckland). Contact: feedback@intheshift.com Support:

You can listen to Non-coercive Community Pt 3: The limitations of self-reliance and "opportunity" online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Non-coercive Community Pt 3: The limitations of self-reliance and "opportunity" is an episode from In the Shift by Michael Frost.

This episode is 72:45 long.

This episode was published on Dec 4, 2025.

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