Creating the Beloved Community

Book excerpt: Creating The Beloved Community is about the qualities, attitudes, and practices that are needed to manifest the kind of world envisioned by Howard Thurman and Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., a world of peace and harmony. The focus is on how to support the larger concept of the Universal Beloved Community by creating The Beloved Community locally - as authentic local spiritual communities. This book is for those in spiritual leadership in any faith tradition who have a desire to create the kind of world that the great spiritual visionaries have described for us. Those interested in transcending the limited reality of focusing only on organizational survival so that a greater vision can unfold will find this book to be of great value. Creating The Beloved Community speaks of the leadership qualities needed to create such a community, including cultural evolutionary awareness, presencing, and psychological awareness of our own and others' development. The role of the mystical realms and the evolutionary nature of spiritual community are presented as necessary to fully engage taking The Beloved Community into the world. It is time for us to walk our talk and to bring the promise of harmony and peace to a world that cries out for them. Jim Lockard has been in ministry for over 20 years. He brings a wealth of experience and the viewpoint of a visionary to his work.