Nate Riggs: Social Business Strategies; communication, social web strategies, & passion in Columbus, Ohio.

Since I started attending St. Francis of Assisi Church in Victorian Village, I’ve been learning about the idea of building a community around faith.  Father Ron, a spiritual and community leader, always places a good deal of emphasis on community.  The formula is pretty simple: a closer and more connected community helps community members find deeper faith in what the community believes or stands for.  No rocket surgery here, folks.

Yesterday morning, our faith community welcomed a new member through the Christian ritual of baptism.  Through the use of ritual and symbolism, as well as a publicly shared affirmation of beliefs from the community, we welcomed and marked a new member as being one of us.  The parents and family stood by, taking pictures of the joyful occasion.  For them (and the community), this ritual is very important.  It holds deep meaning.

One of Us
Being one of us comes with a promise from other community members.  The community promises to educate on values and share knowledge, offer support, create opportunities for fellowship, and help guide new members along the way.

What’s interesting is that the Christian community is one of the oldest communities in existence today.  It has survived thousands of years and has millions upon millions of community members.  Sure, there are subgroups and different takes, but make no mistake, it’s a large and solid community.  In the next few months, I’ll begin the RCIA process – a sort of ritual that adults engage in to become full members of the Catholic church.  That process is filled with rituals and experiences that work to teach the ways of the Catholic community.

The Importance of Rituals
Aside from structures and leadership styles, I can remember being fascinated with studying rituals, artifacts and stories as part of my coursework in organizational communication at Otterbein.  In college, I was part of one of the oldest local fraternities in the country, which is where I first became interested in how online communities work.  That organization (which you can also refer to as a community) also had many rituals.

Each winter quarter a new class of pledges are welcomed into the process.  Rituals are present every step of the way.  Pledging, much like RCIA, is, in itself, a ritual.  In both, individuals who intend to become members of a community are guided by existing members through a process of learning what the community feels is important.  Values, rules, attitudes, and even procedures, are all laid out in full transparency.

Rituals in Your Community
Ask yourself these questions.  You might be surprised at the answers you come up with:

• When you are building your community, how do you welcome your new members?
• What promise does your community make to new members?  What’s in it for them?
• Do you have a process new members engage in so that they can learn and become familiar with the way your community works?
• Who’s responsible for new member initiation rituals?  Anyone?  You?
• Are your new members clients, customers, supporters, niche-interest folks, your employees?  What’s critical to making them feel included?
• Do you have a common ritual that signifies that they’ve become “one of us?”  Should you?

nateriggs

I advise mid-sized & large organizations on how to adopt and use social media to market through organizational culture and better serve their clients. I'm also a blended family dad who enjoys music, photography and distance racing. When I'm not writing here, you can find me writing over at the Content Marketing Institute. Like what you've read so far? Then why not subscribe HERE?

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