longing for community

ok it's about time
for someone to post something here

i find a disturbing lack of genuine community
in my christian life
not a complete lack
but a sparsity

it is hard for me to find much depth
at church or at other christian gatherings
i know or expect that many of the people at these gatherings
have a deep spiritual experience
but the gatherings don't seem to offer
an opportunity to acknowledge that
or to reflect on it or to encourage one another in it

i sense more of what i am looking for
in the buddhist sangha that i attend
where people are willing
to sit with each other in silence
allowing space for each to approach God
and then sharing things learned
on the pilgrimage
of course they don't use words like God
or pilgrimage
but that is my sense of what we are doing there

i do get this same sense
when i visit christian monasteries
where monks or nuns are on a pilgrimage together
where there is a sense of desire
to grow into the image of God
that we are meant to be
and also a sense that we are
dependent on the community
in order to do this

i wonder whether and how
this type of community
can be fostered outside of
a monastery?
i know that some christians have it
most often in small groups
of two or three or four
who meet together to pray

i'm going to be on the lookout
for ways of fostering
christian community