What images come to your mind when you hear the word community. Is it important anymore? If it is important what part does it play in our lives? First what is community? Some of you might think of community as the town you live in or perhaps a section of a city you live in. Perhaps some may think of specific people groups within cities like Chinatown. We have also had in our history various groups who separated themselves from the rest of us. Many were religious in nature like the Amish. But others were cultish, focusing on a central personality. Do these come to mind when you think of community? In my lifetime we have had various communes also. The hippie communes, which were the most prominent, were in rebellion against the status quo. But the question remains, what really is community? What does it mean to you to live in community? Do we need community?
Let’s look at Webster’s definition. 1. a group of people who reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historic heritage. 2. a locality inhabited by such a group. 3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests. 4. the public; society. 5. a group of associated nations sharing common interests or heritage. 6. an assemblage of interacting plant and animal populations occupying a given area. 7. joint possession, enjoyment, liability, etc. 8. similar character; agreement. There you have it. That makes it clear right? What is clear from these possible definitions is that we are all part of some community group, whether we like it or not. Definitions do give us a perimeter, but often will miss the heart and soul of what community is.
As we ponder this subject, let’s look at an example from one of our events at Harbor Shalom. It is our annual apple cidering event which takes place in October. The first step is to pick up apples. A orchard donates their drops. We bring a crew, fill a trailer to the top and bring it to Harbor Shalom. On the day of the event folks gather, bringing with them food for a pot luck lunch. We spend the day grinding apples and feeding the pulp into presses. Adults and children interact together through the work, the food and the fun. Everyone gets to take home some fresh cider at the end of the day. This is the heart and soul of community: it is a common goal of building each other up by doing, being,and growing together.
We are made for community. We need that heart and soul connection and interaction. The family unit is the smallest community. It is into a family that we are born. It is in this family that we learn and grow. This beginning shapes the way we come to see and understand our world. This special community should be ‘life giving’. What does it mean to be life-giving? It means being able to develop our God-given talents and abilities, as well as learning personal interaction in the context of community expectations. As we grow and move out into larger communities we should find the same ‘life giving’ settings. Sadly that is often not the case. Look up some of the statistics on divorce, spousal abuse, child abuse, living on welfare, physical problems, emotional problems, and even violent crime. None of these mentioned are life giving, they increase brokeness. Why are these on the increase? When real community breaks down what replaces it? My purpose right now isn’t to get into how we as a society, have tried to deal with these issues. We may save that for another time. My purpose is to stimulate thinking about the importance of one-anothering and to ask you a question. Are the groups/communities you are part of or have been a part of of ‘life- giving’? Do they enable you to develop your full potential? Do they encourage you in the same way to help others grow into their full destiny? As we enter this new year how can we make our society better so that it is a life giving freedom encouraging place to grow?
Perhaps one way would be to go back to the Creator of us and the family, God. Most of us probably look at the ten commandments as a bunch of rules. And they are old fashioned. Take a look at them again. Did you ever see them in relationship to community? The first 5 are how to relate to our Creator and the second 5 are how to relate to each other. Community is relationship. When we follow these there is life, when we don’t there is brokenness. God loves us. He didn’t give us rules to keep His ‘thumb’ on us, but to keep us from that hurt and brokenness. We pray your communities will be life-giving in this new year.