Our local community of residents supported a recent local tragedy. I knew nothing about the fundraiser, but a fire took everything for three businesses, so the community scheduled a fund-raising dinner. The local newspaper recorded a statement, “This is what community is for.” It gave me pause to consider the number of communities we each belong to and wonder how many we have? Family, friends, neighbors, business, job, and faith. Add to these few any other grouping that identifies your world. You may have groups that include school, heritage, or even the community at large from your county, state, region, or nation.
How many communities are you connected to? Do you have enough? I’ve wondered, how do you get to be a part of a new community?
This begs the question of definition. Exactly what is meant when we talk about community? Get technical, and you could spend hours attempting to understand the word. Essentially, it’s a “group with common interests.” You may be near or far. Related, or not. Same-gender, maybe. Even from the same ethnic grouping. Political leanings. Common interests may be relegated to something in the past, present, or far into the future.
Visit someone interested in model trains, and you’ll find they have a vast network of other enthusiasts supporting each other in their attempt to create their perfect railyard. They have a community.
Community Is Important
Through the years, as “community” has become an important word, we truly realize how connected we are. I remember the Walters Family Reunion as a kid in Ace, Texas. Walters is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name. Hundreds would show up. Where? At the Munson Lake. Grandmother’s sister became a Munson! See! Community! Keep adding on the names! Each root of history has more names than you can shake a stick at. Then look at the branches that represent the current times, even more names!
It was a huge family of connections that spread through many last names and families,
through the years and across the miles.
The reunion would encompass a slice of time when we focused on the paternal name: “Walters.” Choose maternally, and it could have been: “Murphy.” Dive deeper! It changes with each generation! This community branches far and wide.
Now, add my last name to the mix and focus on the Maternal side of Grandpa or Grandma Gurley, and new twists are revealed. It takes multiple sides to create a community. We are each a by-product of our vast community ties.
Inlaws, exlaws, and, yes, even outlaws.
I’ve shared in the past, “Don’t talk bad about anybody. Whoever you are talking to, it may be they are related!”
My Faith Community
Perhaps we talk globally about our Faith Community as if we are equally connected to a similar belief system that we all agree to. Is that it? If that were true, we would not have so many divisions. Squabbling. Rules. Denominations. Versions. Split off and form a new community with a different focus than the original. I read of a pastor who left his community for various reasons and was not sure where he was headed.
Even the original twelve disciples went through their heartaches and headaches of getting the picture “just right.” Why would we expect anything different?
It’s the “what do we do” wondering if it’s the same as “what we have done?”
It’s the shifting sand of change that keeps us fluidly mobile. This year we narrow our focus on our specific set of viewpoints and keep our community intact. Next year we relax the focus and tighten up in other areas.
I ask, would a similar community recognize us from 100 years ago in a Faith Community?
The answer is a qualified No! Not only does the community adapt, but the times are changing! We go with the flow but keep the central theme of our Godly heritage based on the Word of God. Wait! Wait! Which translation? That may be a variation of every faith community slice we know.
I do know this: What I believe is based on the community of believers I was raised within. Community. It’s found in the roots of the Bible and geared to reach this modern world.
My church family has been a large part of my community for most of my life. From Texas to Alaska, and now in Washington. Who knows how many people from each state could be connected to my community at large!??!
The Key
You need to savor and respect your community, love and honor those who lead, and help those trying to grow, so they become part of the future.
Jesus laid the foundation for community.
“These things I have spoken to you,
that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
These things I command you, that you love one another.
John 15:11-17 NKJV
What did this community do? It spread the Gospel, leading others and making disciples until they died. But they kept up the work, passed it on to the next generation.
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured
by the compassionate actions of its members. ~Coretta Scott King
Maybe the key to community is our compassion. Feelings that produce actions. It’s much easier to bring others into our community when we have compassion. The “our” becomes “us” as you welcome new people.