Community: Some Thoughts

*Precursor: This is a compiling of my thoughts over the last few weeks. It's kind of cohesive in that they all revolve around the idea of community, but really there is no flow to them. What I'm looking for here is feedback on these thoughts. Do they appear accurate, obtainable, etc?
End Precursor*

It’s Saturday. The weather outside is 65 plus degrees Fahrenheit. There was a time in our American, human history where this meant the threat of a baseball going through one’s window was on an orange alert; the probability was rather high. Now, with a beautiful Saturday afternoon in our midst, the only sound we’ll hear knocking against our windows are misguided flies thinking they’ve found open passages to the insides of our houses. We like to place the blame of this newly acknowledged phenomenon squarely on the invention of video games; some of us go as far as to place it on the invention of the television. I feel this blame is undeserved; the root of the problem is much deeper.

Recently I’ve given a lot of thought to the idea of community. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what it means exactly, what purpose it serves, what, if any, benefits it has, and, consequently, what, if any, downsides it has. In the past I’ve conducted experiments on myself to see if I could expand or narrow my idea of what the “Christian Community” looks like. I attended services and seminars hosted by Christians whom with on everything I don’t necessarily agree. I’ve proposed another of those experiments to try shed more light onto that same question. However, I’m uncertain I’ll be able to answer that question by the end of that experiment either.

Coming up in a couple of months I’ll be leaving the secure soil of the United States to join a ship operated by Operation Mobilization for two years to be a resource to local churches all around the world. I’ll be joining a very unique community of people from all around the world with one commonality; a love for Jesus and a love for people. With this experience I’m sure I’ll gain much more insight into the question of community. I look forward to this learning experience very much. But, again, I don’t think I’ll have the question solved after the two years are up.

The reason, I think, that we don’t see kids out in the neighborhoods playing baseball or whatever with each other, the reason we don’t see families barbequing with each other, the reason we don’t see people generally hanging out with each other is because of this issue of community. I believe we’ve lost the sense of what it is and we are struggling to find out what it is again.

As a kid growing up on a cul-de-sac in Monroe, WA, I was rarely bored. The only times I was bored, I can think, was when I was by myself. To solve this problem, I’d just call up my friend Triston who lived down the street and we’d do something together. We’d ride bikes, we’d climb trees, we’d play out in the soccer field separating our houses, whatever; we’d find something to do. If Triston wasn’t available, I’d just go outside and there would be some kids from the neighborhood doing something.

See, I think we need community in our lives; we admit it every day. Every time we say we are bored or we think we need something to do is our admission to missing community. When a kid says he or she is bored, it is not that they have nothing to do; it is that they don’t have anyone to do anything with, or rather, they don’t want to do anything with the people that are around them. They’re both rejecting the community they are in and admitting to missing community all together.

Now, obviously I don’t have any research to prove this hypothesis, but I think it makes sense at least. I can see it in my own life as well. Whenever I feel bored, I’m always wishing I had someone to do something with. I usually chalk it up to being lonely, desiring to have a partner in which to share things. But the reality is, even if I had someone like that, I’d still feel bored. I’m not really a part of any community. I go to a church (ironically called Monroe Community Chapel), but I’m never really around these people outside Sunday morning. I got to work, but I’m never really around these people outside a professional atmosphere. I live in a neighborhood, but I never really see my neighbors. I know people, I have friends, but I have to make appointments to see them and go out of my way to visit them. So, whenever I’m bored, I’m always wishing I lived closer to my friends or I had relationships with people I go to church with or work with in which I could just drop by and hang out. But that isn’t how we operate.

As is apparent by now, I’m just relaying thoughts at this point. I don’t really have a conclusion to draw to. My goal in the next couple of years is to gain more and more insight into what community really means and what it really looks like. I have ideas, but I need to see if they play out in reality. I find I have an innate gift of being able to come up with great theories, but their connection to reality is hit or miss. So, we’ll see what comes out of this thinking experiment. If there are any thoughts on the subject out there, feel free to share them here or with me in person; I’ll be willing to listen.