Community
March 31, 2009
from nakedpastor.com
During our gathering, one thing that seemed to keep coming up in our discussions was the idea of community, and the need for a genuine, authentic community.
I think a lot of people do feel disconnected. Even though we are surrounded by people in our daily lives, many of us are left feeling alone and lonely.
Instead of engaging regularly with our neighbors, many of us start thinking ‘high fences are the best neighbors.’
Or if you’re like me, you close the garage door as soon as you pull up to avoid any interactions with the neighbors.
Growing up in South Carolina, we had porches in our houses. But I think the porch is a thing of the past. Porches, at least from my recollection, always brought in conversations. I’ll walk to school, and people will be out the porch wishing me a good learning that day.
But now, instead of the porch, I think we like our TV more. Inside the comfort of our house.
And the truth is, we live in isolation.
Maybe that’s why facebook and myspace and social networks are doing so well.
Or maybe these social networks are feeding into our being isolated from physical community.
It seems like our goal is to avoid people, to avoid real human contact, as much as possible. I know that I’m naturally inclined to feel that way.
And the scarier thing is, I see this disconnect happening in many of our churches.
Sure, we meet and greet one another on Sundays. Our average-Joe church goer has many, many acquaintances and people to greet and people to greet him. She may be acquainted with many people, but isn’t known by any of them.
How do we change that?
I don’t think I’m way off saying that our culture, this generation, they are craving relationships.
So how do we go about providing an authentic community for people who feel so disconnected?
April 5, 2009 at 6:53 am
1) “the need for a genuine, authentic community. I think a lot of people do feel disconnected.”
i think so too. perhaps we should think about church as a process, and find where are church processes go wrong when it comes to “genuine” and “authentic” and “community.”
2) “It seems like our goal is to avoid people, to avoid real human contact, as much as possible. I know that I’m naturally inclined to feel that way.”
my personal reflection adds a little bit of nuance to this statement. i think that people don’t want to avoid people across the board; just the people they don’t like. i think people are always looking for people who are alike, especially if they are the marginalized in society. and, i think people seek out differing people when they feel like they need to escape their own world.
3) i think a good way of “going about providing an authentic community for people who feel so disconnected” is by looking at some examples of “authentic communities for people who feel so disconnected” that already exist. i think this is the hard part for two reasons:
a – we need to face the fact that non-religious groups are doing a better job at this than we are (at times)
b – we might find very little examples in our denomination (starting with the pastors’ community)