What is community?

Written by Richard Hardy

Community is a word that gets bandied about a great deal these days. Some people bemoan the loss of community. Others talk about being community; building community. So if we are to ‘engage’ with community - what is it that we’re seeking to engage with?

The word itself is a combination of two concepts - common and unity. You could say that means a community is wherever two or more people come together on common ground.

On this basis, community can’t consist of one. During the ‘80s there was a move towards individuality where the basic unit of society was the individual. This was reflected in the Bisto adverts – the ads with the family sitting round the common meal table changed to the individual sitting in front of the TV with a meal on a tray.

Community therefore isn’t ‘looking after number one’. It has to be two or more. That sounds like family.

For centuries the family unit has been the basic building block of a stable society.
Though families now come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, this idea of family being a vital ingredient is making a comeback. (And the Bisto ads have recently shifted back to families gathering to eat!)

You might have seen elsewhere on this website one of the findings from a 2006 survey in The Sun; 85% of respondents said the most important thing in their life was family. (The website refers to it more than once because it’s such a crucial finding!)

Family is important. It provides security. It’s the starting point for building community. So it’s worth investing in those things that strengthen family life, both in the church and in the wider community.

Recently I was talking with a group of church leaders, one of whom suggested that if we’re to foster this sense of family and so strengthen community, we needed to create ‘nodes of meeting’. That is, go to where people already meet.

Church leaders have told us some of the things they do:

• take one of their small groups and meet in the coffee shop of the local community sports facility.
• hire the whole sports facility for a day, and invite neighbours, friends and their families to join them for that day.
• do most of the pastoral care in the local bookshop coffee shop. As a ‘regular’ at the shop, the church leader approached the manager and asked if there was any way she could foster a sense of community based in the shop. The manager was keen and encouraging. So she started a reading group, which now has eight regular attendees, none of whom attend a local church.
• a conversation in the playground led to one mum leading a group of mums who meet for coffee regularly to discuss parenting issues.

All of these are expressions of community that reflect effective engagement.
 

Last Updated 13 October 2008