Community - First Discussion

What is community?  How do you know you are in one?  Is it necessary, valuable or utopian?  I've been playing with community as a term, as a hoped for condition and as a reality most of my life.  So knock around with me in the large open space know as community.

In my twenty's, community was a a lay religious group of committed people to a Christian ideal of providing services to homeless youth in mid-town New York City.  The non-profit organization had a building in the rough and tumble Times Square area of the early 1980's where we lived and prayed together.  Community members were of all ages, ethnicity and social backgrounds united around a commonality of service and of faith.  Community was almost utopian (I was just 21 at the time, so it felt utopian), but the real world always intruded into the shared prayer and work.  The street hookers and drug pushers joined with the everyday people on the street looking for porn shops and video arcades.  Youth fleeing broken homes, abusive families and dead end lives flocked to Times Square and often ended up needing shelter, food, free clothing and counseling.  Community members joined paid staff at the shelter to provide the services to the kids.   

Like a weed growing through the city's broken concrete - I grew into the role as both a community member and youth counselor.  I was so unprepared for New York City, the people, the experience of community life that I often flailed around in broken conversations and relationships.    My own family life was centered in violence and alcohol abuse.  When I counseled kids about their crazy families or life choices it was like counseling myself, who had just turned the legal, supposedly adult age of 21.  No wonder I flamed out of the year commitment early and by age 22 had begun a nursing program instead. 

Looking back, the most important part of the experience were the people I lived with, counseled, met and prayed with.  The people, the relationship and experiences shared were the jewels of the experience and I squandered them.  Biblically squandering them like pearls before swine.  Living in the past is foolish and yet, I'd give anything to hug each of those souls and hold them close as friends for as long as possible. 

Community.  One of the conditions of community then are the people in it and the experiences shared.  Consider this the first installment on the topic of community.