Thoughts on Community

This was from an email this morning. I thought it had some relevance.

"Here are some personal thoughts about community.
1. Community is something that comes from the heart--even living in a family situation doesn't guarantee family. How many kids grow up not really "knowing" mom or dad?

2. Community cannot be forced, but it can be encouraged--as Gary Smalley likes to say, "If your family doesn't seem close, take them camping." Why? Crises seem to appear from nowhere on camping trips (e.g., rain, tents falling in, food left behind, etc.), and those crises seem to pull the family together. Anybody for a camping trip?

3. Community is one of those elusive, almost indefinable things that we all know when we encounter it, but are hard-pressed to put it into a Webster's kind of definition.

4. Community happens when people take time to care genuinely for the needs of others--this one I've personally witnessed. It is similar to our camping trip above.

5. Community is needed. Everyone wants to belong to some community (how else can we explain geeks, athletes, goths, etc. in the local schools?). Even nonconformists like to hang around other nonconformists (they like to be unique, just like everyone else!). In other words, folks want commnunity. We need to figure out how to make it happen."