Building Community

Kanary Family Mission Statement

God designed us to be in community.  Soon after creating Adam, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him.'" (Genesis 2:18)  The word "helper" gets under the skin of some women, but the intent was that Adam have a companion to help him share the responsibilities God had put before him in his dominion over the living things of this new world.  We were never meant to be alone.

We form community in a variety of ways, through small things and large, each and every day.  Chatting with a neighbor, offering an acquaintance helping hand, inviting a family from your kid's peer group to church with you, taking the time to ask about the life of your server at a restaurant, or giving a compliment or word of encouragement to that fellow mom you see around, but don't really know. These are only some of the ways you build community.

A couple years ago James and I wrote a family mission statement.  Part of it reflects our innate desire for community and relationship: "Together with Christ, we are passionate about building the village with and for our family..."  This part of the statement brings up a few important things.  First, we have to invite Christ into the center of our family in order for anything we do to bear the kind of fruit God intended.  "Together With Christ" has been our motto as a couple since we were engaged 13 years ago.

Community doesn't always come easily.  Sometimes you have to work for it...be intentional about it. "We are passionate about building the village" - community is something that we are passionate about creating.  We make intentional decisions every day, big and small, that allow us to contribute to building the village.  Whether it is inviting people over for dinner, pitching in when someone needs help, dropping a care package off for a friend in need, or giving of ourselves (time, talent, treasure) in some other way - we are living life in such a way that we hope builds community.

Community building isn't as much fun in isolation!  We do it "with and for our family".  We try to model the village for our kids so they join in the community building culture we are trying to create in our home.  Those moments when our kids think of others first make the occasional, "do we have to" worth it.

Community doesn't look the same for everyone.  I can assure you that it comes much more easily to my extroverted husband than it does for introverted me.  I am much more comfortable behind a keyboard than a handshake, but God didn't intend us to rely solely on virtual community to the exclusion of personal, face-to-face interaction.  Just look at the mess that became of the humans in the movie Wall-e! Community can consist of the people you only interact with online, but those can't be your only relationships.  Sometimes it requires us to step out of our comfort zones and allow God to stretch us in areas that don't get a lot of use.

What does community mean to you?  How are you nurturing and growing your village?
- Katrina K.