I was speaking with a friend about how we operate with our peers, neighbors, and co-workers. We were speaking in particular about our town. For years, our town has existed between so many other communities that hosted grocery stores, entertainment venues, shops, and services that we wanted to have here locally, but were not coming to our town. When we asked why, we were told, “You have this in 2 towns, only 15 minutes away.” And our only answer was, “But we don’t have it where we live.”

So we faced the dilemma of shopping locally or driving the 15 minutes into another community to experience the shopping, dining, or support services we were seeking. In the process, we made an unintentional journey toward being a “bedroom community” where we sleep and live, but which we depart each day for work, entertainment, and services. We grew accustomed to being individuals living in the same town without “becoming a community” with each other. We moved here from different cities and states, different cultures and traditions, but because of our context, we have been slow to develop community.

Here’s the principle I have embraced: community is choice and discipline. We must decide we WANT it and we must work hard to DEVELOP it. That’s true in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our sports leagues, and in our churches. We must look at each other as people who matter to God and therefore matter to us, and we must be willing to work to know each other. We must choose it and work hard at it, or we settle for isolation —being “alone in a crowd.”

THIS IS NOT NEW. Several of Paul’s letters to the early churches addressed this challenge for community. At issue then was the divide between Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians. They both claimed Christ, but their own cultural background stratified them, just as our own cultural backgrounds often threaten to stratify and isolate us. So to that cultural & theological quandary, Paul wrote this: “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ.” I wonder if Paul might rephrase this if he were writing to OUR community today, “There is no longer Midlothian or Waxahachie, Heritage or Midlothian High, select or rec league, for you are all ONE in Christ.”

I think we know this innately, but to see COMMUNITY, we must WORK HARD TO DEVELOP IT. Is that you? One of my favorite days of the month is Wednesday, when our pastors’ alliance meets for lunch. We lead different styles of churches, have some disagreements about how we do certain things, but we love each other. So Brent, Matt, Rodney, Clint, Demetrius, Justin, and I look forward to the fellowship, to praying for each other, and celebrating with each other. We refuse to be isolated from one another; we choose instead to know and love each other. And every month, we seek to gather in order to work hard to develop community with each other.

Will you think about your neighborhood that way? Will you think about your sports leagues, your clubs, and your experiences that same way? People are hungry for community but often have no clue how to build it. Who knows; maybe they are waiting for someone like YOU to ignite it.