Okay, so our “assignment” tonight was to answer 3 questions about community. We (our group) took the time we had and basically answered the general question of “what is community and how does it feel”.
The first thing we all thought about generally, was a community that is carried down south. Everybody knows everybody, you’re always greeted, it’s welcoming, friendly, meeting everybody, talking/sharing, having group activities for the whole community, ect. You never feel isolated in those types of environment.  It’s a sense of being welcomed.
Commonly in Lancaster, (from experience with others & myself) there’s a lot of isolation and division and a constant drive to try and fit in somewhere and “christians” don’t necessarily sound like a good thing to people. Even christianity is grouped into categories.
So, we feel that a healthy community should be like/feel like acceptance, support, security, and to be welcomed.

I’d also suggest the song “Diverse City” by Toby Mac. This is the first song that popped into my head when we were talking about a healthy community.

The “talk” majority tonigt was to do more of the “split into groups for an assignment” type thing. It felt really good to mix with everybody and share thoughts.

- Stefani

Thanks Stefani!

What is community? Our group wrote that community is a place where people can make lasting relationships.  We believed that just a few things to accomplish this would be to be friendly and welcoming, and to be willing to reach out to others. Community to us would feel welcoming, to feel like its home, and to also feel a sense of belonging.

Jenn

Our group wrote that community is a feeling of family, close-knit, unified with purpose.  It looks selfless, Christ-like, and purposeful.  And lastly, it feels safe, comfortable, supportive, non-judgemental and feels like family.

Our group defined a community as a group of people who exist to support one another, build each other up in the Lord, and help each other when one member fails.  We also said that it should be a non-judgmental environment.

Members of a healthy community feel like they belong, and the environment in general feels loving, comfortable, acceptable, and safe.  Everyone feels free to be themselves so members should be open with one another.

Our group had different ideas of what a community would be, but it all came together with the idea of feeling welcomed and comfortable being around the people you are with; some of the examples our group gave of a community were: hanging out with friends, being with a group of diverse people sharing the same view points, and everyone in the group likes COFFEE so they thought the idea of a coffee house where people go to talk etc was another form of community as well.

Crystal