Friday, February 15 2008

The Death of Community

Phil. 2:4 – “Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others.”

Working and living in a big city is a real challenge. Not only the competition for employment that devastated people, but the competition for a living space pretty much holds the same weight in the mind of the people. As the people density of big cities are on the rise, we would expect then that people would have more meaningful interactions with others as they rub shoulder to shoulder almost everyday. Not so. In fact, meaningful interactions have gone down to zero…! Individualism is on the rise, and community is dying.

We’ve tried all of the excuses – tired, busy, family time, personality – but the bottom line is we have lost the passion and interest to get to know others in a more meaningful ways. ‘What’s up…’ and ‘Later…’ has become the most common phrase in our conversation today, yet it is so empty in meaning. Where do we go from here…?

Paul’s solution is real and simple: welcome others in our mind and consider them as we think about ourselves. Have some space for others to come in and let them come closer to you. It’s not that we can’t have space or time for ourselves, but we’ve used them all for ourselves.
We can’t afford to lose that sense of community as believers of Christ. Church after all is a community of believers and followers of Christ. Let’s keep it that way then for the glory of Christ.