What is Community?

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of ”community”? The term is used so much these days, and I’m not sure I’ve delved into what it really means, or how much peoples’ interpretations may differ. Community is broadly defined as "similarity; likeness; friendly association; fellowship." Notice that the root meaning of community is with unity.

We all long for recognition, mutual support, and shared interest with other people beyond our family connections. Not only do I believe we were created for community life, but feeling we belong in a community is essential to our psychological well-being and our health. The conclusion would be that for our lives to truly shine brightest, we must have the support and affirmation of a community of like-minded people who understand our struggles and share our goals.

In the book "Living in Balance", Joel and Michelle Levey describe what community can mean to us:
"Somewhere there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throat. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, and eyes will light up as we arrive. Community means strength that joins with strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to support us when we falter. A circle of friends. Someplace we can be free."

This portrait of the importance of community helps us see that we need others to inspire and support us as we do our work, reach for our goals and as we take opportunities to serve one another.

Another fascinating picture of the benefits of living in community is found in the Book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. One chapter of the book is dedicated to the mystery of a small mining community in Pennsylvania called Roseta, where a study was done over fifty years ago after people started noticing that people in Roseta were unusually healthy and happy. There was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction; very little crime, no one on welfare. In Roseta, folks were dying of old age only.

In trying to unravel the mystery of Roseta, researchers suspected that dietary practices from the residents’ Old World origins (Italy) left them healthier than Americans. That wasn’t it. Was it abstinence from smoking or drinking? Were these people just hardy stock, or were the foothills of Pennsylvania just good for their health? These were dead ends too. No, there was something else researchers began to discover, revealing that the secret of Roseta wasn’t diet or exercise or genes or location. It was community.

Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian in the street, or cooking for one another in their backyards. There were “ extended family clans that underlay the town’s social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof, and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to mass and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted 22 separate civic organizations in a town of under two thousand. They saw that the town discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures as a particular ethos of the community.”

In short, they had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from pressures of the modern world. They were healthy because the values of the world they inhabited and the people they surrounded themselves with had a profound effect on who they were. While much of the world understands good health as based on an individual’s personal choices or actions in isolation, the people of Roseta show us that we should think about health in terms of community.

As you think about the community you are a part of, ask yourself the following:
• Is it possible to reorganize your life to live more like the people of Roseta did?
• Have you made yourself a vital part of your community, or do you live detached from it?
• What gifts do you bring to your community?
• How can you keep your light shining in community?


I can’t help but think of a song as I close… People, people who need people….. are the luckiest people in the world!