The Value of Community

I was driving down the road the other day with the radio on. I can’t recall what prompted the thought, but I was thinking about how I normally speed past each house on this or that street without giving the residents a single thought. They are out of focus as far as my mind is concerned. As the houses rush by in my periphery, they form a sort of smudge or blur, not just physically, but mentally. I hope this makes sense. The point is that in those moments, I’m in my own world. I rarely think about the thousands of human beings I pass each day in their homes. I mean, they are real people, with real families, with real lives like my own, right? Yet, I marginalize their existence to a mere blur.

Fast forward a day or two…I was watching a YouTube video about the perception the general public has regarding PGA Tour players (professional golfers). The host of the video blog was commenting on how very different the players are in real life, compared to their public personas, and how the average person makes the common mistake of judging them based on what little information they’ve been given. In addition, the majority of said information is secondhand. I had a similar conversation with my wife that same day regarding celebrities and how little we actually know them compared with how often we pass judgement on them and their actions.

How well do we know our neighbors, even? Forget about those we see through media channels. How about our next-door neighbors?!! How about those a few houses down or at the end of the street? How can we live so close to other human beings and not know them? Seems quite odd when you really give it some thought, doesn’t it?

Can we call a row of houses a community in the absence of fellowship?

How much have we lost along with our sense of community? That’s what I’ve been pondering lately. Where does that leave us, emotionally? Are we becoming islands, embracing the idea even, and in doing so hurting ourselves? I think so. I’m beginning to think that maybe one of the greatest plagues of all – possibly responsible for myriad social, emotional, and mental illnesses – is our lack of community. We don’t think about each other any more than the edges of a tunnel we speed through on our way to our next appointment, to completing our next errand, or to picking up our groceries (a lot of people don’t even get out of their cars anymore and walk around the grocery store; rather, they have a delivery person load their trunks with items they’ve ordered online – maybe they slip a tip through the crack in the window if they’re feeling generous?).

Though there are many other people in this world whom we interact with, we seem intent on marginalizing the whole of them!

What does the Bible say about community? The short answer is a lot! Even a cursory reading of Holy Scripture reveals that both the plot and setting of most stories in the Bible involve multiple people interacting. I’d argue that the Bible is mostly about social intercourse. Did Jesus or His disciples remain holed up in caves? What sense of community is evident in the Book of Acts? Upon reading, would you see a bunch of hermits or something much different?

I fear it’s easier to isolate oneself nowadays. Technology has given us the almighty avatar to hide behind. We prefer the insulation of instant messaging over phone calls and phone calls over actually visiting someone in person (oh dear, what a frightening proposition that’s become). We blame our introversion or our so-called social anxiety.

People have developed a phobia of people.

How did we get here? When did communing with others become frightening? When did living in isolation become a better option than sharing precious time with another human being? How has this disease spread so far as to infiltrate families, even?

The value of community has been all but lost; therefore, as a whole, we’ve lost our sense of community. The concept is increasingly foreign to younger generations, replaced by social media (Is that an oxymoron, I wonder?). If what I’m suggesting is true, even partially, then what about the following passages in God’s Word?





Is it not apparent that the Bible speaks voluminously about social interaction? Isn’t it implied throughout God’s Word? Isn’t God, Himself, a social being? Weren’t we created as social beings, meant to engage with one another? Were we ever meant to live as islands?

What happens when each of us fails our community? After all, we’re all part of it, right? Without some kind of commitment to one another, to the greater good of a community, it doesn’t really exist, does it?

We’ve lost our sense of togetherness. It’s tragic enough, generally speaking, but it’s an abomination when we bring into focus the Body of Christ.



If you’re a believer, may I challenge you to open your heart up to others? May I ask that you visit someone, take the first step, reach out? May I encourage you to consider the existence of each person you pass, whether at forty miles per hour in a car or on the street? Invest in others instead of marginalizing them. So, you live a big and busy life…so does everyone else. Is that really an excuse?

We’ve lost something special. I miss it, truth be told. I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ve hurt myself and everyone around me. I’m afraid of what this means, to be honest. Does this mean I have to spend more time with others, actually in their presence, all five senses firing? Yup. Does this mean God is saying the same thing to you? Apparently.


Love in Christ,

Ed Collins