Communities...Always Evolving

I grew up in the small town of Guymon, Oklahoma! It was a great little community where everyone knew you. You played sports, went to church, went to school, and worked along side one another. I moved from that community to the private college community of Southern Nazarene University.  In both cases, my communities were dictated by geographical boundaries.  I loved both communities and both provided my foundational values and beliefs.  Once I left those communities, I was in search for another community to belong to.  Although life has changed, I've found myself a part of a variety of communities.

But really, what is a community? A group of people bound together through physical boundaries? People connected through support groups for similar situations? People with similar backgrounds?  One argument for communities discussed by Renninger and Shumar (2002) says a community is something "with a shared set of physical resources and needs; mutual interdependence; and complex social organization including kinship, political, economic, and administrative layers."  A community is a group of people who come together and work together to support or learn from one another.  

The definition above allows for multiple types of communities.  In fact, there can be physical communities that join together face-to-face as well as communities in a virtual world.  In today's fast paced society, many times we don't make time to connect within our communities defined by geographical locations; instead our communities come from our work areas, church, or within our children's activities.  If we still do not find what we are looking for in a community we have the option of turning to the Internet in search of a virtual community.  

As I read this week, one of the things that stuck with me was the idea of communities being for a stage in life rather than life-long. How true is that? Those stages may be during soccer season or during the school year.  Maybe the communitiy is other grad students who understand what it is like to be going back to school.  But sooner or later, your community will change.  Yes, I said change...and believe me, I hate change.  I struggle when my community shifts no matter the reason. 

Since change within communities is inevitable and because we are shaped by our communities, the question I pose is this: what are you doing today, to impact the community you are a part of? Are you  leaving something to be remembered by?  Are you loving those within your community and learning from them while you have the chance whether it be in a physical community or on a virtual community?   Are you sharing your wisdom with those around you?  Whether you join a physical or virtual community, you can make a difference!  So be intentional about how you interact within your community!