RHYTHMS OF THE COMMUNITY

As you look for ways to connect with neighbors, it is helpful to watch for the rhythms of the community and to be intentional for the opportunities that are presented.

Hugh Halter and Matt Smay explain, “the habit of living among, means participating in the natural activities of the culture around you.” There are two ways of approaching the rhythms of your community, and it is helpful to have both on your radar so that you can engage appropriately. First, you can be aware and look for the general rhythms of life. Ash Barker gives a wonderful list to highlight the general rhythms of life in your awareness. He encourages intentional connection with your community through:

• Celebrate together: times of birthday parties, wedding, and so on.
• Commiserate together: times of loss, death, and grief.
• Have common meals together: times of fellowship around a meal.
• Resolve conflict together: times of clarity and learning to live together.
• Be there in times of change together: times of getting to know new neighbors and passages of life changes.
• Be there in times of crisis together: times of being out of control and banding together.
• Share common goods together: times of sharing what we have with others who do not have.
• Share common prayers together: time to pray for people as a normal part of life.
• Share a common identity from living in a common place together: time to see each neighbor as part of the same village.
• Affirm community contributions: times to let leaders lead in their own areas of responsibility and giftedness and celebrate these contributions.

As you start to see the points of potential connection and learn more about your community through listening and learning to God and the community (see posts on 9/4 and 9/11), you can start to identify the rhythms specific to where you live. I like to layer what I know about my neighborhood over Barker’s list. For example,

• In the Fall – We celebrate the start of school; we gather around football games, and we welcome our neighbors and those outside the neighborhood to a night of “trick or treating” at Halloween.
• In the Winter – In between the days of staying warm inside, we celebrate the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s through decorations and gatherings, and we play in the snow with our families.
• In the Spring – We emerge from winter by spending more time outside, you will see my neighbors caring for their yards, playing with their families, having garage sales, and celebrating graduations and the end of school year.
• In the Summer – We gather at the pool, have barbeque get togethers, throw block parties, and celebrate the 4^th of July with a bike parade and fireworks.

Of course, with the Coronavirus Pandemic, so many of our normal ways of interacting have changed. However, the rhythms are still there, and the connection is needed more than ever. We have to be even more intentional and creative in how we relate.

What has come to mind for your community? How do you plan to engage in the rhythms that already exist or create new rhythms? Share your thoughts so we can learn from each other.