The Value of Community
Whether we accept it or not, most human beings need community. We are intrinsically social-beings. Mankind seems to prosper when we work together: when we share and discuss ideas and concepts: when we “bounce” ideas off our co-workers.
We value joining social clubs, sports teams or a night of playing games with friends. We benefit when we are challenged by the reality of, consciously or unconsciously, competing with friends or the person at the next desk, the next office, or the next floor.
To illustrate this, I want to refer to a story I once heard about a man who had stopped going to church but remained friends with the pastor. Periodically, the pastor would go to the man’s house, and on one occasion, as they sat by a blazing log fire, the pastor leaned forward and, with the help of a poker, pulled aside a flaming log from all the rest of the burning logs.
The two men then just sat there in silence as the isolated log gradually died-out as it lost all of its fire and warmth while the rest of the logs in the fireplace burned vigorously together.
Looking at it, the man said to the pastor, “I see your point. I’ll come back to church.”
The man realized that he needed the fire and the nourishment of the community.
