This week our Grace Gathering (a Grace Toronto Church bible study) was talking about values, and what values we think our city has, and what kinds of values we should have as a group of Christians in the city. One of the values we talked about was “community,” which seems to get a lot of lip service, but I think I really understand it.

In the broadest sense, “community” is an organized group of people with a set of values or a group in a certain location (thanks wikipedia!), or more specifically, people who share “intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks” and other factors.

From that article, I also found Scott Peck’s description of community building, from a “pseudo-community” to “true community,” which as an end result, sounds like an awesome place to be:

True community: the process of deep respect and true listening for the needs of the other people in this community. This stage Peck believes can only be described as “glory” and reflects a deep yearning in every human soul for compassionate understanding from one’s fellows.

Personally, I think I’ve been involved in various different types of communities over the span of my life. Some went deeper than others, but I think groups like Beavers/Scouts when I was in elementary school, Beyond Existence (youth group) in high school, and Campus Crusade for Christ when I was in university, all provided a true “community” type environment.

However, leaving Kingston and Belleville behind and moving to Toronto, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt a part of a community in the same way as those experiences. Like many people in Toronto, I wasn’t born here, I didn’t have family here, and I really had to find my own way to figure out where I belong (still haven’t achieved that though).

And in Toronto especially, I’ve noticed that jobs/careers don’t seem to foster community either; most people will hardly ever spend recreational time with co-workers outside of the job site, and instead lead fairly fragmented lives.

I’m guilty of this: I have my “working” life, my married life, my church life, my family life, my sports life, and my arts life, which overall, doesn’t seem to crossover so much. I see coworkers during the day, my wife in the evenings, my church friends on Tuesdays and Sundays, the TFC on Saturdays, my family every other month, but I never really do any one of those frequently enough to develop or foster true community.

Perhaps part of my problem is physical location: I live on Danforth East, go to work on Queen West, go to church on Queen East, check out football in Parkdale and do shows in Kensington… it’s all downtown, but it’s also very, very spread out. But as more and more friends move out to Danforth East, and more interesting bars/coffee shops/restaurants open up in the hood, and maybe someday even a Grace Toronto church plant move out there, maybe I’ll feel like it’s a true community?

Maybe that’s why a group like The Society in Toronto, a community which people pay to join, and in exchange are cultured and entertained, can exist and be successful (though at times, it seems like this is a short cut to authentic community).

Though I love the internet and the mass dissemination of information it has created, I also feel like it has eroded the idea of community as much as it has fostered it. The internet allows me to find other people who love Pedro the Lion just as much as I do, but it also gives me a sense of false community through Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, where my “real” friends dwell, but is also bolstered by a large group of “fake” friends too.

There are exceptions though: there does seem to be a rabid shoring up of communities in the downtown music scenes, with groups like Wavelength, Pitter Patter and Two Way Monologues, bringing musicians and music fans together, as well as big events like Caribana and Pride, and even the countless marathons that jam up traffic all summer. But I wonder, that though there are communities developed there, they all seem to be “event” based more than anything else. Looking back to the “True Community” definition, I don’t think these groups apply.

When I explore my own mental health, and read about the experiences other people have had with anxiety and depression, I’m often overcome with emotion because it’s like I’m finally knowing that someone else has experienced what I have experienced, and in that knowing, there is some form of refuge: somewhere I can belong.

However, that refuge is not nearly as deep as the one I find in the gospel, where I can find the ultimate sense of belonging; one that will carry with me through every stage of life. To end this thought, I’ll leave you with a quote from Psalm 36, verses 7 to 9.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.