Intentional Community

Many of us tend to live individualistically. We make decisions based on our felt-needs, our aspirations, our goals and dreams, our security and our fears. While we are responsible for our own survival, we certainly have human conscience that defies Darwin's theory of natural selection. A trend shift from communal living in kampongs to urban living in our society makes people even more individualistic.

My mom and I tend to lament over individualistic decisions made my some of our friends and relatives. For example, I have a relative who uses to work in his hometown. He could have stayed on to work, while living nearby his old sickly mother and other relatives. But he chosed to apply for transfer to bigger cities for better work prospect. Another example will also be the choices certain younger couples made to go for holidays during festive season like Chinese New Year. Instead of balik kampung to visit their parents, family and friends who miss them, it is more convenient to grab an a holiday deal and go to Europe for vacation. One JPA scholar, due to his own selfish gain, deny others their chances for securing admission to a particular Medical School, just because he wants to get every opportunity available for himself.

Although I have no rights to say whether their actions are justifiable or not, but certainly urbanisation, competitive and hectic lifestyle, greater purchasing power, and greater travelling ease makes it busy and inconvenient for people to spend time with each other, especially in a family and community context, besides putting them in a situation where they need to be selfish in order to survive. There's a tension between spending our resources (money, time, energy) in a context of community or spending our resources individually.

But as Christians we should realise that our God is a God of community.

Sherman Kuek puts it precisely "If God has existed in all eternity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – COMMUNITY – then the impartation of his “image” must mean the communication of his Trinitarian communal nature. We are made in the image of God such that we possess the capacity and the desire to live in community.

The human race has forgotten that it was created for life in community. The remnant of the distorted image which John Calvin talks about is observable in our inclination towards having a “social life” or sorts. So in that sense, we are still the “social animals” Aristotle spoke about. But the brokenness of the image is distinctly vivid in the way we draw boundaries between ourselves and other people for the sake of our own emotional, physical, and mental survival. It is also made apparent in the way we feel a sense of intrusion when others invade our private space.

We have forgotten that we were created by community for community. And we have forgotten how to live in community. The norm for communal living has shifted from intimate Trinitarian communities to one of superficial non-threatening relationships..."

How then shall we live?

Bruce Patrick, from Auckland Baptist Tabernacle said, "Our community in a urban context MUST be intentional. We must be intentional to meet with each other, to have meals with each other, to visit each other, to encourage each other, to help each other and to pray for each other, to worship together and to reach out together".

We should have all these things done, with community-building in mind. A counter-cultural community in a fragmented society.

Shall I introduce you to our new phrase for today, "Intentional Community"