Koinonia and Community

Koinonia, the word has always had special meaning to me.

It seems to be something that we are missing in society sometimes, or maybe it is just me who has withdrawn from “community”.

I am blessed to live in a small town in Massachusetts where there really is a strong sense of community. We have only lived in town for 17 years, so we are relative newcomers. Having moved around a lot in our lives we are not used to just jumping in and rolling up our sleeves. I have to say, for such a small town, when it was time, I was welcomed with opened arms. It felt good to apply myself, and give back a little. I set up a pool program, years ago. It was a perfect task for me, having been a competitive swimmer for years…I was in my element. My husband was involved in the leadership of a local Boy Scout troop while our kids were young. It feels good to help out.

 It really is not that hard to take something that you are passionate about, your children and their lives, gardening, local politics, and grow “koinonia” with people who have similar interests.

It is wonderful when the group “clicks” and some amazing work is accomplished.

And you can tell when you drive through a town, how strong that sense of koinonia is.

My town has koinonia.

Now my community is being called upon to come together to solve a problem that has no start date, no end date, and nothing much in the middle is known either.

A pandemic—how I have come to loathe and fear that word.

Sometimes I wonder if we are preparing for the actual pandemic or preparing for everything else that seems to be happening in our world and a pandemic is just the thing that needs the most preparation and for the longest time. So we prepare.

The headlines change every day and some days I think “uh oh, here it comes” and others “wow, that was close”.  More times than not I am closer to the “uh oh” so as a non-scientific type of person I prepare, and hope and pray for the best end result. The scientists confirm the need. But more so, my soul is disquieted.

Noah built an ark…..

we buy insurance

we wear seatbelts

….it just kept staring me in the face that I am going to be caught off-guard if I do not ready my home and family. There are deep preparations to be made—-it takes time.

And then our communities groups will need to be organized and prepared, ready to serve.

I really encourage the flu forums for good discussion about how to prepare. Each has its own identity and uniqueness but I have been a member of many of them and all the folks are friendly and helpful.

Prepare For Pandemic

Flutrackers

FluWiki2 Forum

Pandemic Flu Information Forum

Are you ready to build “koinonia” in your community?

Koinonia from Wikipedia:

Koinonia holds the idea of joint participation in something with someone, such as in a community, or team or an alliance or joint venture. Those who have studied the word find there is always an implication of action included in its meaning. The definition of the word is quite rich in that there are many connotations because the word used in a variety of related contexts.

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“aiming at a common unity strives to overcome brokenness, divisiveness, and, ultimately gaining wholeness with each of the members, with their environment, and with their God. By giving mutual support, friendship and family merge. Both fellowship and community imply an inner and outer unity. No where in the framework of community is their implied a hierarchy of command and control. While there is leadership, the leader’s task is to focus energy, and align interests, not impose control.

Koinonia creates a brethren bond which builds trust and, especially when combined with the values of Wisdom, Virtue and Honor, overcomes two of humanity’s deepest fears and insecurities: being betrayed and being demeaned.

Whether working collectively or individually, the innovators of ancient Greece worked for the greater good of the whole – to propel their community forward, to share their understanding with others so that all ships would rise on a rising tide. Thus loftier goals and dreams are more easily manifested in the mind and achieved in reality. The team’s sense of Purpose became manifest.”

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