Christian Comment with Brendan Conboy of Stroud Christian Fellowship

What do you want for Christmas?

I recently sat outside a Community Cafe, waiting for it to open.

A lady that I hadn’t seen for a few years walked past and I called out to her.

We chatted briefly with each of us asking after the other one.

Then she said out of the blue, “it’s not the same living here anymore, the community has gone!"

Had she even noticed the Community Cafe?

She told me that she had never been in it.

Is she part of the problem?

Has she and many others like her, shut herself off from others?

For some time now I have thought that we are slowly losing the meaning of the word 'community' as it just seems to be used to describe a geographical area.

True community though is much more!

It means a group of people with a 'common' interest, coming together in unity.

Of course there are still many common interest groups, such as walking groups, photography clubs, sports teams, etc, but unity will only happen when we take time to get to know the person that is next to us.

How many people can say that they know their neighbours name?

Less and less it would seem.

Yet Jesus told us to “love our neighbours.”

In response to this statement Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbour?”

Do you ask the same?

As part of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, neighbours gathered together to plan thousands of street parties.

At Christmas we celebrate the birthday of the King of Kings and the World goes crazy with parties, but has the World forgotten whose party it is?

Every year people ask, “What do you want for Christmas?”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all replied with the same answer, “To see true community restored!”

So is the lady that I mentioned earlier part of the problem?

Do you want to be part of the solution?

Maybe the first step is to wish your neighbour a happy Christmas and take time to get to know each other more?