Extremely well said. I couldn’t agree more. I think the contrast between “consumer” and “community” is well stated and insightful. If we take an event-driven approach in our efforts in community building or other areas as you mentioned above, then our results may be very superficial. Real life is more about relationships and enduring the daily grind together rather than having spectactular and polished moments all of the time. I would say that we ought to be driven by core values, a sense of civic pride, and a commitment to being people-centered.

This all reminds me of having friends over for dinner. Instead of having everything spic and span and so nice that it can hardly be reproduced, it is often more meaningful to invite people into real life. It’s okay if the house is a bit dirty. So there may be some clutter, toys from the kids, and evidence that the house is actually lived in and enjoyed. Okay, I know I am getting off topic, but there is a correlation here in that when people come into my home they are not consumers, but participants in community life. So they get to share in the responsibility of dishing out food, enjoying it, re-filling their glasses, maybe bringing something to contribute to the meal, and sometimes setting the table or taking dirty dishes to the sink. It’s just better to do things as a team and do life together!!!

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These days we seem to believe that everything — civic and neighborhood events, and even church — must be driven by events and programs that are elaborately planned and marketed.

There’s the obvious downside of the cost and time to produce those events, but there’s a more subtle problem with this approach: it tends to produce event-driven “consumer” relationships rather than community. People “consume” the event, evaluate whether the cost (of time and/or money) was worth the benefit, then retreat to their fenced yards until the next event.

Fortunately, as Ryan points out, building community is much easier than staging events!