Neighborhood Character: What is a Neighborhood Series

Neighborhoods are many things, displaying different personalities and character.  Some neighborhoods have a communal character where people know one another, share their resources and help one another in times of need.  Other neighborhoods have a cosmopolitan character with a myriad of possibilities for entertainment, art, music and a diversity of culture.  The sad reality is that many places where people live today do not function as neighborhoods because the person next door is unknown, a stranger, maybe even someone feared for unfounded reasons.  Our social networks are spread out and made possible through transportation and social networking sites but the person living next door is non-existent unless there’s a conflict. 

Neighborhood exists where people have a shared belonging and togetherness in the daily happenings of life.  If a person’s grass doesn’t get mowed because of their schedule or illness a neighbor will take care of the yard; no questions asked, without charge.  A neighborhood is where people will serve a family whose struggling financially due to a death, unemployment or illness by fixing a broken window or some other home repair the family is unable to do.  This is in stark contrast to a neighborhood where a moving trunk halls away a family’s belongings while they’re on vacation.  Nobody realizes the family’s been robbed because nobody knows who they are or what’s happening.  They’re neighbors that don’t function as a“hood”, a community of belonging and togetherness. 

A healthy society is one where neighborhoods have a holistic character that provides for people’s relational and physical needs.  We are communal in nature so that even the most rugged individualists desiring isolation needs some human interaction for comfort, love, and relational connection.  The Christian faith believes people are made in the image of God who exists as a Trinity.  The Trinity consists of three Persons, the Father, Son and Spirit, who in complete self-sacrificing love given to one another are totally one.  The Trinity is an icon of community, love and unity that doesn’t destroy the integrity of the person but manifests love.  It’s this image of God that we call communion which necessitates the need for social systems where people are authentically connected.   Social networking sites are great resources, but don’t and can’t replace real, physical, human contact where people tell stories, listen to one another, and interact with each other.

A healthy neighborhood is more than creating a safe place to live that doesn't have any crime.  It’s where the various systems of culture that provide the framework for living, such as food, economy, housing, social interaction, etc. are functioning in a sustainable manner.  Neighbors are not necessarily best friends but neither are they strangers.  They are people through and with whom we live life.  A neighborhood is the place where everybody knows your name which is to say you belong, this is a place of purpose and life for you.