Communities of Resilience

[Coronavirus - V]

The U.S. death toll of this virus is upward of 1,000. It has the potential of being 5,000. Even 50,000. What if it reaches a million or more? What will it take to reorganize our resources, rethink our communities, re-balance our economy, re-imagine our medical system, revamp our emergency response strategies?

How many have to die before we realize that our resistance to these types of senseless deaths begins with creating communities of resilience?

Communities of resilience is a technical term that means the ability of local communities to manage shock or stress. A thousand and one factors play into the resilience of a community, but in general they are 1) quality of life, 2) responsible governance, 3) strong economy, and 4) a prepared system.

Churches and other faith communities appear as a small blip in the quality of life quadrant.

Instead, people like us should not be an afterthought in one quadrant but should be steering all four.

Governing bodies need prophetic voices for accountability and to keep justice on the forefront of the conversations.

A strong economy needs a broader vision of sustainability, equitable access to resources, and should be as diverse as the community.

A prepared system includes partnerships and collective imagination that comes only when people with a vision for interconnection, interoperability, and webs of support lead.

And people like us are not a silent minority in the quality of life “department"; we understand that life suffers when we neglect ultimate purpose (calling), charitable discourse and generosity (grace), and radical forgiveness (mercy). These are the pillars we’ve been given and we must now build and maintain.

Let’s be in the driver seat to building communities of resilience.