Love the edification in PDL's chapter 18. It tells of the special atmosphere that is present in small groups (whether it's a Sunday School class, a home fellowship or Bible study). This is where church becomes real. The Sunday morning worship service is usually a service where corporate celebration takes place, not real intimate growing together.
The real interaction, where Sally learns to let go and forgive Fred, or Johnny surrenders his cravings to alchohol, or Carl confesses confusion about God being our Father, since his dad was so bad at showing love... It's the place where one can experiment with and learn how to use spiritual gifts. It's a safe haven where one can fail and not feel like they're finished if they do. It's the family of God. Smaller is better. I love that.
My wife and I lead a marriage group as part of our church fellowship. Usually there's 3 or 4 couples that meet with us and go over some curriculum (books) about different topics within the context of marriage (finances, parenting, growing together in Christ, building your mate's self esteem). This time we are leading a group on "overcoming stress," and 7 couples have signed up! This means we'll have 16 adults sharing, which provides a challenge. In a group of 12 or less, there is ample time for everyone to share, contribute and feel a part. With 16 there will be opportunity for one or two people to fade into the background and not participate. It'll take some special skills in observation and discussion directing to make sure everone gets included. I'll probably lay that as a ground rule in the first meeting, something like: "Since there are so many of us, we need to try our best to condense our sharing so that none of us monopolize the short amount of time we have together, so that each one of us can share." We already have a rule that not everyone has to share; and never to share something private/potentially harmful without the other spouse's permission (no "surprises"). It'll be interesting to see how this works out.
I'm going to try and peel away for a couple hours tomorrow and Thursday to put a dent in the start of a novel I'm planning to write. I'll probably bring my laptop to a coffee shop and (hopefully) madly type away. Here's hoping for the best.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at April 6, 2004 08:44 AM