Author: Wick

A while back, I mentioned the small group my wife and I are a part of. How I’m thankful for what it has been, and what if offers to continue to be. But I’ve realized recently that when I say the word “small group”, you may have a view defined by your experience of what one is. So let me break it down a bit more, because I think it has much to offer.

It’s not a Tuesday night Sunday School class. It’s not an extension of youth group for a group of 8-10 people. I wouldn’t even say it’s a “bible study” group really. Have there been times where we study/read the bible together? Yup. Have there been times where we do a lesson, and discuss it together, and pray at the end? Sure. Have there even been cheesy times where we’ve sung around a campfire (even while getting kicked out of the area by college girls who had “reservations” or whatever)? Uh-huh. 🙂

But I would confess that the few hours we spend together each week, is not why I love this group. Each week, and even months, or seasons, our Tuesday nights take different forms, based on who’s leading that week. Also based on what is happening in the collective humanity of the group. Sure, it’s a good time, and usually we snack a bit too. But something larger happens…

You see, our group has become a safe place for broken people to share their brokenness, and point at where the world around us is broken as well. I think, especially in these days, we all need a place like this. When we leave group together, back into our worlds, we go as people set free to heal and be healed, or even learn to live with some of the brokenness. We haven’t had a counseling/therapy session. We haven’t spent time in heated confession before God. We have simply shared our brokenness, and pray (usually), which allows us to move beyond that a bit in our lives.

So how did we go about beginning a group like this? We didn’t on purpose really. I think in the beginning, we may have even had the starry-eyed Tuesday night Sunday school in mind (at least I think I did – still do sometimes). But our few hours a week together bled into a life of community throughout the week, and presto – here we are.

So yeah…to those still searching for a community like this…keep purposefully trying. It may happen where you least expect it.

Not so long ago, gas prices were hovering at nearly $4.00 per gallon. We heard cries going up all over the place. Every news channel had their own way of publicizing how horrible this was. People blamed big oil companies, and attached the issue to politics in big ways. We were reminded by various “counters” that would keep track of the average price of gas in major cities. We were told to continue expecting higher prices, as the world continued to spiral downward, and watch that evenings’ broadcast for more updates on why the prices are so high.

In about a month, gas prices have lowered to the $1.97 range in many cities. For someone who was paying $300 a month average for gas, it now means that person pays $150 average per month.

Granted, it’s a sign that the economy continues to slow down a bit, and there is less demand for gas. But for the average American who already lived simply before the prices got crazy-high, this is a HUGE relief!!! The few reporters that do cover the story get a 4th page small article with no pictures…or a 30-second spot in the middle of “real” news.

I understand. Panic, anxiety and distress make us want to keep watching the news. They make us want to buy the products advertised, and vote for the politicians followed, hoping that something can save us from the anxiety the news just told us we should have. We want to make sure we’re “up to date” on the latest thing we need to worry about.

In times like this, where the politicking of the day has made most people aware that we exist with a system with many flaws. Flaws that no human being can claim to have remedy for. Many have already spoken wisdom about the roots of the body of Christ having much to offer society as a whole…

“…the order of the faith community constitutes a public offer to the entire society….this good news…a grace-driven order of servant hood transcends the hampering dialectic of fulfillment and claim, dignity and responsibility, taking and giving….it’s authority is not coercion but trust…its members commit themselves totally, contributing the wholeness of what worldly powers cannot command…every member is seen as a person, a brother or sister, and as equal, regardless of status, capacity, qualification….Church law (order) may be a model in that it is “living”: flexible and fluid, continuously flowing from the worse to the better.” – Karl Barth

“It is not that first we set about being a proper church and then in a later move go about deciding to care prophetically for the rest of the world. To participate in the transforming process of becoming a faith community is itself to speak the prophetic word, is itself the beginning of the transformation of the cosmos…Our world still needs to learn that the reason every person and every kind of person must be seen with equal respect (and love) is not that their (or our) culture is equally healthy, or that (anyone) has earned equal treatment, but that equal dignity is ascribed by divine bias in favor of the Other.” – John Howard Yoder

“The discoverer of the role of forgiveness (even in politics) was Jesus of Nazareth. The fact that he made this discovery in a religious context and articulated it in religious language is no reason to take it any less seriously in a strictly secular sense.” – Hannah Arendt

The body of Christ has always had much to offer the world. We continue to have much, even through many mistakes and leaders/sects that have missed the heart of Christ in large ways. May God be with us, as we continue to offer His Kingdom to a world that needs it badly.