When considering our faith, that unrealized hope within us, discussion groups can be a pretty cool venue for growth.
We're talking a small (12ish), consistent (the same people every time) group of people that we can meet with regularly and get to know, appreciate, respect, and eventually love because of (or more likely in spite of) their ideas and beliefs which may even clash with our own.
A group like this sticks to questions like "Do you think..." (and understands the answer can be "no" and is OK with that).
Instead of "Don't you think..."
Or even the lethal "Don't you think people..."
A group that can speak about personal experiences and beliefs without its members attempting to make those personal ideas normative for everyone else has a chance of doing some thing.
Do you think we get bogged down by trying to get others to somehow come around to the fact that our ideas and beliefs are really the right ones?
I have found (also good language (I think) for creating a healthy discussion atmosphere) that when we share about our personal experiences and say things like "For me..." less people leave in a huff and talk about never coming back to "that group at the church".
I'm not sure why, in my experience, having a group that:
shares about personal experiences
and how those experiences shape each member's individual faith
and seeing how those individual faiths might shape the community's faith
is so difficult and scarce.
After all, I think:
"Don't you think.." is really code for "Shouldn't you think..."
And (unless you know the person you are speaking to pretty well) "Don't you think people..." is really code for I'm not going to do the work of getting to know you and there will be some people who are not going to like this and probably drop out of this group.
Don't you think?
