It’s easy to find a reason not to join a community group. Here are some of mine:
· I have enough friends.
· I hate the idea of mingling with strangers.
· We’ll find our own community naturally.
· I don’t want to have a commitment every week.
· I just had a baby…ok, two years ago but time flies!
· I’d rather do something more fun.
· I’m lazy.
· I’m tired.
· I’m scared.
Sound familiar? And these were my thoughts even after a great group experience. I still hesitated to jump into another group. We had such great connections with our first group, how would a new group ever compare? I started thinking of all we’d been through with our last group. In the 18 months we were together, we had seen each other through four babies, one wedding, mission trips, family illness, home buying, home renovation, quitting jobs, starting new ones, and countless other every day experiences. How do you even begin to match the natural chemistry of a group that has been through so much? Was that group just a fluke? Does “doing life together” really work consistently?
Well, after a few months off, my husband and I decided to find out. We connected with our new group at GroupLink. I love the video promos for GroupLink that compare it to a middle school dance—awkward but worth it. We found that to be a perfect description of our experience.
We met as a group of strangers. There was no telling how this was going to pan out. We started meeting, getting to know each other, hearing each other’s stories. We are each very different, from different backgrounds and paths that led us to where we are. But within a few weeks, it was apparent that we all had a common thread. We connected around a living room in an authentic effort to support, encourage and love each other and grow in our relationships with the Lord. Being in each other’s lives multiplies our ability to see God at work in the big and small stuff of all our lives.
I don’t want to stop with that thought, though. I know how easy it can be to write my story off. Lucky me, lucky us, it just happened to work out. But let me be real with you. It’s not always perfect or easy. I don’t always want to go to group. Sometimes I’m tired, lazy or didn’t read the book we’re talking about. We are not all best friends calling each other every other minute, taking vacations together and agreeing on everything. I do think we have a unique chemistry, but this isn’t a fairy tale. We are real people with opinions and circumstances that complicate life and build walls up. But we all want to be in this group. There’s no doubt about it. And commitment says so much! It says, “I care. I’m here. I don’t always know why or what to say or do, but I’m here because I know this is a good thing.”
In our experience, being in community is always worth it. We never expect it and we often doubt it, but that makes it all the better when God shows up on Monday nights in a living room.
Do you have a unique group experience? Or maybe you haven’t yet joined a group? What makes you hesitate? Tell us about it!
Amber Blossom
Love ya Amber.. thank you for saying it just how I feel it! We love our group, and are so joyed that God does meet us there every monday, and brings us back each and every Monday to His family!
My husband Dusty and I lead a married group. We recently asked everyone in our group to chart their closeness and general state of their marriage over the past several years on a graph. What was notable on our chart was that the 3 highest points in our marriage were times when we were in community groups, and the low points were when we’d stopped doing a group for one reason or another. The groups really make a difference in our lives!