After reading this article I immediately thought of my Intervarsity fellowship group from college. I can remember one of the small groups that I was in had three charismatic guys, a couple fundies, a Catholic, a few e-free types, and a hodge-podge of Baptists. It was the best small group I’ve ever been in. We disagreed at times about things like speaking in tongues, but it was okay. Sign gifts didn’t make or break us even though it was the biggest sticking point. It was real community, with real give and take.
It’s with this small group in mind that I think about what a former seminary roommate once lectured me about. He said far to often our college para-church groups replace the church leaving our twenty-somethings clueless after college. He went on to say that para-church groups must be very careful not to usurp the place of the churches.
Maybe the problem isn’t that the para’s are usurping to much influence. Maybe churches and denominations have been so divisive that para-church has become the only real place of community for a college student (or anyone else).
Taylor
Aug 29 2007
12:19 pm
http://www.catapultmagazine.com/lets-get-together-3/article/fleeing-community
After reading this article I immediately thought of my Intervarsity fellowship group from college. I can remember one of the small groups that I was in had three charismatic guys, a couple fundies, a Catholic, a few e-free types, and a hodge-podge of Baptists. It was the best small group I’ve ever been in. We disagreed at times about things like speaking in tongues, but it was okay. Sign gifts didn’t make or break us even though it was the biggest sticking point. It was real community, with real give and take.
It’s with this small group in mind that I think about what a former seminary roommate once lectured me about. He said far to often our college para-church groups replace the church leaving our twenty-somethings clueless after college. He went on to say that para-church groups must be very careful not to usurp the place of the churches.
Maybe the problem isn’t that the para’s are usurping to much influence. Maybe churches and denominations have been so divisive that para-church has become the only real place of community for a college student (or anyone else).
Thoughts?