Coffee Deficiency

I haven't had a single cup of coffee yet. Not one. Amazing or not, I'm brewing a fresh pot right now to liven up the evening a little bit. I think there's a scientific study to be done somewhere that would prove once and for all that coffee is either another major food group in its own right, or is of such great worth to the human experience that it rises to the same level of necessity as shelter and clothing.

Why do people not get involved in "small groups"? In our particular church culture, things are centered around Sunday School and the Sunday Service, and folks feel like they're giving way beyond themselves if they also get involved in church things one evening a week. But other than those few hours per week, we typically stay away from each other. It's not intentional - but this family has its plans and this other family has its priorities and that other family over there lives a little further away. It's difficult to build "community" when we think of "church community" falling within the time and geographic constraints of weekly church stuff - and we miss out, I think, on what it means to be the Church, the Body of Christ in a locality.

The biggest reason for not being involved with each other is that we just don't have time. School, careers, and extracurricular opportunities take up most of our weekly daytimer pages. That's a matter of planning on the surface, a matter of determining what's really important at the root level. I think alot of what we're involved in is very good, so I'm not saying anyone needs to drop all the baseball practices in order to get involved with small groups at church. In fact, making the mental leap to look at being with other parents at those youth practices as a "small group" because you're together for a common goal - I think that's at least one solution, too.

After the issue of time, there are a few other reasons given for not being involved that need to be addressed more directly. The personal problems of not wanting to get involved with people I don't know, or being afraid on some level of rejection, or wanting some kind of golden ticket invitation from God before joining with a new small group - these reasons are usually "excuses", meaning that we have a tendency to latch onto a justification for just not wanting to connect with others. Why do we as Christians not want to gather with other Christians? Fear of intimacy, fear of honesty, fear of being exposed, fear of reading the Bible or praying out loud - whatever it is, I find that "just do it" usually knocks those justifications over.

The last reason I've found for not getting involved is the one that breaks my heart: the idea that it's just not that important, that it's not really necessary as a Christian to experience community and to grow together. In this frame of mind, I only join a group that would (1) help me in an area with which I think I need help, or that would (2) need my particular area of expertise or learning. This mindset not only keeps a person away from other Christians, but if this person does happen to get involved he or she is closed off from growing in the spirit of togetherness and mutual submission. It's a commitment to a covenant based on condition: if I feel like I'm needed, or I feel like I need you, I'll be there. Otherwise, I'm okay without it. And if I get involved at all, once I feel that the usefulness of this gathering has gone past, I can separate without feeling guilty, right? It's a consumer mentality that weighs everything on pragmatic and cost-effective terms. And that's sad.

Coffee's ready.