SMALL GROUPS Part 1 - WHERE EVERBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”  (Ephesians 4:32 NRSV)

The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit that there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give His church. It’s an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality -- but it is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship. It is unshockable. It is democratic. You can tell people secrets, and they usually don’t tell others or even want to. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers. With all my heart, I believe that Christ wants His church to be unshockable, a fellowship where people can come in and say, “I’m sunk, I’m beat, I’ve had it.” Alcoholics Anonymous has this quality -- our churches too often miss it. 

-- Bruce Larson and Keith Miller in “The Edge of Adventure”

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