Cell Groups, Brew Groups...whatever...

Back in the dark ages, before half of the churches in the US decided that Small Groups were the wave of the future, the Bible College I attended decided that it would be a good thing to prepare The Church's future leaders for leading small groups. Every student was divided into a group, and for certain chapel times, we were all required to attend the group to which we had been assigned. For some unknown reason, I was assigned as a LEADER of a group of some 10 girls. We met in a little room over by the chapel, and the only thing I remember from that was one lone meeting, and coming away from that feeling like a complete and utter failure. I was not comfortable leading then, I was not comfortable talking to other people then. WHY I was named the leader is WAY beyond me.

I had completely forgotten about that abysmal failure...probably BECAUSE it was such a painful experience for me. Last night, in our Brew Group at church, we started talking about experiences in Bible College...two other couples in our group went to Christian colleges, so we had a lot of similar experiences. We chatted about sleeping through classes, and experiences on and off campus, and keeping and/or breaking the rules. It was fun to relive those brief five years of my life...and to start remembering some things that had been buried.

All of our chatting started me to thinking about how men and women *do* official Bible Studies. Last night, we sat around the table, and talked and had fun...while having Communion. We talked about how pastors and Christians take themselves WAY too seriously...and that made me wonder. When men *do* Bible Study, do they have fun? or is it all serious business? Is it just the women who get together in groups who are too full of it to have any fun? Is this why unbelievers see us as stuffy, and full of ourselves?

I was reminded last night that Jesus' first miracle was not healing, or feeding someone...he made water into wine, people! He made GOOD wine! Which made it a PARTY!! Jesus DID have a good time with His disciples, and with His friends and family...HE wasn't all about being all serious, all the time. Why can't we follow His example in this little thing?