Several Sundays ago, before the Stay At Home order, I began to introduce to you a community group ministry called LifeGroups. LifeGroups is very simply a place where believers at LifeWay live closely with one another. It is an intimate community group.
As you probably guessed, much like everything else at LifeWay, the launch date of LifeGroups is on hold until God gives us the “all clear” to proceed. But even though LifeGroups is delayed, this does not mean I must also delay what I intend to inform you about LifeGroups.
People are funny. I know because I am one of them. People love to know. People want to ask questions. But people don’t and won’t always ask questions. People will ask the questions they really want to ask under one condition. They will ask only if they feel safe. They will ask only if they know you will not look at them in a funny sort of way. They will ask only if they know you will not laugh at their questions. I know because I am one of them.
When I was a boy in school, I didn’t always ask questions. There were many times I didn’t ask because I worried that the questions I wanted to ask were stupid questions, and people would think I am stupid. And they would laugh at me. So I chose to keep quiet. Because I never asked, I never heard the answers to the questions I really wanted to ask. I missed opportunities to learn something, day after day, week after week. I wish I could say that my insecurity faded away as I grew up to be an adult. It didn’t. I really wanted to know, but there were still occasions I didn’t feel safe to ask what I really wanted to ask. This was no longer funny. I missed opportunities to know more about my God.
The LifeGroup is a close-knit community. No more than eight persons come together and do life together. It is a safe place. When everyone trusts everyone else in the room, everyone feels safe. When no one is afraid to ask the questions they really want to ask, and people ask all the questions they really want to ask, do you know what happens? Real learning happens. People hear the answers to the questions they really want to ask. And they grow.
I will continue to write more about LifeGroups each week. In the mean time, please pray for God to be honored and blessed by LifeGroups. And let me know if you sense God calling you at this time to be a part of LifeGroups.
A Note to Parents from Alvin