SuperJon wrote:Liberty's not for everybody. And that's okay. No church is for everybody. No small group is for everybody. The beauty of our faith is that it takes different shapes and forms that are determined by personal wirings and how God has uniquely made each one of us.
With that said, while you may disagree with the statements about students not connecting in positive ways on their own, and while that may not be your personal experience, the truth is it's the overall norm and years upon years of watching and studying behavior has shown that. Even adults, in general, don't engage in small groups without having their hands held.
That was actually a very thoughtful and well-informed post.
I mostly agree with you here,
except that there is a false equivalency in your post, one that I encountered nearly every day of my years at Liberty: "connecting in positive ways == small groups." Everywhere I looked at Liberty, there was pressure to join a small group. Small group this, small group that. There's nothing wrong with small groups, but your first paragraph reveals the issue with this: indeed, we are all uniquely made, with our own personal wirings, and different shapes and forms of faith. That means some of us don't thrive in small groups the way others do. Just because we don't do small groups doesn't mean we can't connect (or aren't connecting) in other positive ways. If Liberty's no place for us because of that, as I said before, so be it. But when that same "small group obsession" persists across other Christian schools, and ultimately the church itself, then the entire church becomes no place for Christians who don't thrive in small groups, and that's sad.
There's also a marked difference between a small group based on commonality and one based on random assignment. But that's probably a discussion for another time.
ATrain wrote:ALUmnus, you are the exception and not the norm in the campus church/prayer leader scenario. Many PLs I knew went to Campus Church just b/c they felt like that was where they had to go, and there was pressure from Dwanye/Duane (however it is spelled) Carson to go there in order to "show the example to the hall."
THANK YOU
ATrain wrote:I do not believe LU has ever intentionally created an environment to replace the local church. It is just a natural byproduct […] but that IS NOT the intent of LU.
Wow, I agree with you too. It's not that they
want to
replace the local church, it's that they want to
imitate the local church. Plus, student leadership in particular has a nasty habit of assigning itself greater value/priority than other ministry opportunities on and off campus. That has, as you said, the "natural byproduct" of replacing the local church in the minds of most students. But I say you can't fault the students for that, the school is enabling it by spoon-feeding them. You'll never convince most students that they need to spend time at a local church getting/giving something they already feel obligated to get/give on campus. It makes the "local church" thing redundant, a matter of religion instead of spiritual growth.
- By ECC29