Nuts to you

Jason badgered me into reading an article about small groups and the failings thereof. It's an interesting read, and very much in line with how I've felt about small groups for a while.

Basically, aside from some friends of mine at college who knew their theology dead solid, meeting in a small group bible study was a lesson in people applying assumptions and preconceptions to specific verses without context. Nothing grew, aside from the plethora of verses to cite when backing up one's own conception of Christianity.

It's literally building a house on the sand. Even if you know something of God and Christ already, even being on speaking terms, there's nothing to cling to but sand and waves. Without the community of the church as a guide, you could quite wrongly exegete anything.

What specifically bugs me is that small groups make up 90% of how scripture is taught in many churches. When small groups are inadaquate, people simply muddle about in confusion and complacency because, well, what else are they supposed to do? When the church itself isn't teaching scripture, where do you go?

The answer? A different church. It's what I've done in the past when a Church isn't teaching me about Christ and scripture. And sadly, I went through a half dozen churches in this fashion when I went to college.