Two weeks after making Harbor our church home Adam and I received a phone call asking if we were willing to host a community group in our home. The Sunday before Adam and I had signed up to join (join, not host) a community group. It turns out that the community group we were assigned to had a leader but no place to meet. We agreed to hold the first meeting in our home and “go from there.” Two months later our community group meets every Tuesday night in (you guessed it) our home.
At the start our community group was not what I had expected. I had imagined that the other members of the group would be like me – thirty something with children. (Because in order to properly “do life together” you must be clones of one another.) Nothing could be further from the truth. For starters, Adam and I are the old married couple and Megan and Paul are the only children in the group.
Thankfully it’s not really all about being clones. Two things that I’ve come to appreciate about our community group are that (1) we are eclectic and (2) we are passionate about bringing hope to our community. When we get together I feel like I’m on the set of Friends (yeah, I’m dating myself again). We are a hodge podge of pilgrims on a journey together. Sometimes it seems like the only similarity in our spiritual journeys is Christ and yet (and also because of that) it is clear that we are “doing life together” for a purpose. In the past two months we have studied the Bible, prayed, eaten together and laughed to the point of tears. Last night we had the privilege of celebrating the wedding (an elopement) of a couple in our community group. I can’t imagine “doing life” any other way.
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My moment of being the old man of the group came when I asked if anyone knew who Max Headrum was. As soon as I said it I went “oops, wrong generation!”
I love em too. Doing life with them changes things.
You have expressed what I love about my church, and our community group as well. In our community group we have a young married couple with a new baby, a middle aged couple from Germany, a middle aged widow, a college student from China, an elderly couple who are former missionaries to Italy, and a thirty-something couple with two kids – he’s from England and she’s from France! And I have grown to love and consider these people as dear friends, despite being in such different stages of life and coming from such different backgrounds. My life is so enriched and supported by my church community.
I am happy for you that you have found the same thing!
I couldn’t agree more. Our small group is probably the one thing that keeps us going sometimes…especially when we are missing family! It’s easy to isolate ourselves or stay w/in our comfort zone, but doing life w/ people that are different from us, but have the same love for Christ is an amazing thing to see.