GroupThink

I was sitting in church this past weekend and the service was emphasizing a recent initiative for church members to become more active in our communities. Soup kitchens, single moms, people with disabilities, a whole stream of things. Since it started in the fall, this initiative seems to have been wildly successful. It's really helped a lot of people become aware of various groups and needs in our city, and it has encouraged many people to step out of their comfort zone and reach out to people in personal, tangible ways. (For more info, check the Engage website.)

Four people gave their testimonies about their recent experiences. Two of them, in particular, contrasted quite a bit. One of them was from a middle-aged guy that was impacted by the book God In The Alley, which he read two years ago. Ever since then, he has been making an effort to learn about homelessness and other issues and step out to contact and help these people personally. He was already doing things like helping at the soup kitchen and he thought this new church intiative simply helped him learn and grow more in this area.

The other person was a leader of a women's group and she helped organize all of the mothers into one united team. For the entire fall season, they were able to supply necessities like twice-weekly meals for mothers with cancer, and socks and underwear for the men's shelter. They started this stuff based on the official guidebook that the church supplied but they expanded beyond it to start helping single mothers that they just knew personally. During her talk, she mentioned how little time mother of several children have and how effective this program was in harnessing what few resources this group had.

She also said something else: If often feels like we can't make a real difference by ourselves. Like, providing a meal a couple of times for someone has only limited value, but supplying two meals a week for three and a half months can really do something.

It's a subtle state of mind that creeps in, I think. As Christians, or as employees, or as people that just want to do some good, we feel like we're so limited. We feel powerless or restricted or ineffective and we often opt for apathy instead of change. Or worse yet, we opt to defend this system that created these feelings of uselessness in the first place and we won't rock the boat.

We like to think that we need a strong leader to direct the charge. Or we wait for someone to enlist us into some bigger group. Or we move to another church or business and hope that things will be better there. We come to accept the idea that we're just one little, busy person and there's only so much that we can do...

I suggest that we can have a great amount of influence even by ourselves. We can effect real change at work and at church and in our homes. We can have dramatic impacts on the lives of our friends, and we can find new friends and new needs anywhere.

If we choose to let the group define us, we can only do as much as the group allows. Sometimes we need to be willing to break through those walls a bit and challenge ourselves and the rules. We make a mistake when we assume that the group is more important that the individual, and especially when we support one at the cost of the other.

Yadda Yadda: I happen to like this church initiative and it seems to have been remarkably effective, well beyond the pattern of normal church programs. It's a great and useful tool, and being part of a larger group is also good. I'm just saying that we often give ourselves licence to be limited, rather than challenging ourselves to grow and change. And if that means going solo for a bit then so be it...