Page 26 - Summer 2016 Contact issue 38
P. 26
The Nature of
Small Groups
Do you know what I mean when I say that The day’s food takings may have included unwanted
“senior moments†are a frustrating experience? vegetables from the market stall, or bread or maybe
How is it possible to remember stories and facts the remains of a roasted chicken given by a kind
from 40 years ago and yet at times fail to remember a farmer’s wife. One cold night as they huddled round
friend’s name when you meet him/her in the street? the fire, someone had the idea that if they all put their
Our Laser group have a very sympathetic attitude to vegetables and meat into the pot, they could all share
senior moments and we share them often! We have a hearty stew. All agreed and one by one they dropped
plenty of opportunities for light-hearted chat and over their contribution into the boiling water. When the
the years have got to know each other well – sharing time came to taste the contents of the pot, they
celebrations of good times and praying together in the discovered only boiling water and the few stones
times of challenge or hurt. I value the friendship, which had been contributed instead of meat!
kindness and encouragement that my friends in our Beggars indeed, with such poverty of spirit! They
group have given me over the years. Together we thought themselves worldly wise in holding on to what
have considered Bible studies and sermons and many they had while expecting to enjoy the generosity of
aspects of our church family life both inside and others. In reality they cheated themselves out of the
beyond the church building. The church of course richness of honest relationships and mutual support,
is not a building but a people, and that includes us. not just a good meal. How different would their
Being members of a small group helps us to be aware company and their lives have been if each had
that our sense of ownership and active participation is given his little portion to enrich the whole!
important because each of us, in our own way, makes I suspect that this story is much more than 40 years
a contribution that blesses the whole body. old. It sounds like an ancient fable which speaks of
I remember Rev. McCaughey telling a story about human nature. Maybe its intriguing insights made it
beggars who lived a hard life in the streets and stick in my mind when I first heard it, and certainly
alleyways of an ancient city. They gleaned what they Rev. McCaughey must have thought it had something
could from the generosity and possibly the to say to the church. You have probably heard it said
carelessness of the townsfolk. In the evening the group “Evangelism is simply one beggar telling another
of beggars would gather on the outskirts beggar where to get bread.†In that case, the small
of the city, build a fire and talk about the latest groups are like little bands of beggars learning to
gossip on the streets or moan about the tight-fisted share.
rich men of the town.
Marie Hamilton
