Our small group made the crazy decision to include dinner as part of our weekly small group line-up. I’m not sure what possessed me to make just a suggestion. Perhaps it was the bad memories of never getting a meal in before small groups. Maybe it was the excitement over living with a brand new kitchen. Maybe it was all this reading, writing, and studying I’m doing about hospitality. Whatever the reason, we did it. And I was just writing to someone about how it definitely added a new dimension of complexity and chaos to the experience, but it also deepened the community.
That’s just the reality of community- it always brings with it complexity and chaos. I think sometimes we forget that. Community means people. And people mean complexity and chaos. How far are we willing to go? How much complexity are we willing to juggle and how much chaos are we willing to endure for the sake of community?
For whatever it’s worth, if you want to build community in your group, eat dinner together! It’s the best icebreaker I’ve ever experienced.
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