Can Short-Term Groups Lead to Long-Term Connection?
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Can Short-Term Groups Lead to Long-Term Connection?
Have you ever tried to describe your church community to someone who’s never been to church before? I have. It’s wild. The church is an eclectic group of people who gather around our common faith and sometimes very little else. You may have never otherwise even met these people, yet here you are in close-knit community. And I love that. Where else do you get the opportunity to include people from such vastly different stages and walks of life in your own circle?
Obviously, we still gravitate towards people from our own demographic, and there is absolutely space and a need for that in church as well. There is a certain level of comfort and encouragement you get from walking with someone in the same stage of life as you, going through the same doubts, challenges, or joys. But as a whole community, we are closest to what God imagines for us when we broaden the diversity of voices we include as we continue to develop and grow together.
It is in this spirit that we have been experimenting with a wider range of short-term groups at Commons. These groups are designed to help you connect with people across the broader community, gathering you around common points of interest with the hope that these four to five week long opportunities act as bridges to longer-term connection.
I took part in two of these short-term groups in the spring, a purity culture discussion group and the Expanded Theologies course, and I absolutely loved both experiences.
In April, a group of fifteen women came together to discuss purity culture (the purity-centric teaching around sex and relationships many of us grew up with in church communities) to share our stories, reflect, and find comfort in knowing we weren’t the only people to hold these memories and experiences. I hadn’t met most of the women in that group, and it was honestly really intimidating the first week to offer my own story because the topic is a pretty vulnerable one. But as the weeks progressed, I watched the women in that group open up to one another, reaching across to tell each other, I get it, I’ve been there too, I know what you’re going through. It was open and honest and vulnerable in ways I wasn’t expecting, and the connections made in those four short weeks have carried forward to Sunday mornings, Commons drop-in groups and hang-outs organized over the summer.
In June, I took part in the Expanded Theologies course which was focused on different lenses for examining Scripture. Although the time itself was more lecture-based, I watched people across a range of ages and walks of life connect in conversation before and after each evening around the coffee table, and afterwards at the pub. I was part of a lively conversation at the pub the second week, chatting about liberation theology. I’m always delighted by the random assortment of people who show up to the pub after a church event. It’s never the same group, and that means you’re offered new perspectives each time. I might be chatting with a friend I’ve known for a while, but I’m probably also in conversation with someone I’ve never met before.
Now, I wouldn’t say anyone in either of these groups found their new best friend. Let’s be realistic here; four weeks isn’t enough time for that level of connection. But it certainly was the beginning of something, and I’m not even sure I know exactly what that something is because I see so much more room for growth. But the seed is there, held in the memories of those evenings spent together, swapping stories and snacks, tears and laughter, and that shared sense of belonging to a community that we are all deeply invested in.
Peace,
Laura Thiessen
Interested in joining a short-term group?
Register for these opportunities this fall:
Upside-Down Apocalypse Group
Tuesdays at 7:30pm
October 11-November 1
Find more info and register here
Theology of Work Course
Tuesdays at 7:30pm
November 8-29
Find more info and register here
