Students are entering finals this week and with them come the tried and true finals rituals of “study groups”. Have you ever wondered about the value and validity of study groups? I mean what is really our motivation for gathering in a study group. Typically they exists for a couple of reasons. First, for those who had failed to make it to class, take good notes or read the course material view the study group as a sort of stay of execution. It is their last ditch effort to gather the information needed to pass the class. Sometimes it works but most of the time it is unable to prevent in inevitable. Second, the study group is a excuse to put oneself into relative proximity of the attractive member of the opposite sex that you have been desperately trying to make aware of the fact that you exist. The result? You typically leave the group having learned nothing more about the subject matter and your confidence is shaken because your premonition that she does even know your name is confirmed when she says something to the effect of, “What about you Stanley, did you have anything in your notes about the process of photosynthesis in aquatic plant life”? Really? Stanley? How do you forget a name like Sterling,….. not that this happened to me. There is of course the rarest of occasions when like-minded people assemble for the mutual benefit of everyone in the group and it actually results in positive output on the test, but that of course is the rarest of occasions.
So why do people still gather in study group despite the ominous motives and often times less desires outcomes. Because we share a common fate. What brings people together is the fact that the final looms ahead of all of us and there is a certain camaraderie that results when people gather to defeat a common opponent.
So what does any of this have to do with community (defined as authentic Christian relationships)? Well, everything. Community happens when there is a common understanding amongst a group of believers that what we share in common, is greater than what makes us different. Community exists when we understand that we are sinners, saved by grace and that is our identity. Community happens when we understand that we are all a part of the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12) that as such there is a vital role that God has in store for each of us to play. Community happens when we recognize that there is strength in numbers and that we are created with innate need for each other. In short, community happens when we choose to allow it to happen, to find common ground and to become together in Christ what we can never be apart.
