At this year's Convergence Conference (www.EasumBandy.com), I gained some great insights into small group spiritual formation from Thom Bandy's main session—"Global Positioning for the Soul." The talk gave me some perspective as I think about the struggles facing individuals in my small group.
As I look at my current small group, there are a variety of human problems. Terminal illness, divorce, parenting issues, financial stress, and the list could go on and on. When thinking about the people who face these life struggles, one of our biggest jobs as small group leaders is not so much to be counselors and chaplains, but to be navigators. Or, as Thom Bandy puts it, "mid-wives" who are constantly coaching the painful birth of something new that God is doing in our group members' lives. Our response is not necessarily, "Can I help you to find a solution to this pain?" rather, "Can I help this new thing to be born and to grow in you?"
The key to helping group members navigate through life involves helping them to process the love and truth of an infinite God, while dealing with any number of finite human problems—disease, broken relationships, broken hearts, broken dreams, etc.. As Thom Bandy said in his main session talk:
"The intersection of the finite and the infinite is the source of all chaos. Life is chaos…a constantly bubbling, boiling cauldron of unpredictable heat, depth, and magnitude, in which continuities emerge and dissipate, reliable social structures raise and fall, perspectives attract a following and then dissolve again."
The situation we face in small groups, many times, is that we tend to focus on the eternal (infinite) or the finite, but not both simultaneously. We will talk about eternal truth and eternal principles (Bible study for instance). We will have sharing times where we talk about finite issues as we share about our own life of struggles and victories. But, my experience has been that in many groups, except for maybe during prayer time, we do not actually spend time in the group contemplating the intersection of the finite and the infinite. When we do not ever wrestle with that intersection, it leaves us feeling disconnected and makes the chaos seem as pronounced as ever.
As small group leaders, we can help bring some order to the chaos. At any given time, in any given situation, the Christian leader can help position group members in between the finite and the infinite. Thom Bandy proposed a method for doing this, which he called the "Talisman". It was illustrated in a diagram he presented, but the diagram is a little too intricate to explain in this article (I will leave it to you to check it out at other EasumBandy.com events). However, there are some simple questions that you can ask your group members that can help them to position themselves correctly. For instance:
"Would you be open to discovering what the Bible says about your life in this circumstance?"
" Where has your story and God's story intersected recently?"
" If you really believed the Word we have studied tonight, how would it change your life?"
" What is God saying to you right now?"
" How will you live differently tomorrow because of what we have talked about today?"
These questions can help individuals find the intersection of finite and infinite in such a way as to "make sense" of their current situation and to "take courage" for the future.
