Full Circle
When I was in high school, there was a group of us -- from different churches, denominations, and schools -- that somehow found each other. We were all part of our church's youth groups, some from Christian homes and others not, but what drew us to hang out together was that none of us were satisfied with just "doing youth group" and being nice citizens.
Jeff, Pat, Terry and I became good friends because of a common desire to do more with our lives than simply attend church and tithe. We were an interesting mix: a mechanically inclined "live under your car" guy, two preppy jocks, and a long-haired head-banger (that'd be me), from Baptist, Christian Missionary & Alliance, and Associated Gospel.
When our youth groups were studying how many animals Noah had on the ark, we were meeting in Jeff's kitchen, trying to sort out Romans, Calvinism, and Arminianism. When the "Hillbilly Spaghetti Bash" was happening in the Fellowship Hall, we were sitting in my parents' family room with my dad, trying to sort out Creation and Evolution.
We didn't boycott our youth groups or churches, we simply craved a deeper level of fellowship and discipleship, so we met as an unofficial small group whenever or wherever we happened to be at the time. We were so "unofficial" as a small group, that if someone had suggested we were a "small group", we'd have given them strange looks normally reserved for people who claim to be UFO abductees, and replied, "no, we're just friends who hang out and talk about God".
Over the years, as often happens, with university, jobs, etc., some of us lost contact with each other. Pat and I hung out religiously at the King's Head Pub in Winnipeg before we moved to Toronto last summer, but the others lived in other cities, etc. etc.
Fast forward to 2005:
My daughter Jo is not-quite-sixteen, and she's involved in a similar group of friends. They don't all attend the same church, most go to the same high school, but the binding factor is that they share a common zeal to go deeper as Christians, and they love getting together and talking about the "hard questions", their own walk with God, etc. As parents, Wendy and I couldn't be more pleased.
What's funny -- and brings this whole thing full circle -- is that two of the people in Jo's small cohort are Terry's son and daughter. They met at high school, and started hanging out, and are now part of this cohort together. At first, we didn't realize whose teenagers Jo had met and gotten involved with, but once we figured it out, it was great to reconnect with Terry again. And to watch the next generation developing the same hunger for "more" that originally led Terry and I to become friends in the first place.
Jeff, Pat, Terry and I became good friends because of a common desire to do more with our lives than simply attend church and tithe. We were an interesting mix: a mechanically inclined "live under your car" guy, two preppy jocks, and a long-haired head-banger (that'd be me), from Baptist, Christian Missionary & Alliance, and Associated Gospel.
When our youth groups were studying how many animals Noah had on the ark, we were meeting in Jeff's kitchen, trying to sort out Romans, Calvinism, and Arminianism. When the "Hillbilly Spaghetti Bash" was happening in the Fellowship Hall, we were sitting in my parents' family room with my dad, trying to sort out Creation and Evolution.
We didn't boycott our youth groups or churches, we simply craved a deeper level of fellowship and discipleship, so we met as an unofficial small group whenever or wherever we happened to be at the time. We were so "unofficial" as a small group, that if someone had suggested we were a "small group", we'd have given them strange looks normally reserved for people who claim to be UFO abductees, and replied, "no, we're just friends who hang out and talk about God".
Over the years, as often happens, with university, jobs, etc., some of us lost contact with each other. Pat and I hung out religiously at the King's Head Pub in Winnipeg before we moved to Toronto last summer, but the others lived in other cities, etc. etc.
Fast forward to 2005:
My daughter Jo is not-quite-sixteen, and she's involved in a similar group of friends. They don't all attend the same church, most go to the same high school, but the binding factor is that they share a common zeal to go deeper as Christians, and they love getting together and talking about the "hard questions", their own walk with God, etc. As parents, Wendy and I couldn't be more pleased.
What's funny -- and brings this whole thing full circle -- is that two of the people in Jo's small cohort are Terry's son and daughter. They met at high school, and started hanging out, and are now part of this cohort together. At first, we didn't realize whose teenagers Jo had met and gotten involved with, but once we figured it out, it was great to reconnect with Terry again. And to watch the next generation developing the same hunger for "more" that originally led Terry and I to become friends in the first place.
posted by Robbymac at
5:33 AM
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