The idea is to discover God in our lives and in the stories we tell to each other. This type of theological reflection is discussed in Graham, Walton and Ward's book Theological Reflection: Methods, chapter 2. Whilst it is true to say that Graham et al focus on the lives of those who acknowledge they have a faith, I believe that God is alive and active in our lives even before we recognise that we have what we can call 'a faith'. Consequently, who ever turned up would still be included and have a valuable part to play in the experiment.
So what happened? Nine people were contacted and expressed an interest. Eight people came along on Friday night to the pub, The Black Bull. At the outset, we set a confidentiality clause so what I can say in the blog is limited. Starbucks coffee was served in Starbucks cups with quotes from famous people on the side, 'the way i see it' setting the scene - there are no wrong answers, just the way we see issues. Most of us didn't know each other, so the fact that anyone turned up at all is very encouraging. I had been studying hard: an ice-breaker; looking at the self; what does it mean to be human; looked at Christian humanism (Oppenheimer/Craske) and secular training literature on being human and knowing oneself; also Thomas Merton's view of the self. I started to ask what we had come here for and the next 90 minutes were taken up with a discussion on church - what we liked about it and what we didn't. How it had failed children by not telling the Bible stories and that church had (largely) lost touch with ordinary people. There was an extraordinary short discussion about losing faith and that church did not tackle these issues. I thought there would be a problem with the group not being able to overcome the fact that I was a Methodist minister...I needn't have bothered, apparently it was the last thing on their minds. We also have a group which is happy with leaderless leadership. We do not have a leader. Despite the fact that most of the group could see serious shortcomings with church they all seem to have a real and deeply personal understanding of God.
I need not have bothered with the ice-breaker or with all the study on Becoming Human as they launched into talking about what was on their minds. When I asked what people wanted to talk about next time we met, they said they didn't want to talk about anything specific...difficult to prepare for that! The group is not what I thought it was going to be as we examined our attitude to church in the main. My thoughts and aims of what the group was going to be will need to be re-evaluated. Keeping in touch via Facebook was rejected in favour of meeting weekly (so much for church for those who are too busy). Unfortunately, the pub was too noisy so this week we are meeting...in a home. At this early stage it's possible that we fall into the category of Francis and Richter's work (see also Alan Jamieson et al). Not what I expected at all.
