Taking God out of the box

For one reason or another, I haven't got round to blogging about CU this term so far - my bad! It's become difficult to balance all the various things I'm getting up to, but as I've a bit of time now I thought it right to share some thoughts on what was a brilliant and blessing of an evening last night.

Bible Studies, Cell Groups, Support Groups, Growth Groups... Whatever you call them, they can be difficult to get right. Much more so when you're dealing with people of all sorts of backgrounds, denominational preferences, etc. So how do we do a "one-size-fits-all" Small Group at Wolves CU?

I'm not claiming to have any universal answers, but we tried something different yesterday, and the general consensus was that it worked well.

One of the ways in which I've grown since moving to Uni has been in the way I've noticed that God can't be restricted by our own personal understandings of him. In coming to Uni, it was as if I'd packed God into one of my boxes - I knew how he worked and how he would speak to me. I was a Christian, sure, but plenty of my understanding of God was on my terms, limited to what I thought was "good Christian practice" or "the right way to do things".

Since moving to Wolves, I met so so many different Christians, most of whom have had an impact on the way I now view God. Through visiting so many different churches (until that point I had only ever attended one church in my life - a fabulous and brilliant church which I miss dearly, but one church nonetheless) God opened my eyes to the many different ways in which he speaks to people.

People are different, and so the way in which God speaks to people must surely differ.

What's this got to do with last night's Small Group? Well it was in realising the many different ways we can communicate with God that we began discussing a three-pronged approach to Small Groups: Bible, Prayer, Sung Worship.

Now the first two have always had a presence, and as an evangelical I will always maintain that of the three the Bible is the most pivotal, and takes precedence over other two. But we had sidelined prayer somewhat, and the thought of singing in a place that wasn't a church service would have had me running for the door two years ago.

But the brilliant thing is, God can speak as powerfully to us through truths we sing, truths we pray, and truths we read. Last night, as we allowed people a variety of different ways in which to engage with God, we really felt that it allowed everyone a chance to meet with God in a personal way, rather than in a way which is forced by whoever's leading.

Some may prefer one of the three, and see that as the way they really connect with God - and that's fine. But I have found real joy in discovering that God isn't confined to just one or another. God is so much bigger than we can ever think, and in many ways even writing this is pointless, such does it offer on a debate about the size of our God. 

But - God wants us to get to know him, and hopefully through engaging with him in such a variety of ways, we may be able to do just that.