Let me tell you about my home community (small group). It's amazing. We're all completely different from each other, few of us should be friends let alone doing life together in a progressively more real way. It started nearly two years ago when Chris and Christie were a part of a spiritual discussion group that a friend and I started. Christie is a Seventh day Adventist and Chris was the dude who opened up the school for us on Sunday mornings. He was not into Christianity at all and he sometimes still isn't (it depends on the day). Well that group went well for a period of time and eventually morphed into what we have now. Christie and Chris were joined by Aaron and Brittany who I met at Outback a few years back. One day you'll read their life story in a book that is recommended on Oprah's book club. I'll have to blog about Aaron and Brittany another time, the story of how we met and grew together is to strange and funny. Just know that they are an intriguing and wonderful couple. The six of us were then joined by three other young couples who are all young and married and most often pregnant.

I couldn't tell you what makes the group work. I can't tell you how long it will work. This group is like a dangerous chemical compound that could react in an explosive and destructive manner or it could bond into something useful and amazing. At the very least, for the first time in our married life Jessica and I are beginning to feel like we have a circle of friends we can call our own.

So what makes my home community amazing:

1. Broad ownership. I don't know how this happened, but eventualy-finally-this group is not just my group but our group.
2. Food. The meal we eat together has turned into the most important thing that we do...hmm...I wonder if the Bible has anything to say about the value of "breaking bread" together...
3. Growing Common Purpose. The discussions are happening, the awareness is growing, and the concept of us having a common group identity is becoming tangible.
4. Honesty/authenticity. We're still not there yet. You know what "there" is-it's when honesty becomes so core to the group that whose people become the ones you can tell anything to, who you go to first when something happens, etc. We're getting there though.