Under construction (for a really long time)

The seed is the word of God (Luke 8.11).

Groups

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. . . All the believers were together and had everything in common"

Acts 2.42, 44

The early church was united through sharing of resources--they sold all their goods and divided up the money as each of them needed—freely.  No one was forced to do so; they did it because they were devoted to the Apostles’ teachings.  They were united because they were not focused on themselves, but a common purpose--Jesus Christ.

Groups are most cohesive when they their members share common, superordinate goals, and have a common identity.  They concentrate on goals that our above them and they share in a central purpose. Many groups go wrong when their members began to focus on their selves and what they can get.

Many groups have two roles; expressive and instrumental.  Our expressive role is love and our instrumental role is to share the Good News with others, and ministering to others.

Jesus Christ is our common identity, our purpose.  As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to devote our selves to teaching his word, fellowship with one another, and the breaking of bread, and prayer.  In all this, we share with one another, exhort one another, encourage one another, and pray for one another.  Acts of love.  Through this, the all people will know that we are his disciples (John 13.35; 1 Corinthians 13).

So let us do things without complaining and grumbling (Philippians 2.23-14; James 5.9).  To do that we must step outside ourselves, and not be selfish.  We need to realize that God made each of us to see the world differently.  We each see the world through our own mental lense or schema.  People have temperaments associated with different values.  For example, each of the Gospel writers has one of the four major temperaments.  Matthew’s temperament emphasizes traditions and hence quotes more of the Old Testament than the other gospels.  Mark’s temperament seeks excitement and emphasizes the here and now, so his Gospel has a sense of urgency.  Luke’s temperament pays close attention to details, also found in his writing.  John’s temperament is mystical about the past, and likes to talk about abstract and profound topics like truth, love, light, hope etc.  Respectively, Galen called these temperaments guardian, artisan, rationalist, and idealist (me).  And likewise, Plato called these melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic, and choleric.  Everyone fits into one of these basic temperaments and they are still widely accepted by psychologists.  To make my point, the idealist and rational temperaments and values are rare, but valid.  Because God made them that way for as part of a specific purpose.  And because the majority of people have a certain value does not mean that it is right.

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 Such thinking can lead to groupthink.  Groupthink is and excessive tendency to seek concurrence among group members.  Such groups believe that they are infallible or invulnerable and overestimate themselves.  They also are close-minded and pressure group members to conform and discourage deviant thoughts.  An historical example is the Challenger accident.  One of the engineers was told to “to take off his engineering hat and to put one on representing management.”  A biblical example may be the people of Israel under Moses who believed that they could not take the promise land.  They wanted to stone anyone who said otherwise and would not open their minds (Numbers 14).  Another example was Judaism under the Pharisees.  Many times the majority can be wrong.  Can you think of any more biblical examples of groupthink?

 How do we prevent groupthink?  We can prevent groupthink by consulting with outsiders, encourage criticism, have second chance meetings, and do not take a strong stand early (skepticism).  Allow members to express all ideas, even if they are wild and off-the-wall.  Assign someone to play “devil’s advocate.”  Groups are more susceptible to groupthink when the leader is controlling and there is a lot of stress.  So we need to be patient.  Allow members to brainstorm before meetings; this will produce the most ideas and offer everyone a chance to participate.

 Essentially, we must all have the attitude of Christ (humility) and not consider ourselves better than others (Philippians 2.5-11).  One man plants and another man waters, but it is only God who makes things grow (1 Corinthians 3.1-10).  All glory goes to him.  Let us not seek our own glory. By doing this will keep an open mind.  We should not be excessively anxious about anything but be consistent in prayer (Philippians 4.6-7).  We must be “quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1.19).  (Did you know that silence is a counseling technique?)  And not always think in absolutes with words like “must” and “should”J.  The bible tells us to test everything and keep what’s good (1 Thessalonians 5.21).  The Apostle Thomas was never wrong for questioning Jesus, but was encouraged to believe, by Christ (John 20.26-27).

 “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleans us from all sin.” (1 John 1.7)

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Last modified: 02.01.08 22:33:54