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Originally Posted by Peter Debelak
Well, sometimes there's nothing wrong with [group dynamics] and there other times when there's a LOT wrong with it.
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But you mean that group dynamics can be distorted and misused. My point was that group dynamics are valid in principle, i.e. something God created. We were meant to work together and live together with others. We have to learn how to do it right. Just because this is challenging does not mean we devalue groups or place our "personal walk" as being more important.
Our personal walk is not totally an end in itself. God is ours and we are his, yet to some extent he blesses us for the sake of others. He expects us to be willing to maintain our personal walk while also jumping in the fray with those troublesome "others."
Almost all productive Christian works require some group cooperation. I'm sure even Hudson Taylor had to cooperate with others to fulfill his calling. We shouldn't look at this as a necessary evil, but as a blessing.
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Group's parting ways because of differing "agendas" is called division.
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Not necessarily. Groups parting ways with
animosity is division. But if you want to minister to students and I want to minister to retired people, we probably aren't going to work together. But that doesn't mean we are divided. If you feel to minister in a city thirty miles north and I want to stay here that's a different agenda, but it's not division. Sometimes it's better to part ways for expediency. Don't make oneness out to be something it is not supposed to be.
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(I'd be interested to know what you mean by "scope.")
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Scope simply means the group's authority does not extend past the group. It means you can leave in peace and are then not under it. Membership is voluntary, but once you join certain protocols are in order.
(More in next post.)