Our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Studies are winding down for another year. As we meet for the last couple of times until fall I want to point out a facet of our study that's not remarked about much but has provided much joy and interest in the past couple years. As we've gone on through these studies our group of participants has become more diverse than ever. We still have Lutheran ladies from here and abroad, of course, but increasingly we're seeing participants from the Catholic Church, the Community Church, and others yet. This makes for a fascinating time! We're never short of thoughts. But neither are we fixated on finding THE ANSWER. In fact it's almost a bummer when we find a satisfactory answer because then the conversation ends! But oh well...we just move on to the next verse!
Diversity in our outlooks and opinions has made that group vibrant and stronger. It's so refreshing to be able to gather to ponder and explore our faith instead of gathering to rehearse all the things we think we're expected to say. It's a little dangerous sometimes but it's also exciting.
We only needed two things in order to increase the actual "study" in our Bible Study:
1. We had to ask questions and bother to listen for people's responses. We make plenty of points and carry home plenty of solid things to think about, but we go through the questioning process in order to get there. We don't come with our points already decided, not needing to hear anyone else. We ask, we listen, we learn...first from scripture and then from each other.
2. We take care of each other in this process. Sometimes we hear things we don't agree with or that challenge us. Instead of rejecting the people who bring those things to the table, we respect, love, and welcome them. We may not end up agreeing but we do end up loving. Love makes the gathering safe, emboldens people to share their thoughts and lessons no matter how wild or speculative.
Asking questions and loving people when they answer are two underrated disciplines of faith. Thanks to everybody in our Women's Study we now have a living model of how it works and enriches our lives.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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