There are many distinctives about the Church of the Brethren that make us stand out from other denominations. One major distinctive is the role community plays in understanding scripture. It is much more part of who we are to gather as a group and share insights about a passage than it is to allow one person to dominate the moment by only sharing their insight with no input from others. For the early Brethren and for me, great value is found in gathering around the Bible as a community and learning from one another!
Perhaps this is part of what Jesus meant when he said, "where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am."
I find this kind of engagement with Scripture, God, and each other to be very fulfilling and uplifting and hard work in order to be open to hearing perspectives different from my own. Always when I am part of such an engagement, I come away feeling richer from the experience than sitting in my own or listening to a "talking head" share their perspective!
In fact it is hard work to engage with others and have something positive come out of the experience but it is well worth the effort!
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As you know, I was very enthusiastic after seeing the webcast of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference and their introduction of the Special Response process. They seem to be using a format that reminds me very much of the lectio divina we have used on Wednesday nights. And they (we) realize the importance of making bible study (instead of politics) central in the process of facing tough questions.
http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=cob_news_AC2010
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