Analog Groups

I've been in a lot of small group Bible studies over the years and have studied a wide variety of topics and books. A large number of these studies have spent time discussing the epistles of the New Testament - Ephesians and Galatians I've studied countless times and in countless contexts. Some of these studies have been led by others, some of these studies have been led by me. Other groups have looked at the Sermon on the Mount (hollaback to freshman bible study at OU), the Parables of Jesus, or other topics from various authors. However, it's probably been since early high school that I studied the book of Acts in depth (and in a Sunday school class, if I recall correctly).

The book of Acts is in the New Testament and writes largely about the apostles and the early church after the ascension of Jesus. What an essential book to study, right? This quarter, one of our senior students, Tom, has been leading a coed "analog group" on the book of Acts that I've been able to attend. It's been really great to revisit this book and to have an in-depth discussion about the things that were happening in the early church. Tom does a great job of getting our minds working and of also seeking to find ways to think about how to apply this word to our own lives and to the modern church. Here's a nice picture of us, followed by an "awkward" picture, as per OURUF tradition.

They're learning.

At UWRUF, we call our small groups "Analog Groups." This is to differentiate these groups as face-to-face relational groups rather than digital relationship groups. The philosophy is that we spend so much time alone or interacting with our technology that we often forget to spend time with other real people. We see this as essential to building community and we see small groups as essential to building a healthy large group. Hence, our groups are analog. No gadgets, no gizmos. Food, Fellowship, Fun.

The students that have come to this study are wrestling with these things and especially with questions like "How do we, as college students, share the Gospel and love the world through our limited means and limited time and energy?" It's been great to see the way these students are growing and exploring this book and seeking to translate knowledge into wisdom and passivity into action. I'm so glad to be able to spend time with these students once a week and work through these ideas with them.