Harnessing Our Humanity

Have you ever led a small group in which the following type of scenario took place?

You’re excited because you invited a new person to your small group—perhaps a young co-worker or a student you met on campus—and this person is not a believer. He or she lives with their boyfriend or girlfriend and is very much immersed in the secular world, but you’ve had some promising conversations with them lately, and they’re definitely curious.

The small group time goes smoothly—lots of interesting conversation, and the new person is welcomed by the group. You feel encouraged and exhilarated! Then comes the prayer request time. A member of the group begins to share about their dating relationship and confesses the need for prayer and accountability with sexual purity. They explain, “We just keep going too far and I feel convicted about it. We haven’t had sex or anything (spoken with a worst-case-scenario kind of tone), but we are really struggling.”

And with that comment, you immediately cringe. Unintentionally, the speaker just qualified their sin as being less severe as others. While the group member acknowledges that their sin is wrong, they’ve implied that it’s nowhere near as bad as some people’s—such as the new person sitting right next to you.

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