Diversifying relationships

Please excuse me, but I have a background in factory design, and especially in factories that purify products. Some of the processes involve contact between mixtures that have different levels of purity interacting to increase purity of the product. Others involve removing relatively pure product from less pure product so as not to further contaminate the purer product. I have been thinking about this as I reflect on our church life.

What often happens in church

I notice that sometimes we structure our church life in such a way that as a person grows in maturity they spend more and more time with people at the same stage as they are. I can understand why this is so. People listen to, model and grow fastest by being around others who are just a little ahead of them. But I also wonder if we are inadvertently creating an unsaid way of thinking that ‘people who are at a different stage have nothing to teach me’. I also wonder whether this is especially the case when we consider those much younger in the Faith.

This is like the factory process of putting like with like. While this is normal, and often has great benefit, I want to challenge it. To read more, click here.