In the latter part of the book, Karol talks about the breakup of the old order, with its imposition of sameness, at the cost of individuality and the voices of the sisters. She describes the crisis of community that occurred when after years of oppression, the freedom to dissent suddenly arose, causing the foundations of friendship, sisterhood and solidarity to be shaken, and the cost both of that oppression, and the pain of its lifting after being normative for so long.
1. Where is your community at in the process of valuing the voicing of its members, even when it means the loss of uniformity?
2. What is your community doing or not doing to foster an environment where people are/feel loved and safe enough to stretch beyond comfort zones to include the Other, even when the other is the person in the next seat or pew?
3. Describe a time you took a risk and voiced a dissenting opinion about theology, community or spiritual life? What was it like?
4. Describe a time you did not voice a dissenting a opinion, but felt one? What was it like?
5. Describe a time when someone else's dissenting opinion felt threatening to you? What was it like?
6. What is your heart's urgent prayer for the church/God's people?
Labels: Book Discussions, Emerging Church, Forever and Ever Amen, Spiritual Formation, Theology
3. Describe a time you took a risk and voiced a dissenting opinion about theology, community or spiritual life? What was it like?
I was about 14 or 15, and my youth group leader was trying to convince us that in order to be truly "spiritual" we needed to stop hanging out with our non-Christian friends (unless we were inviting them to church or something. ;) )
I don't remember exactly what was said, only that I finally spoke up and told him that I disagreed, that I thought that if anything we should be spending more time with people who didn't follow our Jesus than who did, as they're the ones who needed some hope!
In a condescending tone he told me that I'd come to agree with him once I became a stronger Christian. (Or something to that effect....it was a real brush-off, at any rate.)
I was so angry that I walked into another room to cry. I never spoke up in his youth group again.