A legendary pioneer visited Fayetteville last Saturday morning, training and encouraging more than 150 ministers and lay people in the area of small groups. His name is almost synonymous with "small group." He is Lyman Coleman. Many of you know him as producer of the Serendipity Bible Studies. Through his genius in the Lord, he gave new life and hope to the small group, home Bible study.

We're grateful to the folks at the Fayetteville First United Methodist Church for hosting the seminar, perhaps one of the last seminars that Dr. Coleman will conduct personally. He's been at this matter of small groups for nearly half a century.

Now, bear with just a little church history. The Christian church flourished first as a home-based movement. Not until Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus converted to Christianity in the early fourth century did the church start meeting in large auditoriums - almost like those the government used.

What we of the church have learned 1600 years later calls us to return to the pattern used first by the church: small groups. The more cybernetic we become, the more isolated we become. Shopping "on line" may be more convenient. However, it also means you don't have to leave your house. You don't have to run into a neighbor at the department store. You don't have to converse with a sales lady and discover you know the same people. The more technological our culture becomes, the church must respond more and more to sustain its values of inter-dependence, fellowship, mutual load bearing, and intercessory prayer. No matter how many "bells and whistles" you brag about, the church must concern itself with the cry of the human heart for connectedness, encouragement, comfort, and the sound of friends laughing at their weaknesses.

As I read people - and hundreds of them are moving into our south metro area every month - they are so weary of their isolation and loneliness. Their television friends never laugh at their jokes or wrap their arms around them. Their E-mail gives them more information than inspiration. They are cut off from the world except when they drive out of their garage once in a while to wave at their neighbor of whom they know little more than first name. Certainly not the names of the neighbor's kids nor dogs. It's sad. But it's true. So church men and women all over the world are discovering the way to combat loneliness and isolation is to get the church back in the homes in the neighborhoods. Paul Yonggi Cho, pastor of the largest church in the world (Full Gospel Central Church in Seoul, Korea) has built his great church by developing thousands of small group Bible studies where Koreans get to know one another and pray for one another. So, are you lonesome tonight? Want to take a stab against isolation that's killing your family? Start a simple, Bible Study in your home. Invite your neighbors. Check out Sonrise Bookstore for Serendipity materials. Man, woman! Do something before you die.

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