So if the best questions are not “how” questions (see previous post), what kind of questions get us to the place we need to be? Block poses several in contrast to the how questions we listed before. I would like to take each one of these and discuss its implications for the church and for Group Life. Let’s tackle the first one in this post.
Instead of asking, “How do you do it?” Block suggests we ask, “What refusal have I been postponing?” He asks this because, as Block asserts, our “yes” means nothing if we cannot say no. The subject of this question is one of choice, instead of method. What are we saying “no” to or, as Block suggests, “What have I said yes to that I did not really mean?”
In community life we must stop saying yes to event-centered initiatives that inadvertently sap our creative energy for community building. When group meetings, serving the poor, listening to God in prayer, and Scripture reflection become events to attend or activities to accomplish, we have settled for “how” to have a group instead of the decisive “yes” – a yes driven by conviction, meaning, instinct, and the passion to become a group.
Next Question: Ask “What commitment am I willing to make?” instead of “How long will it take?”
