Bethlehem Lutheran Church

The common thread through each story was a desire for a closer relationship with God, a greater understanding of that relationship and a group of friends with whom to ponder and discuss spiritual matters. To some extent, it seemed that we had all struggled to understand ourselves, our lives and our relationships. Now we were turning with increased attention and focus to something higher and greater than all of this - either as a means to finally understand it all or to render the understanding of it all unnecessary.

This was one group of strong, passionate and courageous women, as I discovered. Collectively, we are an ex-corporate PR executive turned aspiring organic dairy farmer, a poetry-writing marketing and strategy manager, an academic advisor considering a switch to corporate HR, two tri-athletes, two aspiring tri-athletes, a soon-to-be CPA...As it turned out, each of us was able to lend strength, courage and support to each other in various ways and for various reasons whenever one of us needed an infusion. Not only were we able to inspire each other with our own strength and love, we were able to remind each other of God's strength and love. I truly believe that God brought us together intentionally - and that in ways that maybe even we are individually unaware of, we served some of his purposes through our participation in the Connecting Point Group.

I don't mind sharing some of the more personal details of my own story. I hadn't actually been to church at all in a long time before I started coming to Bethlehem Lutheran. This new habit started on December 31^st, 2006 and was an attempt to deal with a personal crisis. I was falling deeper into a depression that was affecting every aspect of my life. I would show up at church every Sunday, sit in the back or off to the side in a corner by myself, and cry through most of the service. On one occasion, Pastor Beth came down the aisle to wish peace to the congregants and to shake their hands. She looked into my sniveling face, into my tearful eyes, shook my hand, smiled and said, "Peace be with you".

I eventually spoke to Beth directly about what I was going through and she prayed with me and for me. Toward the end of our conversation, she mentioned the upcoming Connecting Point Groups, but quickly suggested that maybe I wasn't ready for that. The seed had been planted in my mind, however. I had begun attending church again because for the first time in my life perhaps since I was a little girl, I felt that I had a relationship with God. In fact, I felt that I had never had a relationship with God like the one I was now cultivating and enjoying. Yet I lacked friends with whom I could talk about God and I wanted and needed someone with whom to ponder the many questions this new relationship with God had raised and would continue to raise for me. So, I showed up shyly and cautiously that cold, dark Tuesday night for the inaugural Connecting Point small group meetings.

The first member of my group that I met was Maryanne. It was strange to learn that we had BOTH just moved back to Minneapolis, that we had BOTH just moved from Connecticut and that we were both attending Bethlehem Lutheran because that is where we used to worship with our significant others. And, as it turns out, each of us was mourning the loss of that significant other - the one that had introduced us to Bethlehem Lutheran in the first place. There were too many coincidences for me NOT to believe that God had brought us together intentionally.

Week after week, Heidi, Linae, Monica, Miriam, Nicole, Maryanne, Andrea and I eagerly looked forward to our two hours together to watch a Nooma video, eat Monica's homemade cookies, discuss the message and meaning of the Nooma, and trade viewpoints, experiences, advice and the occasional recipe. It wasn't long before we were sharing hugs, smiles, tears and dating advice along with our perspectives on all things spiritual. Together, we helped each other deal with depression, divorce, death, family difficulties, professional ambivalence if not outright disillusionment and a general seeking of meaning and purpose in life. We discussed free will vs. God's will, we volunteered at Feed My Starving Children and we started a Yahoo Online Group Forum for easier communication. We watched and continue to watch each other embark on new relationships, new careers, new pet ownership and in general the writing of bright, new chapters of our lives.

Some of the relationships among group members are closer than others, but all of them grew starting with that first night. My sense is that our group experienced the best that could be hoped for - but that we did not necessarily expect this outcome. I think this openness, this hopefulness, this desire to share and connect - without specific expectations about what that would look like or how it would work - were the ingredients that made our group's brew so special. Perhaps it's one more recipe worth sharing - along with the recipe for Monica's butterscotch chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies.

Our group would like to collectively thank Beth Warpmaeker, Wendy Osman, Bethlehem Lutheran, God and each other.

August 8, 2007