Advent Sunday 3: Agers Anonymous - Church as a Healthy Growth Support Group

The church wants to be here for its members from cradle to grave. What other organization can say the same? This is not just a matter of survival. I recall a remark by a member of an exceptionally well-endowed church: "This church could keep going even if it didn't have any members." That would be survival of everything but the church. I'm starting to think of the ideal church as a kind of support group. Support groups form spontaneously, serving people who are facing or have faced some particular trying experience-bereavement, divorce, or cancer, for example. The only requirements for membership are shared experience and a recognition of the need of help in dealing with it well.