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So many assume that the Christians around them are ON the same page, and that anyone with different pages or missing pages is in error. The truth is that Christians are the most disparate group of all, because they didn't come together on similarities as the unbelievers and pagans do but we all came to Christ from many different routes and paths so that any group is composed of many individual narratives. Consider the bible studies that we lead or attend and survey the state of each attendee's communication gifts, skills and their intellectual and emotional maturity levels. Even in the optimum mixture, the group will be filled with error, imperfection (WC c25, v5) and if it is a mixed age and mixed gender group you can guarantee the disposition of the group to be composed of fractured, piecemeal theologies - like trying to put together a garage sale puzzle box that has 500 pieces from three different puzzles in it, and none that even match the box cover picture! Such are the bible studies I've been in over the years, and why it is important to allow the Holy Spirit freedom to lead and intervene at whatever level the group can find connections with each other. It can lead to infuriating bunny trails, but at least they are REAL bunny trails. So how to get everyone's 'rubber on the road' is the premium goal - and in the most difficult-to-connect groups, only topical studies seem to excel, compared to other hermeneutical approaches. Group dynamics are neither good nor bad, they just "are" and we have to work at the level of "the mess"- not the "ideal". --