Story #1 - The fracturing of the Church
Not long after I purchased my first car I was driving along the Trans Canada Highway when a transport truck ahead of me flicked a rock back into my windshield. Though the noise was deafening the resulting damage was negligible, the windshield was only chipped. When I got home however, my father-in-law told me I should get the chip filled as soon as possible. I didn't. It didn't seem all that bad. Guess what my windshield looked like a year later...a spider-web. One small chip had weakened the integrity of the whole windshield. Now the smallest of impacts can lead to more cracks and a rock like the first one would now shatter the windshield.
During the 16th century the one, holy and catholic Church was fractured, broken into smaller parts (denominations) - i.e. Lutherans, Calvinists, the Church of England. This fracturing left open the very real possibility of the Church's disintegration into smaller and smaller pieces until the unity of the Christian Church was completely destroyed. Reformers not only disagreed with the Catholic Church but with one another over a multitude of issues, some major and some relatively minor.
Story #2 - Division over little things
Rev'd Richard Fairchild writes...
"I was in a small rural church one time that had a major dispute about where the pies should be placed in the kitchen prior to serving them for the annual turkey supper - which by the way was truly an excellent Maritime Meal. One woman actually left the church community because several new comers to the church had convinced the rest of the women working in the kitchen that it would be more efficient to put the pies on the counter beside the sink instead of the counter next to the refrigerator. "It's not the right way to do it", she said. "We've never done it that way before, and I am not going to be part of doing it that way now. I won't have any part of that kind of thing. Those new people are going to ruin this church. They don't know anything. They aren't even from around here."
The Church sometimes splits and splinters over the smallest of differences.
The Church of England was in a similar predicament. It was made up of people holding many different perspectives, each trying to influence the shape of the Church. Like many of the reformation churches, in order to maintain unity it was forced to define areas of adiaphora - things over which people could disagree without threatening further schism.
It is this idea of Adiaphora I want you to keep in mind as you discuss the questions from the readings. [[It might be helpful to display the word "Adiaphora" in a prominent place during the small group discussions.]]
Share the following story after the small group discussion.
Story #3 - An example of Adiaphora (based on actual events)
Alisha's family was typical. None of her seven siblings ever agreed on anything. Family meals during her childhood were a battle-ground of 'he said'-'she said.' Even as adults family gatherings were tense and ful of disagreements over religion, politics and even the weather. Except once. At the rehearsal dinner for one of her nephews, a long-time family friend made a very inappropriate overture to Alisha. After leaving the party early, she called her oldest brother and apologized for leaving and explained why. The next morning found all eight siblings gathered around a table, each in turn expressing their belief in Alisha'a story, their support for her (and her family), and their assurance that this former 'friend' would no longer bother her. There were no arguments, no back-biting. This was family, everything else was adiaphora.
