Bring on the games

By Pr. Manda

You might be asking yourself, “Why Game Night?”. You might have heard that I’m spending a strange amount of time and energy making plans for CGS people (and whatever friends they bring) to play games every Thursday night this week. And you’re right. I was struck by the though not too long ago that while studying scripture and honing my theories of process theology, I didn’t anticipate that I would be trying to teach you those things through Wheel of Fortune games.

But this is why I’m spending so much time on games. How many of you would choose to come to CGS on Thursday nights for Bible study? How many of you would feel like you were welcome – either because of your family situation or your own knowledge and experience? My experience and my conversations at CGS tell me less than 10% of you would ever show. Maybe the same is true for CGS Game Night, but bear with me for a moment and listen to why I think you should come.

You wonder if this faith has any value for your life but you need to learn more in order to make a decision. Or, at least that’s what I see in your lives. I hear you wondering how to explain to people why you believe in a God and still value scientific, rational thought. I hear you wanting help to teach your children the value of the Christian way of life. I know that you’re looking for a way to make meaning out of the many parts of your life. But I also know that it’s difficult for you to find or dedicate the time to sit down and wrestle with these things – even if you feel comfortable doing it with the other people at CGS.

You love the CGS community but you’re not really close to a lot of people here. You think that other people at CGS are closer or know more people than you do. And that’s true about 10% of the time. But the greater reality is that you know just as many people as everyone else. The difference in having close relationships – the kind where you can call someone from church when you’re falling apart – is spending all that time together before crisis comes. It’s the bunches of coffee hour conversations and shared charity work and that one time your kid did that embarrassing thing and other people laughed with you. It’s about investing the not-so-important time with one another so that there is a basis of relationship for the times when we REALLY need to lean on each other.

For these two reasons and a couple more (that I don’t have space for) I hope you’ll give this weird idea of CGS Game Night a shot – at least once. We’re doing it every week so that you’ll have a chance to be there on the week that you don’t have vacation, or work, or other plans. There will be food and drinks (sometimes alcoholic) provided by others at CGS. There will be different games for all ages and abilities. There will be games we can all play together, some that we can watch others play, and for at least one week I’ll ask you to bring your own games to share.
 

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