Book Notes

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting brief snippets from Randy Frazee's book, "Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships." These will be brief thoughts from the book that I found particularly challenging and thought-provoking.


"Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, in his best-selling book, Bowling Alone, gives some startling statistics on American commuting. His studies show that the average American family engages in thirteen automobile commutes a day! …recent studies suggest that 80 percent of cars on the road system in cities and suburbs in American only have one person in them – the driver. The only source for two-way interaction is either the unwholesome hand gestures exchanged when one is cut off or the cell phone. Robert Putnam suggests this formula: For every ten minutes you spend in an automobile, you reduce your available social capital (time for relationships) by 10 percent." (21)

"I’m quite confident that, as historians look back on this era in which we live, one of the marks we will bear is the death of community. "(21-22)

"The church’s principle solution for community over the last thirty to forty years, has been the small group. Without question, the small group movement has made its mark on society. Studies show that 40 percent of Americans are involved in some kind of small group." (22)

"The fault does not lie with the concept of smallness or with the people. The problem lies with orbit management." (22)

"Most people confess to rushing from one world to a totally separate world of small group. In other words, the people in their small group are not involved in any other world they are managing. Very few small group members get together outside of the formal meeting date, not because there isn’t a desire, but because there just isn’t any time. While attempts, are made, there is little chance the members of the small group can get their arms around your world or your arms around theirs. Their lives simply do not intersect anywhere except the small group meeting – and perhaps a quick “hello” at church on Sunday morning. We are simply not principal characters in each other’s worlds." (22)