Building One Another  

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. I Thessalonians 5:11

Move from Atomizing to Connecting

Dear Friend –

Columnist Jess McKinley writes that America is atomizing, that we are not scattering into two different tribes but rather into countless little groups and further into simple aloneness.

We’ve seen others write of this for years. There was Robert Putnams, “Bowling Alone,” and Bill Bishops, “The Big Sort,” which speaks of our movement into smaller groups of like-mindedness.

It's common today for a single person to spend most of their free time with one or two other singes, a married couple with just one or two others. Our circles are smaller than they’ve been in a long time? The places we used to congregate for conversations are diminishing.

Why? Many reasons of course – social media makes us "alone with others," the  moves toward less socialization the pandemic inspired, the many voices today pressing for more division among us, wanting, as one pastor put it, to be right more than they want to be reconciled.

So, what do we do? As followers of Jesus we observe Jesus constantly pulled people in and sent people outto engage and connect more people. Yes, being alone has its place, and Jesus often withdrew for prayer and renewal, but engagement, connecting people showers God’s love on them.

Does aggregating people make you nervous? You are normal. As Debra Fine put it in her book, “The Fine Art of Small Talk,”  take the risk and assume the burden.

Ask someone or two or three someones to join you for a cup of coffee or go for a walk or go to a movie or grab a bite. Makes you nervous? Sure. They might say no. The experience might not work out. So take the risk. Trust God to work through and among you. Assume the burden – make the call and see what God will do!

Joy to you - E. Stanley Ott​

Copyright 2026 E. Stanley Ott​

1. Do you hang out with smaller circles than ten or twenty years ago. If so, why?
2. While Americans seem to be withdrawing into smaller circles, what role can you play, like REALLY play, to move in the opposite direction?
3. Who are some people you know who are just outside your present circles that you might pull in, perhaps doing it with another person in your circle.
4. Ask our Lord regularly to help you take the risk and assume the burden, that is, take courage and connect with people.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash