This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon… (Jeremiah 29:4).

I am coming off an eye-opening read of the entire book of the prophet Jeremiah. In it we get a vivid contrast between groupthink—which the inhabitants of Jerusalem, deceived by false prophets and diviners, had been swept up in for years—and God-Think—which Jeremiah had been straightforwardly prophesying to them the whole time. 

Groupthink happens when people all resolutely think the same way. They are resistant to contrary evidence, correction, adjustment, and even to questioning ethically wrong decisions and actions. 

The Israelites’ groupthink had them on the same page when it came to making choices in life—and it wasn’t a pretty page. 

Jeremiah’s core warning was that the people’s God-defiance would result in their exile from Jerusalem. It did. 

As exiles finding themselves in the city of their conquerors, they finally saw that their groupthink—their persistent insistent thinking that what the group chose to do was acceptable—had gotten them exactly where Jeremiah had prophesied it would. Now they suffered the emotions of all exiles: despair, discouragement, and desperation.

The upside of that was that such emotions can open people to God-Think. 

And what did God think? He gave them hope and a future, and a way to get there.

He instructed them to build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children who would marry and have children, and to do this for the coming 70 years. He instructed them to pray for Babylon, the city to which they had been exiled. Why? “…because if it prospers, you too will prosper,” He said. 

God answered those prayers and 70 years later the flourishing Israelites returned to Jerusalem as people who valued God-Think and were no longer ignorant of the dangers of groupthink.

Our culture—as was true of the Israelites’ and has been true of all cultures—promotes groupthink. We all get swept up in it unawares. Therefore, it is exponentially more important for us who trust God to lean in close to hear Him. For how else will those around us realize there is an outpost of heaven on earth with a unique culture very unlike the one they are accustomed to? 

As Chatham Church increasingly becomes intriguing in a way we and others can’t quite “put our finger on,” it will be a good indication we are an Out with Groupthink, In with God-Think community. 

Remember a time you were susceptible to groupthink. Remember a time you were open to God-Think. Compare how those different ways of thinking affected your welfare and the welfare of those around you.

Let’s pray for our Chatham Church family to resist groupthink and whole-heartedly listen to and act upon God-Think.