Taking the mystical out of fellowship

Graham Beynon in his little book “God’s New Community” has this great little quote:

“the word “fellowship” has become one of those jargon words that I’m not sure we understand anymore.  For some people it’s like a mystical air that descends on Christians as they drink coffee together – often referred to as a “time of fellowship”  p126

What is fellowship?

“We have seen that what we share is our new life in Christ and that results in our being bound together as a new family, or as one body.  So to devote yourself to the fellowship is to devote yourself to your new shared life with the rest of your church.”p126-127

And again: “The picture here is one of shared lives.  By contrast we so often share only Sunday services.  I want a church where people are in and out of each other’s homes, where people relax together, go on trips together, hang out together, and don’t just sit in the same building on a Sunday morning.”

“The problem is that we think of the formal part of a Sunday morning service as “church”, not chatting over coffee afterwards, or staying for lunch together, or going to the park together.  We have managed to shrink our view of church into an hour and a half of singing, praying and studying the Bible.  But if we are to be church, we must commit ourselves to relationships with each other – our shared life.”p127-8

 

~ by John on October 15, 2009.