As we’ve been studying Ephesians, it’s been emphasized that the church is to exist as a body that joins together in Jesus Christ. We are not saved to be lone-wolf Christians, but a part of the body and the eye cannot say it does not need the hand. The living stones of which the church is built (that would be us) must be joined together for the church to grow. Yet we do not want a mere formal or institutional unity, a unity that exists only on paper where members names are recorded. To embody the spirit of God’s purposes, we desire real unity. To this end, one thing the elders and I want to strongly encourage all of our members to participate in is fellowship. I like to say that fellowship is the glue or cement that binds a congregation together.
God has made us to live together in community with one another and it is this fellowship that helps a church grow together. Consider what happens in churches when there is a crisis if there is close fellowship or if there is not. When something grows awry in the church, if there’s fellowship, people join even closer together, working hard to see their way through the difficult situation. When people have close fellowship and relationships where they feel known and loved, they will willingly endure hardships. When things get hard, churches that have close fellowship stick together. Fellowship so speaks to our souls that, if you’re like me, you probably know people who continue to stay in churches that they should have left a long time ago precisely because of the friends they have there. They should have left because of the bad theology, but they stay because they love the fellowship so much.
By comparison, churches where there isn’t fellowship crumple during hard seasons. If people don’t feel known or loved in a particular body, they won’t even wait until things get hard. People who don’t have fellowship will leave a church at the first sign of perceived offense. Yet in churches where people have genuine fellowship, people will endure trying seasons as well as work hard to forgive and be reconciled because they feel more deeply what is already true: this our family.
So as your elders, we want to encourage each of you to spend time getting to know one another outside of church. It doesn’t have to be much, but invite one another over to your homes to share a meal or meet up in a park. Take time to grab a coffee one Saturday. We especially encourage fellowship and hospitality on Sunday, as this is the day set apart by our Lord for worship and rest and is a great day for the church to be built up. When you get to know those around you in the church not simply as people you greet in the church foyer, but as brothers and sisters whom you love, then you find this is another one of those Christian duties that is also a beloved delight.
~Rev. James Norris