I think we often take for granted the fact that Jesus lived and ministered with a group of twelve disciples. Moses didn’t do that. Neither did David or Elijah. In one sense, the apostles were unique. Jesus was setting apart twelve representatives for the birth of the church, patterned after the twelve tribes of Israel. But the character of the church was forever transformed by the fact that Jesus invested in a small group of disciples rather than just signing a book deal or travelling as a conference speaker. The impact of Jesus’ small group shows us why it’s important that we make time for small group fellowship ourselves.
As the pandemic wears on, there’s a part of us that will begin to call ‘normal’ things that used to feel strange. ‘Doing church’ in pajamas on the sofa may start to feel like the ultimate in Sunday morning spirituality. People who have replaced evening ministry with Netflix may find it hard to go back. Even the isolation that we all struggle with may begin to feel attractive. Meeting people can be awkward, and relationships are often messy, we’ll tell ourselves. As you feel any of those thoughts, remember why fellowship is so essential and what we miss when we don’t invest in it. Let me give four specifics.
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to visit one of the earliest churches? If you stopped in on a service, I think you’d likely be disappointed. In fact, I doubt you’d ever go back. By our modern standards, everything would feel a little disorganized. It might not start on time and, if the apostle Paul was the preacher, there’s no telling when it might end. The worship music would probably strike you as a little amateur. Besides that, there would be no Sunday School, no youth group, no dedicated building, no bulletins, no PowerPoint, no sound system, and no sermon outline. You’d probably return from your visit, wondering how the early church grew at all. And yet, grow it did! The reason for the disconnect is that we often evaluate churches by their programs and externals, whereas the power of the early church wasn’t as easy to advertise. To experience the impact of the early church, you’d have to hang around longer than most people today are eager to. But if you did, you’d see that the heart of the church was in their community life and the quality of relationships they built together. One of the windows into early church life comes through the “one another” commands of the New Testament. By seeing what everyday believers were called to do to one another, we get a better picture of what we’re called to be as a church.
Last time, we looked at the earliest description of the church (Acts 2:42-47) and noted how they “devoted themselves to … the fellowship.” We said that it’s hard for us as Canadians because we love our privacy and our independence. I think it’s made even harder by the fact that we’re fuzzy on the word itself. I mentioned that I used to think that fellowship was just the Christian version of hanging out. Today, people use the word to describe a grant given to someone to do advanced studies (e.g. a research fellowship). We use the word to describe a loose association of people with a common interest or cause (e.g. The National Schizophrenia Fellowship). But none of these gets at the word that’s used in the Bible. Fellowship translates the Greek word koinonia. It was used to refer to friendships, partnerships and even marriages. The main idea always has the sense of active involvement in a relationship. Let’s look at what we can learn from how the word is used in Scripture.
We Canadians love our privacy and independence, don’t we? Maybe geography has something to do with it. Canada has just 4 people for every square kilometre of land, while many countries average thousands of people in the same space. Whatever it is, we guard our independence. We value privacy. We keep our distance. We struggle to get too close. Is there anything wrong with that? As long as we let Jesus in, do we have to let other people in, too? Let’s look at what the Bible says.
