Is fellowship important to the new Christian believer?
We all go through the excitement and the fulfillment of converting to a believer in Christ, but eventually that “mountain top” feeling wears off. After this feeling wears off we begin to doubt our motives and doubt those around us thinking: “Did I just do this because of the rush?” “Did I just do this because someone else asked me to?” “Is this really what I should be doing?” This idea is known, by the bible, as Dissonance. We begin questioning everything that we were so excited about. This plays into the biblical teaching of “Spiritual Warfare” and/or “Satanic Attack”. Once one has become a believer they automatically start rapidly excelling in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Satan does not like this. Satan is the supreme ruler and owner of this world and will try ANYTHING to get into the minds of a new believer to make them question their faith. Most people don’t look at this as being something possible because they don’t know that there is an evil spirit working against them. Whether new believer or long time believer we will ALWAYS have a fight between God and Satan, what separates us is our maturity level and knowledge of Christ to where we can put that in perspective every time we are faced with spiritual attack. Most of the time the new believer begins to question those around them wondering if these people are truly expressing this love or if they are doing it as a ritual. This is where the concept of fellowship comes into play. The Greek word for “fellowship” is “koinonia”. It means “fellowship”, “communion”, “participation”, “sharing in” and “close relationship”. Fellowship is an important privilege that God has given to us to counter the attack from Satan. Fellowship is a privilege because the physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. I would like to note “strength to the believer”. Without fellowship in the believers in Christ we are left with no strength other than our own minds. Being a new believer makes it hard to be able to be strong with Christ on our own because we don’t have the knowledge of the elder Christians in the community in which we were brought to Christ. Going back to the Greek word for fellowship “koinonia” we see that fellowship is not only being together with other Christians but DOING together with other Christians! This is a concept that most of the worlds Christians today completely ignore! Fellowship is neither the relationship of being “in Christ” or the relationship of being “in Christ’s body” rather, Fellowship is “doing WITH” Christ. It is our partnership with Christ and with other believers that allows us to fulfill God’s will. Fellowship in the biblical meaning is defined as “a relationship of inner unity among believers that expresses itself in outer co-participation with Christ and one another in accomplishing God’s will on earth.” Fellowship does not rest on the fact that it was solely a natural result of having the Holy Spirit in you, after accepting Christ, rather it is the indispensable means of accomplishing the GOD GIVEN purpose of the church. If we read Ephesians 3:8-11 we see, as Bob Gillam puts it. “Eph 3:8-11 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; 10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We see in this passage that God has an eternal plan. The church has a part in accomplishing that plan. The phrase “through the church” in vs. 10 shows that the church is to be God’s instrument in accomplishing His plan. The purpose of the church as stated in vs. 10 is to show to the world the manifold or in Greek, the many-faceted wisdom of God. So then, the purpose of the church is to hold God up to the world and display every glorious aspect of His being for all to see.
What is important to see here is that no individual working alone could ever fulfill this plan of showing every perfection of God for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So you see, the very nature of God’s plan necessitates the Godly capacities of many individuals added together to show His perfections to the world. You might say that God’s plan must be compared not to a solo but to a symphony. Its beauty is impossible to capture in one note no matter how loud. Only by a full orchestra playing together can the beautiful harmony be fully captured. And this is what the Church is, God’s orchestra! In order to fully manifest God, each person must not only play his part but must play it together. So in God’s symphony—His plan, the score is the Bible which reveals His Son, Jesus Christ. The instruments are our spiritual gifts and natural abilities. And the indispensable means we use to perform is fellowship, our co-participation in accomplishing His purpose. It is only as we WORK TOGETHER in this way that it is possible to accomplish God’s plan. This is why fellowship is important to the church.
Of course, some people TRY to do it all themselves. The movie, “Beau Gueste” is an example of the way some churches function. In the movie, the Arabs are attacking a foreign legion outpost. There are only four legionnaires left alive in the post. But they want the enemy to think they have lots of strength so they propped up the dead bodies of their comrades in the turrets and the four men ran around the walls shooting the dead men’s guns for them. This is the plan of many churches today. They hire a large staff of clergy to prop up the spiritually dead and fire their guns for them. But this will never accomplish God’s plan” I
I really like the way that Bob puts this because he clearly shows what the verse(s) in Ephesians were talking about. Bob Gillam also states “There is another group of people who are church-hoppers and non-participants. They think the church can make it without them. However, 1 Corinthians 12 makes it clear that every single member of the body is necessary for its proper functioning. Because of the importance of fellowship, no one has the right to amputate themselves from the functioning body of Christ, the local church.”
What ways can we go about practicing fellowship? What ways can we begin to follow God’s will accordingly?
Gillam states it the best “You can practice Fellowship by recognizing our goal as believers in Christ and taking an active part where you can best help.
People must recognize our goal. People often do not take part in a church because they see no clear purpose. Our purpose is to show God’s glory to the world in all the many ways He has instructed us in the Bible. We participate together seven days a week to glorify God, to do it His way, and to do it together.
You can practice fellowship by taking an active part where you can best help with this goal. You can discover where you can best help by recognizing your spiritual gifts and natural abilities and by knowing the needs of our church. Then help where you can make not just yourself, but the church as a whole, to be the most fruitful. If you do not know your spiritual gift, pitch in where you have a natural ability. As you work with others, your gifts will surface and you’ll find places you might function in our church according to your gifts and abilities. “ I like the way he clearly states “As you work with others, your gifts will surface” because this is so true. If we stand-by and only rely on ourselves, or others who aren’t followers of Christ our will in God and by God will never surface because we will not be able to gain any spiritual knowledge or grow spiritually.
I would like to end this with Gillams conclusion to his paper which I believe states this the best “Bob Gillam: When I was in junior high, I had a pastor who had spent a summer on a pipeline crew. The first day, he was given a shovel and a piece of ground and told to dig six feet deep and three feet wide. By noon, he had dug down over his head and felt all alone at his work. By the middle of the afternoon he was pretty discouraged as he thought of the miles of line still to be dug. Finally, however, about five o’clock, he broke through into the trench the man in front of him was digging. As he cleared away the loose dirt, this man broke through into the next hole, and as they stood and watched, man after man broke through until several hundred feet of ditch was visible and my pastor felt quite a sense of accomplishment.
This is the way fellowship will affect us if we get in and dig together. With the unity of the Holy Spirit and a divine purpose, we must all put our shoulders to the plow until God’s plan is complete.
So let’s pull together. Let everyone practice fellowship as naturally as did those on the day of Pentecost that the many-faceted wisdom of God might be made known through this church.”
