Discipleship: Fellowship

---

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:46-47 (NIV)

---

How was Easter for you? Quite different I would imagine. Having experienced Easter in a fundamentally different and refreshing way, I return to writing for the ‘Disciplined Discipleship’ series with a new sense of purpose, perhaps greater perspective and a clearer mind. So today, we continue with the themes of spiritual disciplines with the focus on fellowship. Not only exploring what fellowship is, but also how important it is as part of the Christian life.

Before Holy Week, I tried to write about fellowship and since I couldn’t get anywhere and was far from inspired, it was put on hold. The thing about writing for God is being able to trust His perfect timing and in our journeys of faith, trusting that revelations are part of His plan too. For those of you who don’t know me or are new to the blog, it’s not exactly my comfort zone but something I am learning to surrender to Him.

Last week we travelled together on the road to the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour – Jesus. On Maundy Thursday, we looked at the events around the table of Jesus, both during the years of His ministry, and at the table where He ate His last. Whilst learning and exploring these stories of food, friends, and ministry, it became ever clearer to me what fellowship is, why Christian fellowship survives the tests of time. After reading the first couple chapters of Acts (I know I’m getting a bit ahead of myself!) it was further confirmed to me what fellowship is. So, I start today with a simple question, what is fellowship?

In my experience, much like other disciplines we have looked at, fellowship seems to be a word that is used a lot, prayed about even more, and yet it’s not always used in the right context. We just don’t know how to describe it without over-complicating it or tripping ourselves up and tying our thoughts in a knot. Perhaps it is from this mindset of over-complication that we miss the simplicity of what it can be.

As I was preparing for this blog, I asked myself what fellowship was. I managed to write three words: meeting, talking, sharing. It was hardly fine prose, instead just string of words not even worthy of being called a definition.

After doing more research, praying about it, exploring what the Bible says, what it means in real life. The more I come to realise that yet again, we are trying to condense a ‘God-thing’ into one word. You see, the great thing about God is that He is so great, amazing, gracious, faithful, (the list goes on) that we just can’t condense what He has given us to a few words or even a sentence of words. That’s why I think we can get so confused about what words actually mean. Fellowship isn’t just a descriptive word, it isn’t just a doing word, it isn’t just how something happens, and it isn’t just a thing. That’s why we find it so hard to describe. The truth of fellowship is that it is so much more than a word. Yet, God gives us a word that does indeed sum it all up – Love. Just like love, fellowship is something you do, something you be, something you are part of. You see, I was missing the point. God doesn’t intend for us to be people of isolation (even in the current environment), He doesn’t intend for us to be mindless robots, He doesn’t expect us to just do things because we’ve always done them. He wants us to be active, be together, sharing life, and life sharing.

---

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:35 (NIV)

---

In Acts we see what fellowship is. The early follower’s broke bread, shared life, sold what they had for the poor, and lived a life of togetherness with Christ and with others. A life of love. In John 13:35, we see Jesus tell the disciples why it is so important, and in Acts we see the fruition of this – “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

If you haven’t seen the underlying theme in all of these disciplines, it is this - we are called to love because of love. Simple as that. All these disciplines encourage is further, deeper connection and in doing so increase our ability to love.

Lockdown life is tough. We are being tested in ways we never could imagine but we are also seeing a longing for faith, people seeking, and disciples growing. Let’s take fellowship as seriously as ever and challenge ourselves to invest more time in how we do fellowship. Take your table and use it in new and exciting ways.

Reflect today: What can you do differently in this lockdown period to encourage fellowship, togetherness and love?

This is what I'm asking you to do This is why I'm kneeling here beside you This is what I want my church to be This is what I want the world to see Who it is you follow

Love each other One another Love each other In the way that I have loved you Walk together And whatever comes Love each other In the way that I have loved you

Love Each Other – Graham Kendrick