The Importance of Christian Fellowship

I have for a while been pondering on the idea of “church” and why we meet every Sunday (or for my church – every Thursday and Saturday night). I had many questions circulating in my mind about whether it is important for us to keep meeting and running services like this at a regular basis or not. For a person like me who has pretty much been attending church “religiously” all his life it is easy to just go through the motions and not really think twice or question anything about why we keep going. If someone had asked me about 4 years ago why I go to church, I’m pretty sure I would’ve said something naïve like “to meet with God, of course”, without thinking anything of the absurd statement I just made. First of all it would’ve been a completely dishonest thing for me to say, and secondly, why can’t we meet with God outside of church? Does God only dwell in the closed up space of this fellowship we call church?

I attended the Thursday service at Blueprint (www.blueprintchurch.com) this week and Jonny Gilling’s message really caught me out of surprise. I had been very anti-church lately and ultimately anti-Christian, something I am not exactly proud of, but I guess I could say somehow Jonny’s message reminded me of the things that I had forgotten. It wasn’t so much the topic he was speaking on but just a very small section of his message stuck out to me. It was somewhere along the lines of “church, this place where we meet and seek the presence of God and interact with each other, is like the first 10mins of a rugby game. It is only the beginning of the 90-minute-long game. Unfortunately we have grown accustomed to just attending and leaving church, only experiencing the mere 10% of what we are called to be as Christians, and that 10% is what we have settled to live for.” (that is definitely in my own wording but hopefully I was able to vaguely cover his point).

I have been thinking of church as the preparation stage before we go out into the world and spread the word. I think it still is to an extent but I think I have come to a deeper understanding of what this means and how we should do this. Going to church every Sunday isn’t going to prepare you for anything if you don’t have a vision. Also the preparation doesn’t happen in your mind but your heart, a kind of learning progress that is much harder to comprehend, as you have no control over, or clear understanding of it. By interacting with other Christians, making friends, and fellowshipping we learn from each other. Things that you can’t learn from a book, hearing the things that real people go through. The things we read in the Bible are put into context through our understanding of the reality of mankind, humans, real people.

The way a church service is run, it is designed in the kind of way so that we are able to put God in the focal point – Singing songs to GOD, having someone share a testimony about GOD’s work in their life, and hear the word being preached about what we think GOD is saying to the church etc. This is the place where we are taught about the wondrous being of God and how we are able to take part in His ultimate plan, and the interaction with one another connects us to the greater body of Christ. THAT, I believe, is what church is all about.

The constant exposure to God’s revelation of the Word and the unity that is achieved in taking part in the corporate worship, exaltation and adoration of God should fill us up to the point where our hearts are overflowing with compassion and love. When the community feels dry and unfulfilling, maybe it’s time we re-examined what our personal purposes are in going to church. Because I absolutely do think that church is a place where we build each other up and encourage each other. We have to be outward thinkers with the true compassion of the Lord for us to be strong enough to help others as well as our selves.

There’s a quote from a recent family movie called “Barnyard” that goes like this:

“A strong man will stick up for himself, but an even stronger man sticks up for others.”

I think the cheesy quote has a good point. Maybe each one of us should be aiming to be that “stronger man”. No longer looking to the church to be supported but to be the support for the church. The true servant heart is only born out of this kind of outward view, out to strengthen others and make a difference in peoples lives.

"As the Father loved Me, I also loved you; continue in My love. If you keep My commandments you will continue in My love, as I have kept My Father's commandments and continue in His love. I have spoken these things to you that My joy may abide in you, and your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I loved you. Greater love than this has no one, that anyone should lay down his soul for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his lord does. But I called you friends, because all things which I heard from My Father I made known to you. You have not chosen Me, but I chose you out and planted you, that you should go and should bear fruit, and your fruit remain, that whatever you should ask the Father in My name, He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another." - Jesus (John 15:9-17)