The Need for Fellowship
To say life is challenging would be an understatement. And the year 2020 has been a year of upheaval. What do you turn to when you wake up to the fact that you need something to get by? What we turn to to cope differs from each person but usually lies within the same broad categories: food, entertainment, hobbies, exercise, substances, sex, work…Though I find myself reaching for the same things when life is too much, I’m trying to starting leaning into a who, not a what.
Though life is completely different than it was this same time last year, there are some good things that have come from it. For me, it’s redefining community. Like most people, I have a variety of connections in my life and was living at such a fast pace, that I didn’t really think how I was investing my time and which relationships mattered most. Though I spent time with those who shared my Christian worldview, I missing out on fellowship. The kind of connection where people gather with the intension to worship, pray, know each other’s spiritual life and build one another up. To celebrate in times of joy and grieve in times of pain. We hear often that we are to love one another but we don’t always get the chance to live it out.
These days, I’ve found myself with diminished capacity and have had to be intentional about who I invest in and why. I want the time I have to leave me refreshed and nourished. It’s helpful to rethink who you belong to.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19–22
When we live life isolated, and with societies new norms in the name of public health it’s easy to see the people around you as a potential threat, we need to remember that in reality we belong to the household of God. Our common faith gives us a new country and we can connect deeply because the same Spirit lives in us.
Much like a house is built, we benefit from what has come before, making the whole structure sound. Brick by brick, frame by frame a spiritual house is developed as God calls us to meet in His name. We stand upon two groups whose part in God’s story has given us the common faith-foundation we now live in. First, the apostles, men who walked with Christ and were sent to testify what they had heard and seen[1] because they spent time with Jesus. We were also built on the prophets, those who looked ahead to the Messiah and communicated God’s plan in His Son to rescue His people from sin and eternal death[2]. Both of these groups meet in Jesus, the Cornerstone[3], the turning point in history where God’s plan is fulfilled. We now live in await of his return[4] and while we do, do it best when we live together[5].
We are a new temple and are being built together. So if your church doors have remained closed, you can turn to those whose have the Spirit inside them. Often, the trials of life are the things that keep us bonded tighter together. My little village has been gathering since May. In that short time, we have shared life’s milestones: death, marriage, and a baby coming any day. When one of us is gone, we feel it. We know each other’s struggles and strengths, fears and victories. We are being built together in Christ and sense that as we gather, His spirit dwells with us. This is the difference between friendship and fellowship, the Spirit resides in us as individuals, collectively.
In community, Christians are now beginning to gather together. I hope and pray that God has placed you in a fellowship you can lean on. If not, as restrictions lift and your place of worship meets again, how can you develop relationships that will carry you through all the life brings? You don’t need to be a stranger, you have a family awaiting your gifts. I pray God gives you new eyes to see the potential you have to be built into the structure He’s forming to bring everyone home to Him.
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