True Fellowship
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 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 favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47 (NIV)
What is true Christian fellowship? How does a church go about defining fellowship and then encouraging members to practice it as intended? Is fellowship really necessary? Can it be measured by the number of small group bible studies? The availability of Christian counseling? The number of attendees at the missions spaghetti dinner?
I believe true fellowship is something much greater than the sum total of all the activities about a church, and something severely lacking in most modern day churches. Fellowship goes much deeper than a game of golf with men from the congregation, deeper than post-service coffee and conversation, it is not only a mindset but a lifestyle that most americans lack.
The persecuted church may be the greatest example of fellowship we have today. Sharing everything, leaning on each other not only for friendship but for basic livelihood, and compromising nothing - no power, no opportunity, no mission, but for the well being of the body as a whole. As good works are the outpouring of Christ’s love in us, brotherhood must be the outpouring of true fellowship - not the other way around. Look at the early church in Acts 2. The whole world was against them. The many against the few, and believers were being taken away and killed by the jewish courts. Their lives were constantly at risk, their reputations long gone, but still 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 favor of all the people.” They had nothing to lean on. If ‘this thing fell through,’ they had no where to turn. They pushed forward with all that they were, never taking their eyes off God, and “ the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
Is this the model we are conforming to? Are we sacrificing all for the sake of the church? Where are our priorities? Can a church survive and thrive if its intentions are not inward? Don’t get me wrong - outreach is a priority and a calling for every believer, but I contend that it is not the highest. Jesus spent a lot of time with unbelievers, but he spent the most of his time with a core group of men. He shared all he had, and spent his life not primarily reaching out to the world, but raising up leaders - good and faithful men - who would carry out all He had commanded them and together “working out [their] salvation with fear and trembling.” Was Jesus’s mission outreach or discipleship? The answer is that it was both, but we can see that his main goal was to take some of the most incompetent and un-believing men ever born and raising them up as leaders. Leaders who would go and do the same.
Where are your priorities? If you claim the blood of Christ as the only way to a relationship with the father, you are in that called to not just have fellowship with other believers, but live in fellowship with other believers, putting individuals in the church before yourself. Constantly asking ‘How can I contribute to the body of Christ? How can I be one that raises up faithful leaders who’s focus is Christ and Christ alone?’
Fellowship is not an outward action, but an inward condition of the heart that pours itself out on other believers, building them up in faith and teaching them to press on toward Christ. Is this your goal today? Are you pouring yourself out to the world and coming back to the church to be build up again, or pouring yourself out to the church and letting outreach be the product of a group of believers who compromise nothing but for the sake of the Lord?
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)
-Mark
Increasing In Strength And Scope
That’s what these last few weeks have been all about. Increasing my ministry from mostly diaconal assistance to relational outreach in and around Tranås. Last week, Sydney and I went to the Missions Church in town to a high school age youth group that has been very hostile to americans in the past, and quickly made friends with a number of Swedish Gymnasium (High School) students. We felt very welcomed as we went with them on a treasure hunt, prayed together, and sat for fika at the end of the night, discussing anything and everything. I have been also going to the swimming pool two times a week to meet the swim team and coaches, and swim with them for practice. This creates a platform from which relationships can be formed, and I can gaze into hearts of men and ask the tough questions. What are you living for? Who are you living for? Is this really all there is?
Starting next week, I will be going to the Tranås Friskola (an elementary and middle school) three times a week. I will be eating lunch with kids, shooting hoops, and serving them at a school cafe in hopes of winning their trust and affection. The game plan, as we would say, is really not to have a particular game plan. My goal is to go out in the community, meet people of all different ages, from all different backgrounds, and point them towards the love of Christ not necessarily through words at first, but through example. As Paul says in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” I am not going out into the streets and proclaiming the gospel at the top of my lungs, and I do not believe that is what we are called to, I am meeting people, loving them genuinely and unconditionally, and showing them to Jesus with my actions, that their faith might not rest on my words, but on the power of God as seen in my life. I pray today that you will be encouraged and emboldened to fight the enemy not intrusively, but subversively. If the goal is to win another follower of Christ, preach it. If the goal is to win another leader for Christ, invest time, have the tough conversations, and start loving on those nearest to you, that your life may be a clear demonstration of the Spirit’s power in a fallen world.
In Him,
Mark
Swedish Lesson of the Day - Jag heter Mark. My name is Mark. This is a great sentence to know if your name is Mark. Otherwise, well it would seem you are out of luck. Sorry.
Saturday Morning Edit - I just got home from basketball practice with the Johns boys. The men’s basketball coach (retired University of Colorado basketball coach) offered to introduce me to the middle school, bring me for lunch, have me coach and ref some of the games, and generally give me an “in” at the school. I am very excited! More on this as it develops.
