The modern view of fellowship for Christians is, simply put, recreation where Christians are present. In the Bible, fellowship usually took place with a shared meal at someone’s home. Fellowship is different than focused worship because there are other activities, usually recreational activities that the Christians are involved in together. During this recreation, the fruit of the Spirit are being expressed, spiritual gifts can be exercised, love for one another, honoring one another and the rest of the one another commands are active.
Back in the day I attended a church that obtained group tickets for the Oakland A’s baseball games. Usually twenty members of the church would all carpool up to Oakland and spend the day, together, watching a baseball game. Because baseball tends to be slower than other sporting events, there would be opportunity to catch up and talk about all sorts of things. The idea here is that Christians watching a baseball game would act differently than pagans watching a baseball game. The Christians would be involved in fellowship, which is Christ focused and love focused. During the baseball game, everyone was making sure that everyone else had enough to eat or drink and things like that. As the game went into the evening, jackets were offered to those who were cold and who forgot their jacket.
Some have said that Christians going to the movies is a form of Christian fellowship. I would disagree because there is no interaction between the Christians, no loving one another during the movie. There is no difference between going to a movie alone or with a group.
One pastor I knew years ago, would have a group of Christians over to his house for the Super Bowl each year. This worked out well because there was food and people could talk and if some wanted to talk alone, they could leave the TV room and things like that. This was a Christ centered, recreation event.
As I said, the Bible’s descriptions of fellowship usually involved shared meals inside the home churches of the first century. Today, many churches will have fellowship meals in the church building. I know of a church that has a fellowship meal, right after the Sunday service. They have it every Sunday, every other month. This gives people the opportunity to participate when they can, and also gives them a break every other month. Many churches are creative in creating opportunities for fellowship. My church has a ladies luncheon, once a month. It is a directed potluck where people are asked to bring specific things. They meet at a home and the home changes every month. The ladies eat, share, pray for one another and have a devotional. It is a great example of biblical, Christian fellowship.
Sometimes two or three Christians will go out for coffee, or a run or lunch or anything else to get them together outside of Sunday morning. Fellowship does not have to be an officially church sanctioned event, it can just happen when Christians get together for a fun time apart from an event at the church. Christian fellowship glorifies God and shows the world that Christians can have good clean fun in the presence of God.
Back in the day I attended a church that obtained group tickets for the Oakland A’s baseball games. Usually twenty members of the church would all carpool up to Oakland and spend the day, together, watching a baseball game. Because baseball tends to be slower than other sporting events, there would be opportunity to catch up and talk about all sorts of things. The idea here is that Christians watching a baseball game would act differently than pagans watching a baseball game. The Christians would be involved in fellowship, which is Christ focused and love focused. During the baseball game, everyone was making sure that everyone else had enough to eat or drink and things like that. As the game went into the evening, jackets were offered to those who were cold and who forgot their jacket.
Some have said that Christians going to the movies is a form of Christian fellowship. I would disagree because there is no interaction between the Christians, no loving one another during the movie. There is no difference between going to a movie alone or with a group.One pastor I knew years ago, would have a group of Christians over to his house for the Super Bowl each year. This worked out well because there was food and people could talk and if some wanted to talk alone, they could leave the TV room and things like that. This was a Christ centered, recreation event.
As I said, the Bible’s descriptions of fellowship usually involved shared meals inside the home churches of the first century. Today, many churches will have fellowship meals in the church building. I know of a church that has a fellowship meal, right after the Sunday service. They have it every Sunday, every other month. This gives people the opportunity to participate when they can, and also gives them a break every other month. Many churches are creative in creating opportunities for fellowship. My church has a ladies luncheon, once a month. It is a directed potluck where people are asked to bring specific things. They meet at a home and the home changes every month. The ladies eat, share, pray for one another and have a devotional. It is a great example of biblical, Christian fellowship.
Sometimes two or three Christians will go out for coffee, or a run or lunch or anything else to get them together outside of Sunday morning. Fellowship does not have to be an officially church sanctioned event, it can just happen when Christians get together for a fun time apart from an event at the church. Christian fellowship glorifies God and shows the world that Christians can have good clean fun in the presence of God.
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