In several of my AMS blog articles, I have talked about church renewal. The reason is that it is the pressing issue for many of the churches of the SBC. It is an issue that has no end to the range of topics that could be addressed.
However, there is one ingredient of church renewal that I believe is often overlooked and left unconsidered as an essential part of church revitalization. In fact, I believe this aspect is absolutely necessary for a healthy New Testament church. This ingredient is true fellowship, or what in more contemporary terms is called today – Biblical Community.
What I want to address in this article is the reason why so many of our churches struggle with the beauty of biblical community – why are we not devoted to fellowship with other Christians within our churches? What are some reasons why so many Christians experience so little true fellowship? Here are just a few:
Reason #1: Churches are Filled with People Just Like Us -
The fact of the matter is that churches are full of imperfect, troubled, hurting, needy people – people just like you and me. And what makes biblical fellowship so hard is that you are seeking community with broken and imperfect people. Therefore, church isn't one huge picnic.
Sharing life together is sometimes hard, and many church people don't want to put up with the hassle of it.
Reason #2: We Americans Like to Go It Alone -
Individualism is our cultural creed. We exalt the self-made man. Our heroes are people like the Lone Ranger (Millenials and Gen Xers say “who is that!), who, at most, had one sidekick. And when it comes to "religion," we're especially individualistic in this country. We believe that religion is a private, personal matter. It's not something to be shared. So this sort of individualistic Christianity permeates American society.
But listen, this Lone Ranger Christianity is absolutely contrary to Biblical Christianity in any culture, and it kills true fellowship.
Reason #3: We Lack Good Biblical Theology -
We have allowed our theology to be shaped by our culture, rather than by Scripture, especially when it comes to this idea of sharing life together. If you start reading the Scripture, you'll see that this importance of biblical community shows up on practically every page.
We see so many of the themes in Scripture working in a corporate manner – covenant, salvation, work of the Holy Spirit, ministry, etc. The more you read your Bible, the more you'll discover the importance of sharing with others in your relationship with God.
Reason #4: We're Overly Idealistic About the Church -
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a classic called Life Together. Bonhoeffer said that idealism about Christian fellowship was the worst enemy of Christian fellowship. He said:
“Innumerable times a whole community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves... God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The problem we have sometimes is that our ideas and expectations for what church is and how fellowship ought to be are very unrealistic. Some people have that “perfect church” myth, and they always become disappointed, disillusioned, and end up leaving the church. Why? Because idealism leads, not to making the church better, but rather to criticizing, judging, and ultimately leaving the church to go find the “perfect church.”
Reason #5: We've Been Hurt by Christians in the Past -
If you are in the church long enough, you are going to get hurt. Sometimes that hurt is unintentional, and sometimes it can be intentional. Sometimes Christians can even be mean and nasty, and what makes it worse is that sometimes those who are nasty and hurt you will not admit they are wrong and repent. And when this happens, those who have been hurt begin to withdraw and are reluctant to delve into relationships with their brothers and sisters in Christ.
But listen, there is always risk associated with sharing life together in Christ – Jesus was hurt by His closest disciples; Paul was hurt and abandoned by those he had counted on in the past. There is huge risk in sharing life together in Christ, but it is a risk we must take if we are going to grow spiritually.
Reason #6: It Can be Hard to Break into the Fellowship of a Church -
Let's just admit it – sometimes we make it terribly difficult for newcomers to break in. We have our circles of friends, and that's the way we like it. New folks can just find other friends. It's surely not our job to reach out and draw them in, we think.
Sometimes we forget what we are here for – we are here to share the gospel and incorporate people into the fellowship of the church and disciple them. That demands that we remove all the unnecessary barriers that would keep people from entering into the life of our church.
Reason #7: We Think We're Too Busy for Real Fellowship -
The fact of the matter is, in our busy culture, both spouses working, running kids everywhere, fulfilling our responsibilities around the house, etc., we often say, “I'm just too busy to really invest in life together with my brother or sister in Christ.” Now I know the practical realities of a busy life. But if we are consistently too busy for real Christian fellowship, then we’d better think through your priorities again.
Reason #8: We're Stuck in a Rut -
Sometimes we get stuck in a rut. I mean, maybe you can look back at your Christian life and remember times when you were in committed fellowship with other believers. But then things changed, and now you've been in a non-participatory rut for a long time. Isn't it time for you to rethink your priorities for life and get out of that rut?!
Reason #9: We Don't Really Want Biblical Fellowship -
If the truth be told, a reason why a good number of Christians don't want true biblical fellowship is that they don't want it and don't sense a need for it. You see, for some of us, we want to keep our distance from others.
Why? Because we don't want to get too close, because we don't want others to know what really is going on in our lives; we don't want others to hold us accountable. Or for others, they just think this whole thing of sharing life together in Christ is a little silly – and it is something they just don't need. So our pride, independence, and self-sufficiency keep us from experiencing biblical community.
Reason #10: We Don't Realize the Full Meaning of Fellowship -
Probably one of the main reasons why we don't have fellowship with one another as we should is because we don't really understand what fellowship is. We equate hanging out together and doing things together as fellowship. And so, we'll have a church picnic together and we'll talk about football, weather, and the latest movie, etc., and we'll call it fellowship.
Now, those things are not wrong; they are even good and necessary; but those things in and of themselves do not delve to the level of true fellowship. So, we often have a superficial understanding of fellowship that holds us back from experiencing the deep sharing of the life of Christ with one another.
I believe that if our churches are going to have spiritual renewal, then having true biblical community cannot be incidental, but must be essential. Overcoming these obstacles, by God's grace, will be difficult, messy, and a slow process - but it is absolutely worth it for the spiritual growth and ministry that will result. Christian fellowship is inseparable from what it means to be a new creation in Christ; it is central to our identity in Him and to life in the Church. Bonhoeffer once more writes:
“Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. What does this mean? It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ.”
In His Service,
Dr. Wes Rankin
Association Mission Strategist