The Facets of Fellowship

Community: n - 
1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
2. a locality inhabited by such a group
3. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.

(Yes I realize this is not the word I used in the title, just stick with me)

This is the simplest and most worldly way to describe the word. After another summer spent at a Christian camp with fellow believers in an environment that requires a Christ focused community I can't help but ponder about how this definition of community fits into what we are called into as believers, and how it differs from fellowship, which sorry to break it to you, is not the same. (Update: By the time of finally finishing this I have experienced many more  examples of everything that fellowship  entails, the most recent being a Christian Conference hosted by CRU called DCC.)

Fun fact: After doing some research I came to realize that the Bible never uses the word community, seemingly because the word community itself is to vague to communicate accurately. If it is trying to reference believers (community) as a whole it addresses it solely as the Church (or Israel, One Body,  etc). In any other situation it chooses to refer to specific attributes that the Church reflects. (Ex: Romans 12:4-5,16, 1 Corinthians 1:10,1 Peter 3:8, Acts 4:32, Acts 1:14. Look into these when you have time, I would love to, but these are almost worth a blog of their own.).... I think you get the point, there are many more where those come from. I guess my point is that when one really looks at what Scripture says they see that it doesn't just want a community, it wants a collection of people transformed by scripture and Christ.

Now for the fabled and very often misinterpreted word that this blog post is focused towards.

Fellowship: n -
1. the condition or relation of being a fellow: the fellowship of humankind
2.friendly relationship; companionship: the fellowship of father and son. community of interest, feeling, etc.
4. communion, as between members of the same church
5. friendliness

This is where the cool stuff begins, well at least for me, I get almost embarrassingly excited about this kind of stuff.

I want you to take a second and let the language of this definition of fellowship in comparison to the definition of community sink in. I especially want to point out something I particularly interesting, the definition of fellowship actually uses the word community, or branches of its root word commune, to describe it. Therefore, it can be  fellowship is a specific form of community, not just a synonym.

Okay. Deep breathe. Now I want to take a peek at the end of Acts 2 where we witness one of the first true christian fellowships, and an incredibly spirit-filled one at that.

The Fellowship of the Believers
And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
(Acts 2:42-47 ESV)

Great stuff. Now the Greek word used for fellowship in this passage is the word koinonia which is a noun from the word koinoneo which means contribute, enter partnership, share, and take part. The other thing I want you to understand about this word is that in the new testament it is often also used when referring to the sharing or distribution of money, particularly on behalf of the poor. 

For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
(Romans 15:26 ESV)

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
(Hebrews 13:16 ESV)

 In both of these instances the word used here is the same Greek word koinonia. I realize that you could pick this apart A LOT and go into depth about money and such. *insert sigh of everyone glad that Im not talking about money here*

I have a couple points I want to make regarding the distinction and use of the word koinonia and what it means for Christian Fellowship, but I am going to tie it up all under one point.

Christian Fellowship is others focused.
There, the cat is out of the bag so to speak. Now before you start complaining about that not being that great of a point (I know at least some of you are thinking that) hear me out. This idea fellowship is based of the concept of sacrificing out of your surplus for those in need. Let me hop back to the the aforementioned verses from Acts, verse 45 to be specific. 

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
(Acts 2:45 ESV)

This group of believers realized where they had abundance and gave from that plus more. The even crazier thing being that these people, recently transformed and captivated by the idea that Christ the son of God came to die for their salvation not because of anything they have done, realize that LITERALLY everything they own is a undeserved gift from God and viewed as surplus to be given. Heck these people where selling property and houses if the need arose. This idea of joyful giving and gospel propelled humility creates a dynamic that is powerfully selfless. This kind of radical selflessness and giving bring about a truly captivating and disarming joy that is not explainable yet holistically enticing to non-believers. with a dynamic like this its not focused on building ourselves up around similar people (like most worldly communities) but solely on building up those around us. This is a place where those who are hurting can come and be loved and cared for even though they feel as though they have nothing to offer. 

Now to throw in a little disclaimer, if you enter into one of these fellowships with desires in how you specifically should be treated and the amount of respect you deserve, well then you have missed the point. At that point, in your mind the community is about you and how its not benefiting you. This is dangerous and unlike the original format laid out for Christian fellowship by the life and words of Christ. For a few more simplified examples lets just take a look at the life of Jesus (in brief). He came to this earth out of pure compassion to atone for our sins. Knowing that we could do absolutely nothing to pay him back. And need I remind you that everything we do amounts to the worth of menstrual rags? (Isaiah 64:6a)  

This Christian fellowship is a beautiful structure, designed in a way that when the believers that apart of it are focused and led by the Holy Spirit and Christ's redeeming love. This creates a safe place where outsiders can come to to be loved, poured into, and inevitably transformed by the gospel. A place where all credit is pointed to Christ, and a realm where the Gospel, love, compassion, and transformation are so powerful and Spirit led that it begins to becomes an engulfing, self-feeding blaze. 

Fellowship, my beloved, is what I believe to be a glimpse of His Kingdom, here on earth.









*If you want to hear some more gold on what a Spirit-revived community looks like, check out the sermon series by the same name from pastor Art Azurdia based on Acts 2:42-47 Spirit-Revived Community

**Also is you are interested in this topic I also suggest checking out the book Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Its a short, by very challenging and dense read. One of those you could read multiple times.