An Apostolic Church - Devoted to Fellowship

Acts 2:42
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Fellowship is a word which has virtually lost its meaning in modern English. In church circles it is seen as what we do when we eat together.... food and fellowship. Eating together is a very important part of fellowship but it is far deeper than a meal together. It is a life together.

The word fellowship in Greek is koinonia. The root of that word is Koinonos. It means one who shares a common life. 

When we take seriously what the Bible says about us, we understand that we share a common life as members of Jesus' body on earth. We are organically linked in the most intimate way possible.

I have said before that the fragmentation of our society militates against this at every point. That is precisely why so many are continually haunted by loneliness.

If we are to experience fellowship it will cost us our independence but we will never be alone. 

Acts 2:46
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,

When I was first saved at seventeen years old I immediately began a ministry with a friend for street people. We opened our house for 24 hour a day ministry centre. Anyone who desired could come to our house, get a meal, get help with anything that we could help with and most of all be prayed for. We called it God's Crash Pad.

The team of two of us grew to about ten. We lived together, shared everything we had in common. We saw miracles on an almost daily basis. I was the cook and fed from thirty to forty people a day, sometimes three meals a day. We literally prayed in the food, and the money to pay the rent and bills as we had no sponsors and no charitable tax number. We did not let others know the need. We prayed and God answered.

By the time the ministry was closed down due to zoning restrictions in our neighborhood, I knew what fellowship was. I have experienced it with a few people all my life. It is more precious than any other gift God has given me except His own presence. 

Fellowship occurs when we live our life with God and each other intimately. It cannot happen when relationships are only surface. It also cannot happen with more than about ten people. That is why small groups are essential.

I should say that the picture many churches promote of small groups is very different than what we see in the New Testament. The Biblical small groups were not smaller groups that do the same thing as we do on Sunday morning. A small group where one person teaches and we go home afterward is just about as devoid of fellowship as the morning service of a twenty thousand member church.

True fellowship involves getting to know each other, sharing meals, having open discussions about our real lives, praying with and for each other, spending time with one or two in intimate conversations and building covenant relationships. The best place for these kinds of relationships to grow is in our homes.

Acts 5:42
And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

After God's crash pad closed I moved to Tulsa to go back and finish high school. I was twenty. A group of four young men and I lived together in a home and once again made it a place of ministry. 

We held neighborhood barbeques where we invited the whole community to chicken and homemade ice cream. The larger group of young people that met weekly in our home joined us and shared Jesus with our neighbors.

Out of that little group of believers came a revival. We would go to the park play music and share with the young people who were drawn to the singing. An older couple opened up their home and soon there were seventy to a hundred young people sharing deep fellowship with one another. It ignited a flame that still blazes in many hearts. Out of that group came pastors, missionaries and common people who continue to live their lives in an uncommon fellowship. We knew we belonged to God. We knew we belonged to each other.

I have seen that pattern for all of my life.

If the church is to be vital it must recapture a devotion to living a shared life. A shared life means a shared home.

Acts 20:20
how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,

When I first came to Canada I found a deep reluctance to open homes. I have often said that the living room for Canadians is Tim Hortons. I believe nothing can take the place of an open home in the work of the Kingdom. As we established our home as a centre of ministry we saw others begin to do the same.

Our homes are a safe place for those who are seeking to know more about Jesus but will not go to a church. I understand the seeker friendly movement practiced by many churches today. But the morning service at most churches can never match the seeker friendly environment of our homes. I have participated in all kinds of evangelistic outreaches. I have shared my faith on the streets, knocking on doors, in crusades and in church meetings. I have never seen people come to the Lord as effectively as when they came to my home for our small group meetings.

It has been a great sadness to me that the most effective movement for leading people to Jesus in the present day world has met great resistance to following its plan here in Canada. Alpha was never intended to be a church based outreach. It is meant to be done in homes. My friend Harvey Katz took this to heart. He has been running Alpha out of his home for years. The result is a multitude of people who have come to Jesus. Alpha has had some success when put on in churches but when it is done in a home it is amazing. A home is a safe place for a seeker to come. The invitation to a dinner of ten to fifteen people is a chance to get to know people in a real way. Authentic fellowship always draws people to Jesus.

Our homes are the best place to disciple others. Many feel that discipleship is simply instructing others in the faith. They feel that meeting for an hour a week to teach the fundamentals of the faith is fulfilling the mandate of Jesus to disciple all nations. It is certainly a part of discipleship. But the fullness of discipleship involves every aspect of life. Having people in our homes gives a more natural environment to open our hearts to each other to talk about real things.

One young woman we invited to our home was a single mother and struggled with every aspect of mothering. She came to our home every week and found a group of supportive people who loved her into the kingdom and then loved her into being a good mom. When she first came her hygiene was so bad that it was hard to be in the room with her. She loved her child but knew nothing about how to take care of an infant. She was so undisciplined in her life she could not keep a job. There were many more obstacles she had to face than learning about spiritual things. She did learn about spiritual things but in the fellowship she found in our home she learned all the other things as well. We could have never addressed them with her if she had only attended our church. She needed to belong to a community of people who she could grow to deeply trust before we could address her problems. She did grow to trust us and she experienced an amazing transformation. She literally began to live a new life.

An apostolic church will be a church devoted to intimate fellowship. If the only gatherings of a church are to hear teaching it is not an apostolic church no matter how good the teaching is. A church will never reach the world through teaching. Jesus did not say the world would know we are his disciples through our teaching. He said they would know it through our love. Fellowship is love lived out in reality. It is being devoted to knowing and caring for each other in a common life we share together.

It is the life of the apostolic church.