The first half of You Are The Church by Steve Lorch covers the fundamentals of how to study the Bible. The second half explores fellowship, communion, prayer, evangelism, baptism and church leadership. The excerpt below focuses on fellowship. This book is an easy read and highly recommended.

There is perhaps no greater statement regarding Christian fellowship than that which was made by Christ Himself: “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20) We are instructed not to “forsake our own assembling together” (Hebrews 10:25) for in some profound, divinely inexplicable way, as we come into the presence of our brethren, we come into the presence of God. However, true Christian fellowship differs greatly from mere social interaction. It is more intentional, genuine, and purposeful. Biblical fellowship is practiced through authentic relationships and service. It is something that must be experienced rather than explained.

Let us be perfectly clear that “going to church on Sunday” is not the Biblical requirement or definition of fellowship. The truth is, fellowship occurs whenever and wherever “two or three have gathered in (His) name.” Size and/or formality have nothing to do with it. When referring to fellowship, the Bible uses the Greek word “koinonia,” meaning “mutual participation, community, and intimacy.” In short, it means sharing life together through mutual encouragement, support, accountability, and service. Consistent fellowship with other believers is a vital and necessary part of our own personal spiritual growth. Fellowship is essential for the building up of the body of Christ and none of us can (nor should) go it alone.

All Christian fellowship should exhibit certain fundamental characteristics if it is to be effective. First, we must be committed to sharing life together in a very real and tangible way. The early Church “who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 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.” (Acts 2:44-46) We need to ask ourselves the question, “Are these people truly our friends and family?” Do we get together and share meals with each other on a regular basis? Do we share good times, bad times, family moments, or holidays with each other? Would we let each other borrow our money or our most prized possessions? Could we spend a month in each other’s homes if we have to? If any of these questions make us uncomfortable, then we still have some room to grow in our concept of fellowship.

Second, we need to be completely honest with God, with ourselves, and with each other, especially when it comes to our transparent confession of sin. “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:3-9) “Therefore, confess your sins to one another…” (James 5:16) Being open enough to confess our sin to each other requires a great deal of trust. To break that trust is to violate the very body of Christ. There is absolutely no room for gossip of any kind. What is said within the fellowship stays within the fellowship.

Third, Christian fellowship involves sacrificial service to one another. “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:10-11) “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” (Galatians 6:10)

On a final note, there is an appropriate time for us to discontinue fellowship with another believer in the exercise of Church discipline. This is a necessary function within the body of Christ and we cannot afford to be neutral or complacent about it. Church discipline must be conducted Biblically and with a great deal of prayer. Our motivation should always be out of love, and our goal should always be for the reconciliation of the backslider. The Bible lays down very clear guidelines for the exercise of Church discipline. Jesus said, “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17) Paul reinforced this teaching by instructing us “not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one…Do you not judge those who are within the church?…Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.” (1 Corinthians 5:11- 13) Church discipline is never comfortable, but it does have positive results. When the backslidden brother or sister shows genuine repentance, then we must show them genuine forgiveness and welcome them back into fellowship. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20)

Don’t miss a post, sign up below.

I recently spent some time with David Dyer, author of a book I really enjoyed entitled Let My People Go! You can read an excerpt here. David also completed The Father’s Life, a translation of the New Testament. You can obtain a copy at no cost by requesting it at www.agrainofwheat.com.

(From David Dyer) This version of the New Testament was written to clarify an essential truth of the gospel message. This is the concept of eternal life. Many, if not most believers, think that receiving eternal life means that their human life has now been extended forever. This, however, is not true.

Much misunderstanding about this important truth comes from the inadequate translation of the word “life” in the New Testament. While in English we have one word “life” which encompasses a vast spectrum of meaning, the ancient Greek is much more specific. They used at least three words.

One of their words “BIOS” essentially means biological/physical life. The second word “PSUCHÊ” refers to our soul life or psychological life. The third word “ZOE” was chosen by the writers of the New Testament to refer to the uncreated life of God.

When we believe into Jesus, it is this ever-existing life which is born into us. We are actually “born of God” (John 1:12) and become his sons and daughters. What the new birth is not is our old soul-life receiving permission to live forever. Instead, it is the life of a Divine being (God
himself) being implanted within our human spirit (John 3:6). So we see that gaining “eternal life” is actually getting the life of an eternal being which comes to live within us. It is not our own life living forever.

So this translation of the New Testament was undertaken to try to clarify this truth for the benefit of all believers in Jesus Christ. As you might imagine, this truth has many ramifications and benefits which this translation also attempts to convey in a clear way.

(From John 5) “Furthermore, the Father doesn’t judge anyone, but he has committed all judgment to the Son so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who doesn’t revere the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.

“Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and is believing the One who sent me has the Father’s eternal life and will not receive the sentence of condemnation, but has crossed over from death into the Father’s immortal life.

“Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming and, in fact, has now come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who understand it will receive God’s life. For as the Father has his life in himself, even so also he granted to the Son to have this same life in himself.

“Furthermore, he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is a son of man. Don’t be astonished at this because the time is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of the Father’s life, and those who lived a careless life to the resurrection of judgment. “I am able to do nothing which originates with myself. As I hear from the Father, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I don’t seek my own will but the will of him who sent me.

(From 1 Corinthians 14) If then the whole group of called-out ones is assembled together and everyone speaks with an unknown language and some people who are uneducated or unbelieving come in, won’t they say that you are crazy? But if everyone prophesies and someone unbelieving or uneducated enters, he is reproved by all and he is judged by all since the secrets of his heart are being revealed. And so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

What is the proper way to conduct your meetings then, brethren? When you come together, each one has a psalm; has a teaching; has a revelation; has a message in an unknown language; has an interpretation. Let everything be done for building up the others.

If anyone speaks in an unknown language, it should be done by two, or at the most three people, with each taking their turn. And someone should interpret. But if there is no interpreter, let him keep quiet in the gathering of the called-out ones. Let him speak to himself and to God.

Don’t miss a post! Sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter.

This is the second excerpt from the manuscript of Leland Yialesis.

For more than 1500 years Christians have been taught that the purpose of gathering together as Christians was for the experience of worship, specifically to worship as a group congregational worship. But after 1500 years of a congregational worship-based Christianity we find a Christianity that is listless and dying. It has no dynamic with which to challenge the pervasive secularism of the Western industrialized societies and no strength to challenge and change the non-western world. If Christianity is ever to recapture the dynamism that it had during its early years as recorded in the New Testament, the first thing that must be abandoned is the pursuit of worship as the primary purpose of Christian gatherings. Worship is, and must always remain, a byproduct of the encounter between a person and the Divine. It may be that a person will experience that encounter with the Divine and worship while in the assembly of Christians (note I Cor. 14:23-25), but that is an experience that is incidental to the gathering. As the family gathering at the supper table is not primarily to be a tour de force of haute cuisine, but is there primarily for the purpose of providing necessary nourishment to each of the members that has gathered around the family table. So, the gathering of Christians is for the purpose of providing spiritual nourishment for each of the members that has gathered.

It is exactly this confusion of primary and secondary purposes that has resulted in the insipid Christianity present in the world today. Christians in the New Testament gathered for the express purpose of building one another up in the faith and in the experience of becoming the body of Christ. They saw one another as members of that common body and each of them needed to give and receive to be built up “in the unity of the common faith and common knowledge of the Son of God,” (Eph. 4:13 Phillips) until they arrived at real Christian maturity. They gathered as the community of faith and to be the community of the faithful. Worship is no more the goal of Christian community than patriotism is the goal of a school board meeting, or a townhall meeting. At the end of the school board or townhall meeting one may have a strengthened sense of patriotism because of the experience of the shared responsibility of governance, but the problem of the leaking school roof had better have been solved, or a solution found to the problem of collecting the garbage, or fixing the roads. Otherwise, no matter how strong the patriotic feelings were, the school and the town are in trouble. So, it is with the Christian gathering. Strong spiritual feelings, even the experience of worship, may have been experienced during the gathering, but if each of the members of the body of Christ has not been built up, has not experienced growth in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ, has not had the experience of sharing and of receiving, if there has been no experience of genuine community and the fellowship that community brings, and most importantly of loving and being loved during the process of building one another up in the faith, then Christ has not been honored and the meeting has failed.

Much, if not all, that has gone wrong with Christianity during the last 1500 years can be attributed to the primary emphasis that has been placed on worship as a necessary, ritualized experience for the Christian community. This emphasis on worship, which is primarily an emotional reaction of the individual spiritual experience, has fed and continues to feed the failure of the church to be that dynamic source of Christian strength in the world. The entire emphasis on congregational worship that lies at the very center of the weekly life of the church is built its foundations on the sands of tradition and not on the sound bedrock of New Testament teachings. Nowhere in the New Testament is there even one reference to Christians assembling for the purpose of worshipping, either individually or as a group. Nowhere does Jesus enjoin the experience of worship as a goal of Christian fellowship. Nowhere in Acts or in any of the Epistles, do the Apostles call Christians to gather for the express purpose of worshipping. Congregational worship, as the express purpose for gathering, was not a part of the life of the Christian church in the New Testament. Tradition has overthrown the primary purpose of the Christian community, which is to build up one another and reach out to others through God’s ‘agape’ love. As D. Bonhoeffer says in ‘ The cost of discipleship’, “The real trouble is that the pure word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast – burdensome rules and regulations, false hopes and consolations – that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ.” Christianity is profoundly simple yet we have made it abjectly complicated.

You can find our more about Leland here.https://substack.com/home/post/p-161586461

You can sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter below.

The excerpt below is from a manuscript by Leland Yialelsis. It is one of the best works on relational gatherings I have read and it is highly recommended. If you are interested in understanding the heart of why gatherings are so important, you should put this one on the top of your list. This hasn’t been published and Leland is offering his manuscript free. The link is at the bottom.

The local ekleesia, as the community of Christ, becomes the place where each member finds the friendship and fellowship each human so longs for. In this community there are no lonely people. In this community there are no empty hearts. In this community there are none longing for the human touch. In this community the fellowship creates the friendship. The community is strong enough to recognize that there will be struggles and there will be times when conflicts arise. But in this community the commitment of the members is first rooted in their commitment to their Lord Jesus and then to one another. So, when a conflict arises it is worked through and becomes a building block of that genuine fellowship rather than an element that divides and destroys. This is a true community because fellowship exists because each individual is uniquely important and is considered so by the others. The fellowship is strong because each is an equal with the others. Real fellowship exists because none feels superior and none feels inferior. Real fellowship exists because each has had the opportunity to give something to the community, to the others, and each has received something. The fellowship exists because the fellowship itself is understood to be central to the very life of the community. There is nothing that takes precedence over the creation of true and genuine fellowship. There are no rituals that are more important than the interaction of the members. There is no physical thing, whether it is a building, the furnishings, the land, or the architecture that is more important than the fellowship itself. The fellowship experienced within, and because of, the wider context of the community exists as a center of hope. There is the shared belief that not only has the good news of Christ’s redeeming grace touched each of their lives but that He will take the next grand step in the great plan of God and bring the Kingdom of God into living reality on this earth. The fellowship celebrates their faith in the Power that has restored them as individuals and has made them members of the Kingdom of Heaven. They celebrate their faith that Christ will one day vanquish the present Prince of Darkness now bringing suffering to this world and the Kingdom of Heaven will exist in reality and not only as the “blessed hope”. But the fellowship exists, the community exists, because here in this circle each finds an experience that exists nowhere else on earth. Here each member gives and receives love like it is given and experienced nowhere else. Here, because this is the community of grace, it is the community of Love! Love is the ultimate expression of the experience of community. It is the power that makes this community unique. It is the reality that makes this community radical. Love is the force that makes this community a threat to the world about it. It is the love that makes this community totally and truly Christian.

The local ekleesia can function as a community, as the very body of Christ because it has accepted and follows His same material values. It, like Him, has no place to lay its head. It is focussed on the Kingdom to come and not on the pursuit of earthly riches. Because it is a truly spiritual community it expends no energy on things. All of its energy is expended on its members and on others within its circle of influence who have real need. It is a community that does not “talk” love. It is a community that lives love and puts its “money” where its mouth is. The resources of the community are used for people, for service, to build the fellowship. This community understands the words of Jesus to Pilate that His kingdom was not (and still is not) of this world. The local ekleesia is the community of Christ because it loves as He loved. The local ekleesia gathers for the primary purpose of giving each member an opportunity to share with the other members and to receive from the other members.

One very significant difference between the church and the ekleesia is, when, and, for what purpose, the members are expected to use the gifts of the Spirit. In the church the members are expected to use their spiritual gifts during the times when the members are scattered in their homes and away from the church. They are expected to use their spiritual gifts for the purpose of evangelization, “soul winning”. It is amazing that such a strange idea would persist for so long. Why would anyone think that the members of the body would function best when the members are all scattered and then function least when they are all gathered in the church? Yet this is the odd teaching that exists within the theology of the church today. In the ekleesia it is exactly the reverse. Each member of the community of the ekleesia understands that the gifts given to each by the Spirit are most helpful to the “body of Christ” when that “body” is gathered together. It is when all the “members”, each with their special gift, come together that the exercise of the gifts becomes most important. The gifts are there to help the community be the body of Christ and are intended for the building up of the body. Notice Paul’s advice to the Corinthians, “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.” 14:26 and “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;” V. 31. In the ekleesia it is understood that the exercise of the gifts given by the Spirit when the members of the community gather is what makes them all a “body”. “Each of you” (the literal translation of the Greek) has something to share, be it a song, a story, an experience, a lesson drawn from life, with the others that are there. There are no silent, inactive, passive, observers in the community of the ekleesia. It is the unique blending of each of the gifts at the time of the gathering of the members that contributes to the “edification” of all. Note again Paul’s advice to the Ephesians, “… Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:15,16. The essence and the purpose of the gatherings of the community is the opportunity for “Every joint” and “the proper working of each individual part” to function so that the “body” can “build” itself in love.

You can find out more about Leland here.

You can sign up for my bi-monthly newsletter below.

If you attended church you most likely never had the opportunity to administer communion. So what happens when you’re part of a relational gathering and the topic of taking communion arises. Robert Schmidt’s short book (70 pages) The Bridal Banquet – Holy Communion for House Churches and Small Groups has a chapter devoted on how to administer communion. The first excerpt below is from a chapter about Banquet Gifts, where each gift is compared to a precious gem. The second excerpt is a section from his Conclusion. If you struggle with how, why or if it’s even necessary to have communion you should grab this book.

The Opal – The Gift of Community

Opals are unique. They are not all of one color; some are predominantly white, others black, but all contain a variety of hues. Yet, they are all within one jewel. As the stone is turned the different colors come through creating an enchanting whole. That is how a group of communicants must look like to God. Ginger, the new mother, carries her babe. Oscar, the judge, kneels next to her. There is Yung from China next to Devon, the punk rock fan. In this community there are farmers, shopkeepers, a physician, and three eighth graders. Just think to what sins they confessed; imagine what life will hold for them this next week. Yet, here they are together, one body of Christ.

If this is a wonder in a local gathering, think what it is like in the YMCA hostel in Hong Kong where some Christians from around the world have come as tourists, businessmen, designers, and government officials. Prayer was announced for eight in the morning, and communion was offered for those who were interested. Before they began they were to introduce themselves. A Ghanian, two from Shanghai, a British diplomat, a German engineer on his way inland, and a variety of soccer players greeted each other. From the ends of the earth God’s children came together as a single community in the Lord’s Supper. Nationalities are submerged for a time as God makes them a single people, unified for a moment, and with a memory of a time when all are one in Christ.

A CHANGE IN COMMUNION practices toward a more biblical model can have profound consequences to the church and in the world. By blessing lay people without a professional theological education to administer Holy Communion, churches are free from the necessity to raise money to support the church. Any group of Christians can be the church without funds for the support of clergy at that place. The church is also free from the necessity of paying for the construction and upkeep of a building in a missionary setting. Furthermore, when gathered as a small group with locally administered communion, more contributions can be used for helping the vulnerable.

With approximately 45,000 Christian denominations in the world, moves toward greater Christian unity are very important. In the past some new denominations were formed to bring about this unity. International organizations like the World Council of Churches and the World Evangelical Alliance have sought to be umbrella organizations fostering greater cooperation. At the local level Bible study fellowships have often brought together people from different traditions. However, without communion uniting these people into one church, they usually identify themselves with the church from which they came. Now, however, in a house church, with both the teaching and sharing of the word of God and the celebration of communion, the movement toward greater Christian unity takes gigantic leap forward. Since that local community is already made up of people from different denominations, hopefully they will be the first to recognize the totality of the Christian church on earth.

With Holy Communion at the very center of their efforts, some groups can devote themselves to specific prophetic works of radically addressing some social problems as did the Hebrew prophets or Christ himself. Without depending upon financial contributions to support their ministry, such groups are free to address the inequality of wealth, the sins of nationalism, and specifics of environmental destruction. Other small, sometimes ad hoc communities can devote their efforts to special needs in healthcare, education, refugee relief, housing, and other struggles. In the past, centered in the Eucharist, Roman Catholic monasteries and nunneries were able carry out some of these ministries. Now with Holy Communion again as the inspiring and equipping center of their activities, groups made up of lay people from a variety of backgrounds can join to accomplish some significant ministries.

The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ to create a new covenant with sinners, redeemed and forgiven by Christ. Joined together both by their sin and their salvation, Holy Communion was designed to bring people together to carry out their ministries as part of the very body of Christ. In the past, communion has divided God’s people across the centuries. Now, can it be celebrated to unite us?

Sign up below for my bi-monthly newsletter.

The excerpt below is from Beyond Church by Steve Simms. It’s an easy read, highlighting the meaning and purpose of ekklesia, with emphasis on practical guidelines on how to do life together.

“He (Jesus Christ) is the head of the body, the ekklesia; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” Colossians 1:18

As we have seen, the key to ekklesia is supernatural revelation from God – this is the rock that Jesus refers to in Matthew 16. To move beyond church and into the experience of ekklesia, we need to continually cultivate and create an environment where people can experience God’s revelation and then freely share what God has shown them.

The transformation from church into God’s glorious ekklesia is gradual – “from glory to glory” – step by step. It is a process of coming out of our comfort zones and out of our worldly methods of human organization and control. It is also the ever increasing movement into and submission to God’s light – His supernatural revelation.

However, too often we have settled into familiarity and tradition and have camped out there, not wanting to grow forward with the living God. We have acted like the rebellious Israelites in the desert who didn’t want to move forward when God wanted them to follow His cloud by day and fire by night. Together these two quotes help to make that point:

“Ekklesia is a compound Greek term. The prepositional prefix ek means out and kales means to call, thus the compound word means called out or a called-out group or an assembly.” – Sujit Mani

“There is no such thing as a call from God that is not a call out of the world. The church is ekklesia. In the divine intention there is no klesia which lacks the ek.” – Watchman Nee

So how can we answer God’s call out of our comfort zones? It is not easy. Jesus put it this way: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.'” – Matthew 16:24

To experience ekklesia, we have to deny ourselves. To deny self doesn’t mean to defeat yourself. Many people deny God, but they don’t defeat Him. No. To deny yourself means to ignore yourself – to set aside your own feelings and desires and to flow with God instead, whether to or not.

To take up your cross means to freely embrace your own execution your own death. It moves beyond ignoring your emotions and desires for a little while and into freely accepting the death of your feelings and desires.

Follow Me means much more than making a mental ascent to the doctrinal truths about Christ. It means to literally follow and obey His present day promptings, leadings, and/or nudgings in your heart, whether you want to or not. It also means to obey and be faithful to the commands in the Bible and not to your own will.

Ekklesia requires us to follow Jesus not just with our verbal allegiance, but also in the way that we live our day to day lives. Jesus said: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” – John 5:19

In order to experience ekklesia, we need to follow Jesus in the same way that He followed the Father being continually aware of His will and obeying His will instead of our own. That’s why ekklesia requires revelation. It is easy to follow our own agendas and programs. We need the Holy Spirit to show us where we are stuck on our own way.

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, told us how to “prepare the way of the Lord.” John the Baptist said: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) That’s why James, the half-brother of Jesus said: “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” (James 4:6)

Sign up below to receive my bi-monthly newsletter.