fellowship, togetherness, and building up one another.

Koinonia

community and fellowship in Christ

ver.: 12 May 2008

On This Page :

The real roots of unity
the Spirit gathers together
Love One Another.
forms of fellowships
Sharing
A Church Like Me?
Alone?
A Challenge
questions about community
Quotes.

Other related stuff :

Can We Repent and Be Reconciled?
Reconciliation
Owning Up Is Hard to Do
It Don't Come Easy.
on divisiveness
some links to check out
on denominations and non-denominational churches
on congregational strife
on superiority-thinking.

A Community United In Christ

All believers in Christ are united through Christ.

the Holy Spirit brings Christ into us, reveals to us the truth in the Scriptures and the falsehoods in the world around us, and gives us gifts to build each other up and help others find God's grace, mercy, and good news.

The time that Christ most clearly binds us together is when we are taking in the Bread and Wine (the Body and Blood of Christ) together.

Our task, given specifically by Jesus, is to "love one another", which we do when we
- build each other up ( 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13);
- look out for each others' best interest ( Philippians 2:4);
- bear one another's burdens ( Galatians 6:2);
- are kind to each other ( 1 Peter 4:9)
  (this is often linked to the traditional Jewish virtue of hospitality);
- honor and respect one another ( Romans 12:10);
- serve each other ( Galatians 5:13);
- admonish each other ( Colossians 3:16; Romans 15:14);
- confess your sins to each other ( James 5:16);
- forgive each other ( Ephesians 4:32);
- think of one another ( Hebrews 10:24);
- do not judge each other ( Romans 15:13);
- accept each other ( Romans 14:1, 15:7);
- do not stand in each other's way ( Romans 15:13);
- regard each other as more important than oneself (Philippians 2:3);

This 'one anothering' is done in a wide variety of settings. Some of it is done through caring ministries, twelve-step groups, prayer groups, home bible studies, and sometimes just being together and having fun. The core of it is done through groupings that are specially set aside for God; these include house churches, cell churches (house groups with larger group settings for worship, pastoring, and ministry), congregations, parishes (churches for a specific community), campus/student groups, and intentional Christian communities. The church takes different forms to embody Christ in a different cultural or functional setting. You can't "one another" by yourself! It takes another!
The church that prays together stays together; the church that sings together clings together. The church that shares, cares.
As a believer in Christ, you are never alone; you are a citizen of the Kingdom of God, with billions of others throughout history, today, and days to come. This is what Christ says we will be known by. Yet the Church has made a lot of people more alone, ashamed, or rejected. If that's you, you're not alone in feeling alone. And there really are Christians who will accept you, forgive you, perhaps even love you -- and not just a few, but many. We need you; we can't learn or change that part of us without you, we won't be whole without you.
Most people tend to be drawn to a church of 'people like me' -- acting like me, thinking like me, looking like me, working like me, holding to the same doctrine and the same practices as me, having the same needs and corruptions and lunacies as me. Some church growth theorists see this as a good thing. To me, it sounds like something out of a space alien movie -- the Borg Queen would love it. Eeeeeek. Worst, it would have its full share of self-seeking hypocrites, because sometimes I'm one. When our different and very-human behaviors and motives get me frustrated, thinking on that image makes me less arrogant about it.
Because it belongs to a realm other than today's world, the church must be a place where people can still belong. We need to spread the word that life's not about "me". It's about God. And God wants us to be a "we".
A Spirithome.com challenge : break the social rules and reach out to someone who's isolated from the rest. (Be aware that they may not be easy to get along with. But it's worth a try.)

Questions

about you and tthe community of faith

In what situation in your life today do you do the most 'one anothering'?
Outside of bible studies and in-church activities, what do you do together with another who is a Christian?
For those studying this as a group :
Those who are bold enough are to share with the group about when a congregation acted in a way that left you more alone, ashamed, or condemned. (It's best to speak of things from more than, say, five years ago, in order to make it easier to stop it from being a gripe session about your current church life.) Also, speak about these questions, and other questions of your own you might have :
Did anyone reach out to bridge that gap?
Was there a function of the church that gave you a place in it?
What was it that helped you keep faith while this was happening (or returned you to faith afterward)?

Quotes on church as community

"Koinonia refers to the internal character of the church community. It is the solidarity of that community in which a common purpose is strong enough to render all other stratifications among human beings of only secondary importance .... ...Koinonia refers to the character of the church as the embodiment of the reign of God."
---- James Evans, *We Have Been Believers*, p.136

"Unless the role of community is grasped one has failed to understand what the renewal is saying. It seems to me that the primary consequence of the resurrection and of Pentecost is not the exercise of gifts but community formation."
-------- Kilian McDonnell, *One In Christ*, v.16 #4, p.331

"Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the fine old beech yields to the blast and lies prone on the meadow. In the forest, supporting each other, the trees laugh at the hurricane. The sheep of Jesus flock together. The social element is the genius of Christianity."
-------- Charles Spurgeon

"Contrary to general expectation, highly individualistic Pentecostalism is remarkably corporate and congregational in its life. The Pentecostal church-meeting or assembly where the individual gifts are principally exercised is close to the center of the Pentecostal movement. Here the experiences of the many merge into the one and by this confluence the power of the Holy Spirit is felt in multiplication."
Frederick Dale Bruner, *A Theology Of the Holy Spirit*, p.22

"It is dark at the foot of the lighthouse."
proverb of unknown authorship

"The Church is not an institution which has sacraments; the Church is a sacrament which has institutions."
Alexander Schmemann.

Teach us to utter living words
Of truth which all may hear
The language all shall understand
When love speaks, loud and clear
Till every age and race and clime
Shall blend their creeds in one
And earth shall form one brotherhood
By whom Your will be done.

"O Spirit Of the Living God", v.3, by Henry H. Tweedy

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