The Church
The Greek word used in the New Testament for Church is ekklesia, which means “called out ones.” We men and women respond to the Holly Spirit’s conviction to accept Christ ad their savior, they become part of the ekklesia, The called out ones. Paul calls the church the “pillar and ground of the truth” those called out are to believe, live and teach the truths of God’s word.
The New Testament calls for “Fellowship” the New Testament concept of fellowship is much broader than most Christians realize. The Greek word translated fellowship is koinonia. The noun form of this term means to share in, participate in, or to be actively involved in. The verb form of the word means to communicate, distribute, and impact. So this word means sharing ones hope, dreams, struggles, and pains. Not just sitting down and having lunch with them. If Christians are not having this type of relationships with one another, they are falling far short of God’s plan for the church.
Supporting Scripture; (1 Tim. 3:15), (1 John 1:3)
Personal Reflection and Discussion
- What does fellowship groups mean to you and your church?
- Are you involved the New Testament type of Christian fellowship?
Prayer Activities
- Call your Partner and discuss this devotional.
- Contact the people on your prayer list and let them know you are still praying for them.
- Pray with then and ask for the following;
- For God to bring you this type of fellowship.
- For God to strengthen your fellowship with other Christians.
- For the individuals on your pray list.
- That we continue to seek the Holy Spirit
- For today use the following Bible verse in your prayer (Ps. 34:9)
About bobh6
We are very fortunate in our church because we do have a lot of loving people who actually seem to care. Now I know that we all get busy during the work week and don’t visit with others as we always should. Case and point, we had a woman who had surgery and was out for six weeks. Some visited her regularly but some just checked in once or twice and still a few others didn’t even realize she wasn’t there. Shame on us. Still we know about each othes hopes, dreams, problems(when we share). We talk about the future, here on earth and in heaven. Could we, should we do better? Most definately! I pray the Holy Spirit will continue to work on us.
You do have a very good church and most of them do follow up on others and I still get prayer request from David. as for any others there will always be those that come and leave but we pray that number is small. Happy Ssabbath Rosie.
Fellowship does seem to hold a high importance to the success of a church. I think of those Baptist churches which seems to have such a major focus on fellowship; I always thought that was beside the point…almost like a distractions of the real truths. But, now I’m looking at it in new light. How many people have left our churches because they didn’t feel the love in fellowship that they find in other churches.
It seems we really should refocus our attention to meeting the needs of the people in our congrations, rather than just teaching. We need to strike the right balace, teaching with an eye on lasting relationships. While I homeshooled the main focus was not neccessarily teaching, but on lasting relationships. I was trying to forge a lasting love of learning, a deeper connection, and curiousity in God and His Word, in general knowledge, in true wisdom and almost more importantly in a lasting relationship/bond with my kids that would outlast the time spent in my home and hopefully anything life could throw at us.
I guess overall fellowship is the heart of the church, and we really need to recheck ourselves and church and see how to adjust our thinking, church schedule and priority to meet that need.
Without fellowship all you have is walls not a church, that are one reason I took this church when offered, the people are very close and yes with closeness comes bickering, but that what families do. I have two families, the family I grew up with and the Church, both are made up of people I care for very much and pray for daily.