Devoted To Fellowship?

A little over a month ago, I had a scary episode that landed me in an ICU and two nights in hospital. My trusty neurologist labeled it a micro-stroke brought on by an overload of adrenalin in the brain. She says it means if I’m not careful a full-bore stroke is a real possibility.

In its wake I’ve decided that it was only prudent to step back, refocus, and bear down on where I could make my most meaningful ministry contributions in these later years. And after much prayer it came down into rejuvenating and empowering our Small Groups to be the engines for continuous spiritual growth they were always meant to be.

The Lord quickly led me to this historical passage in Acts.. “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those 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 2:41-46 Nasb)

This says the very first Small Groups settled on four critical “must DO’S”..   (1) apostles’ teaching, (2) fellowship, (3) breaking of bread and (4) prayer” (v42)

Reflecting on this, I thought it wasn’t surprising that these groups devoted themselves to Apostles’ Teaching and prayer. They were, after all Jews from all over (Acts 2:5). They were all steeped in Old Testament teaching and culture. They were all probably extremely curious about all this new teaching, like we all were in the formative phase of our now 30 year experience with groups. And prayer no doubt came naturally to most of them.

But I found the inclusion of “Fellowship” in that list of “Must DO’s” most curious. In most circles today “Fellowship” means little more than social activity.. exchanging “Hi, How are you’s”, and other trivial pleasantries over coffee, doughnuts, cookies..

And that was the problem.. it just didn’t seem logical that “Fellowship” like that should be mentioned in the same breath as the other three critical “Must DO’s”.

It didn’t compute.. It didn’t, unless “Fellowship” then meant something entirely different from what we mean by it today.

I found the key that unlocked this for me in 1 John. “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. 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.. (1 John 1:3, 6-7 (Nasb)

Here’s how that passage in 1 John 1:3, 6-7 reads in the New English Version (NEV). It clearly explains what “Koinonia.. Fellowship” meant then.

”What we have seen and heard we declare to you, so that we together may share in a common life, that life we share with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. If we claim to be sharing in his life while we walk in the dark, our words and our lives are a lie. But if we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, then we share together a common life, and we are being cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus, His Son”. (1 John 1:3, 6-7 Nev, emphasis mine.)

This is the most basic meaning of “Koinonia”.. Fellowship”. It means sharing a “Common Life”.

It means living “Life Together”. Those first Christians of Acts 2 were not devoting themselves to social activities. They were devoted to building and deepening their relationships, to sharing the new life God had just gifted them with together. A new life that had come when God’s Spirit had come in and made its home in every single one of them at Pentecost.

You know what? I think 1984, Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and immediately I can visualize how all this played out. I was one of scores of people whose spiritual lives had just been turned upside down. We had all miraculously come awake from the sleep of the spiritually dead. And all around us hearts were coming ablaze as the Spirit of God came home into the God-shaped voids in our hearts.

Makati, the Philippines’ Business Capital,  seemed to be right at the vortex of this spiritual explosion. For months on end people had been coming off work from buildings in the Central Business District straight into Bible Studies at AIM, the Asian Institute of Management.

It was unbelievable.. case rooms filled to overflowing. People didn’t seem to mind; they squeezed in, at times even spilled over and sat in aisles to listen and study together.

And it didn’t stop there. Soon all this spilled over into small intimate discussions shared over meals in cafeterias, in homes with spouses and children, and with extended families. Then it lapped over to close friends, old classmates, even to drivers and domestics.

Hundreds (and eventually thousands) came together and lives began to intersect in fabulous ways. Birthdays became intimate parties among new soul mates. For years weekend retreats in Tagaytay, Baguio and Subic took the place of family vacations.

And even more amazing, traditionally clannish and very guarded people began to open their hearts, even their homes and their wallets to troubled folk they hardly knew.

This is the “Common Life” spoken of in 1 John 1:3, 6-7. And clearly this too was what they all spontaneously began to continually began to devote themselves to in those formative years after Pentecost.

There is a world of difference between this and what we see among many today. There is a world of difference between that intimate life shared and the “Hi, How are you?”, and other trivial pleasantries over coffee, doughnuts, cookies many have settled for these days.

The Apostle Paul bewailed this life shared, then tragically lost among the earliest believers too..  “when you come together.. I hear that divisions exist among you.. there must also be factions” (1 Cor 11:18-19 Nasb)

How did we get here?
How did we come to lose that “Common Life?” we were all called to and had so spontaneously enjoyed?

How do we recover it?