FELLOWSHIP

Last Sunday, half a dozen of the congregation went to the local hospital canteen for lunch after the morning meeting.

The whole time we were eating we talked and talked and talked. The subject matter ebbed and flowed, sometimes spiritual, sometimes about day to day life. There was humour, seriousness, agreement and disagreement. Some of the conversation was intense, some of it was light-hearted. The food seemed incidental to the fellowship we were having. One brother very kindly and generously paid for everyone’s meal.

We learnt things about ourselves and each other. When we left we hadn’t resolved anything, decided anything or changed anything. What did happen however was that we knew a bit more about each other.

We discovered who was caring for who, who was doing what that we didn’t know about. We discovered spiritual principles that maybe we had not considered before. We discovered other people’s thoughts about the way we lived our lives as a fellowship. None of it was scripted, organised, planned or programmed. It was totally spontaneous and it was totally inspiring for the simple reason that we got down and dirty and related to one another in an open and genuine way.

The sort of thing that very rarely happens when you are sitting in a ‘church service’ looking at the back of people’s heads. If we really do believe that the scriptures are there as a guide book, I cannot see how anyone can justify the “back of heads” fellowship model as you will not find it anywhere in the New Testament church.

The truth is, the Sunday morning “back of heads” model was an invention of the apostate roman church who introduced paid clergy and insisted that these “special” people set aside for religious devotion, were the only ones who had the right to tell us what to do.

Until this happened, no one was paid anything as Constantine the Roman Emperor who legalised Christianity, insisted that the clergy were paid for their trouble. If they were already paid, he would have not needed to insist that they were.

Since this happened in 312AD, we have developed this model of religion in various forms ever since. That is until now as all over the world, there are believers who have seen the light, ditched the “back of heads” fellowship model and are meeting informally in homes, offices, schools, parks, cafes, gyms, in fact where two or three can gather together in the name of Jesus.

The end result is up close and personal fellowship of the New Testament kind where everyone knows everyone and as a result they fellowship with people, not a system. Knowing one another in that way means that we are more likely to take responsibility for each other and each other’s needs. When this happens, you don’t need a paid pastor as every believer is a pastor, teacher and care giver.

Of course such an experience is going to be actively opposed by the religious hierarchy as if it is adopted worldwide they will lose their authority and power to control and that is the last thing they want because they revel in being someone special who can laud it over everyone else.