Steve and I just experienced a wonderful trip to Poland to worship with Mirek and his church. We have supported Mirek since our church began and have watched him grow from an itinerant preacher to a minister of over 800! It was amazing to see what God was doing in the life of his church and people.
One important factor for this growth was the fellowship that everyone experienced. After the service, people would hang out in the church, sipping coffee and talking about life. And it didn’t stop there.
The members of the church are involved in small communities that gather in different homes to study and pray together. Steve and I saw this firsthand when we went deep into the forest with a group of men from the church to cook sausages over a campfire and to laugh and talk about many things. After eating, they handed us a guitar and we led them in a time of worship. Then these men – strong and rugged – began to open up about struggles that they were facing. After each man shared his thoughts, the others quickly gathered around him and began to pray for him. It wasn’t a bowing your head and praying silently, it was calling out to God that He would move in their brothers life. This went on until everyone opened himself up and made himself vulnerable to the group. It was amazing and we witnessed first-hand the love of God moving among the group.
I bring this story to you to show you the power of Christian fellowship. It’s not just meeting briefly on a Sunday morning and pretending everything is good.
In Hebrews 10:24-25, we are reminded: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Did you catch that? Don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. It’s easy for people to fall into the habit of doing life alone, and the enemy is so wise to this. He would love nothing more than for us to stay isolated and alone.
I love what John Mark Comer has to say about the importance of being in community:
“We need community to thrive. The devil is just as aware of our need for community as we are, if not more so, and he uses that awareness to gain the upper hand in the fight, doing all he can to cut us off from community with God’s people and from God himself.”
So, how do we begin to encourage one another, to become weaker by being transparent so that we can be strong through the power of the Holy Spirit? I believe that it begins with fellowship.