Excerpt: 40 Days To a More Meaningful Life

Experiencing Life Together

As Rick Warren most eloquently puts it, “Life is meant to be shared.” Fellowship is a frame of mind, experiencing life together, sharing life’s ups and downs, trials and victories. It means being honest with your spouse, transparent with your neighbor and available to the stranger in front of you at the grocery store. It means truly caring and expending time and energy for the good of the gospel.

At the church I attend we have hundreds of small groups going on. They are a lot like mini churches that go on at various times of the week. Members of my church attend neighbors that may not attend church anywhere, saved and non-saved as well as friends and family who regularly show up every week. These home groups are the heart of the church. In these groups there is prayer, praise, discussion, questions, opinions, knowledge, wisdom and sharing….and a lot of it. This is where the rubber meets the road and hearts are open to new ways of thinking, profound ways of realizing God’s unconditional love and fabulous forms of friendships. Confidentiality is a must and everyone adheres to allowing all in the group to participate and share something if desired. God reminds us in Matthew 18:20, “Wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.” What an awesome promise for small groups fellowshipping in the name of the Lord. God is there with His love, forgiveness, power and healing.

One of the key components of fellowship is authenticity. Being real and sharing from our hearts. Hurts are shared, struggles are bared and failures confessed as well as praises and victories spread abroad. An atmosphere of honesty and humility is seldom found within a building’s walls such as a church in structure, but the church in form and appearance should base everything said and done on these two vital principles. Masks are taken off, pain is revealed and healing occurs in wondrous ways. Authenticity requires courage. The courage to open up about things that may get out, be shared with those that were not present and hurt feelings are possible. But growing in the Christian faith is all about taking risks. From the moment you took a step of faith and accepted the free gift of salvation risk began in ways you’d never imagine. Growing spiritually involves, risk, and sometimes pain, but forgiveness can be plenty and healing can overcome any affliction. Without risk, our first men on the moon would still be wondering what it would have been like to actually view earth from the moon’s surface.

Mutuality is also important and discovering it can be very rewarding, giving and receiving is an art says Mr. Warren, I must agree. Depending on one another causes each of us to humbly look to another for something. It builds relationships, encourages you and helps our consistency in our faith. In Romans 14:19, God says let us pursue those things which that lead to peace and encourage one another. As we give and receive to and from one another, we begin to agree on various things and this leads to building unity within the body of believers. Helping others and being likeminded are attributes very becoming of every born again believer.

Sympathy is another component we must not do without. Sharing the pain of others teaches us the value of loving, caring and helping another human being. Putting ourselves in their shoes can be one of the most loving acts of kindness we can show someone. A characteristic of being a believer is putting on tenderness, humility, being merciful, kind, forgiving, meek and showing patience for one another as stated in Colossians 3:12 & 13. Two fundamental needs as humans are the need to be understood and the need to have our feelings validated per Rick Warren. He also concludes there are different levels of fellowship. The simplest being the fellowship of sharing and the fellowship of studying God’s word together. A deeper level of fellowship is serving as in going on mission trips. The deepest level of fellowship is suffering together; quite literally sharing another’s burdens. Galatians 6:2 reminds us to share eachother’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. It is in theses deep times of despair, pain and doubt that we need eachother most.

Finally, in real fellowship people experience mercy. Rick Warren said it best when he said fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes aren’t rubbed in but rubbed out. Fellowship happens when mercy triumphs over justice. We all need mercy, because we all stumble and fall and require getting back on track again. Forgiving eachother is so important, God told us in II Corinthians 2:7, “You ought to forgive and comfort lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.” Go warns to never hold grudges because bitterness and resentment always destroy fellowship. Being imperfect people we will inevitably hurt one another therefore we must choose to forgive before the offense has even taken place. Colossians 3:13 says since God forgave you, you must also forgive others. Great amounts of mercy and grace must be extended on order to create and maintain fellowship. Using our efforts ad energies to bring about resolution as opposed to retaliation is of great worth. Forgiveness must be immediately chosen, trust takes a while to rebuild. Trust takes time to rebuild and although we are commanded to forgive instantly, trust does not come easy and you are not required to allow yourself to be continually hurt. Fellowshipping allows for accountability and encouragement in the confines of great mercy.

A hunger for authenticity, mutuality, sympathy and mercy will deepen your experience with others and help you grow as a believer in Christ. You were created for fellowship; you simply must to neglect this vital detail of your walk as a Christian.