My journey as a pastor – Fellowship

I can still clearly remember listening to Chuck Smith on the radio one day commenting on Acts 2:42, And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. He said fellowship was a vital part of church life and went on to share some of the things they did at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa to promote fellowship.

I had teaching (doctrine) and prayer (prayer meeting) down, but fellowship…

I went to work on fellowship.

My earliest efforts were sincere but almost comical. Fellowship is a participation in something, and in our case, that is Jesus and the life in him. When the brethren got together, most of our conversation was sports and work and vacation etc. So I set out to change that. Once a month we had a “fellowship” in the Sunday School hour.

I bought a cook timer and announced that until it dinged we could only talk about spiritual things. I set it for 2 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes.

I was trying…

Then I determined that just hanging out together was the important first step, so that’s what we did. Lots of it.

5th Wednesday Fellowship – We had Wednesday night Prayer/Youth/Children’s Meetings and every month that had five Wednesdays we had a fellowship. It was usually a supper and the Deaconesses would plan what we did that night. Sometimes it would be ice cream. Just getting together.

Christmas Feast – This was a big deal. This was probably the closest thing we had to a “dressed up” gathering. This was always a wonderful night.

New Year’s Eve Family Night – I knew that New Year’s Eve services were traditionally “watchnight services” but we got together for a family night of food, games, and fellowship. And bonfires. Shortly before midnight we would count down to the new year, then rejoice together.

End of Summer - Usually at the end of summer a family in the church with a pool would host the church and we would have another big gathering. Actually, as often as they would host us we would go over there and hang out! They graciously hosted all kind of meetings: baptisms, missions conference, as well as fellowships.

We also did something a little more intimate called Dinner 8. Four couples would agree to meet in each other’s homes over the next four months.

I know there were a lot of things I didn’t get right as pastor, but by the grace of God we had a good fellowship. A sweet fellowship. And I am persuaded that it was the fruit of these intentional efforts to promote fellowship among the brethren.