What is fellowship? Fellowship is vertical (with God) and horizontal (with one another) participation in Christ by the Spirit. (I’ll be fleshing that out in a later post.)
Why is fellowship necessary? Fellowship is necessary because we have been designed by God as persons-in-community, and fellowship lives out that identity, taking place on the shared substance that comprises the formational connective tissue of community.
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Fellowship is necessary because by it we live out the community, unity, and diversity God designed into humanity. Community, not the individual, is the basic unit of humanity. God made us like this. In community, we learn the truth and interpret reality. In community, knowledge is passed down and evaluated. We become who we are in the context of community.
Unity is harmonious wholeness brought about when God’s people lean into his workmanship. It is not choiceless, bland uniformity. It is not surface level affinity. Rather, unity is a deep oneness of substance and intentionality.
Diversity is mutual participation amidst great variety. We have been created with a need to learn from those not like us. We have been created with a need to exercise our diverse skills and capacities for the benefit of others.
Fellowship is necessary because the church is community in Christ by the Spirit, and behaving as a community (AKA fellowship) is essential to that identity. The church is a community because Jesus is our shared center. Focused on him, our differences cannot divide us, for we have the most important person in the universe in common. We are his people, and he is our God.
We are a community formed by and dwelling within the Holy Spirit: he is our natural home, our habitat. Living life in him, our connection to Jesus and one another strengthen, leaking out in daily life. Being a community is design not choice, but living like it requires our participation.
Fellowship is necessary because communal sharing through fellowship is the connective tissue with which the church functions. In the practice of fellowship, all community members have a portion of that which is shared. All community members give portions of that which is shared with others. All community members use that which is shared in cooperation with others in the community. Sharing ourselves and our substance strengthens the connective tissue of community. Connective tissue holds everything together and makes movement possible.
So, fellowship is necessary because it is a core expression of how God created humanity and who he has called the church to be. Fellowship forms the Body’s connective tissue. Apart from the connective tissue of fellowship, the church cannot carry out God’s work in the world.
