Staff Writer – Carol Cato
In Acts 2:42 we read that one of the four things the early church devoted itself to was “fellowship.” Fellowship was a very important part of the reason for meeting together. But what is fellowship?
Fellowship for me is Christians meeting together to worship and pray. This is where the real praying takes place; not on Saturday or Sunday during church, but in the week or any day, when people coming together purposefully to worship, learn and discuss about our creator in earnest. The Bible says in Matthew 18: 20 “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”At these fellowship meetings we have powerful prayers for the Land we live in, for peace among humanity and for salvation. Fellowships happen all over the country, early in the morning, during the day, evenings or late at night.
They work best when the group agrees prayer points to work on and everyone prays to God for that breakthrough. There have been testimonies and testimonies from these fellowships.
Anyone can start a Fellowship, all it takes is a group of more than two people who follow these rules:
1. Have a least two committed partners. Team up with others who share the same vision and heart for the success of the fellowship. This isn’t to say that you couldn’t do it on your own, but it’s helpful to share the experience with another person. Also, at the times when you feel worn down, your prayer partner will lift you up. I’m reminded of how Jesus sent his disciples out witnessing to the towns in groups of two. There’s a lesson in that for us to learn.
2. Stay consistent. It’s important that you set a time and place for your meeting and then stick to it. Fellowships have the greatest success when they meet consistently each week, on the same day, time and at the same place. In time this forms a powerful habit that sustains you.
3. Stay Committed. Your commitment to the success of the fellowship is vital. Life has its way of presenting all types of reasons to talk us out of meeting. I guarantee that once you make the vow to start fellowshipping, the Enemy will throw everything your way to distract you. God must be very proud when we stay faithful to our vows to Him. This is another good example where your partnercan encourage you not to quit.
4. Pray often. I hesitate to make this number four because it’s really number one. When you begin to fellowship and serve God, you have just volunteered for service on the front line of the spiritual battle and prayeris your principal offensive weapon. You will need to pray often and fervently for your fellowship.
Photo courtesy emoryfellowship.org
5. Talk to people. You can’t expect people to come if you don’t invite them. I know that most of us are frightened by the prospect of ‘witnessing’ to people. It has helped me to stop thinking of it as witnessing, instead, I think of it as ‘having something great that I want to share it with others’. Don’t talk to people with the agenda of trying to get them to your fellowship; they’ll see through it in a heartbeat. Rather, find out about them, what’s happening in their lives? What are they looking for? How can you help them? Remember, it’s the goodness of God that leads men into repentance, you can be the vehicle by which God’s love is communicated to them.
6. Stay Flexible. You don’t want to have a lot of predetermined concepts on what your fellowship should look like. The Lord knows the needs of those around you, so stay flexible to his direction. Every human is different and unique, so stay sensitive and ready to adjust to meet their needs.
7. Focus on the Goals. The purpose of fellowshipping is to promote the Good News of salvation and to make disciples (Matt. 28:18). The fellowship has to be a place to learn and grow in the Lord. You don’t have to be teaching fellowship to avail yourself of classes, books, and tapes. Your gatherings should be promoting sound teaching and producing spiritual growth in you and those that attend. Don’t make the mistake of running a club instead of a fellowship. A club can be fun but not very profitable spiritually.
8. Just do it. We have a tendency to discount ourselves or to think that “I’ll start once I get the house in order, or learn more of the Word, or…” Well, you get the idea. We may have fear, but the only thing that causes us to fail is giving in to those fears. Our desire to have a fellowship is a beautiful thing in God’s sight.
I have started a fellowship, but because my group lives busy lives, we send our prayer points by email. Everyone has a set time to pray. As a Christian we are meant to pray every day. If you consider King David, who wrote most of the Psalms, he prayed before he did anything – it’s what is meant by ‘pray without ceasing’. My fellowship is about getting my friends and family to pray for each other. Most of us found that we didn’t make sufficient time to pray, but giving everyone the responsibility for praying for each other worked, and we began to have breakthroughs and testimony. If you want to join our fellowship, please leave me a message at the end of my Blog.
Bless
