When church means being together

Posted by Alan Knox on Jul 11, 2012 in blog links, community, fellowship | 2 comments

Josh at “In Search of the City” has written a great post called “Sometimes just being together is enough.” His post goes along well with my posts this week focusing on fellowship as “sharing life together as we share Christ together.”

He begins his post by explaining how he “stumbled upon the daily experience of the Body of Christ-that inexplicable reality of brothers and sisters living together, working together, enjoying Christ together.” Once this kind of fellowship becomes part of a person’s life, it’s easy to understand how those early followers of Jesus shared their food together “day by day.”

Mostly, Josh shares and responds to a message that he received from a brother in Christ after they spent time together. Here is part of that message:

I was truly refreshed by being with the saints of God and those who feel very much like family to me. I was left with much reflection that night and the following day. Though we didn’t necessarily speak much in the way of doctine or revelation, I find that I was strengthened and refreshed through our casual talk and fellowship. Essentially, I am the better spiritually because we were able to get together. What a wonderful thing it would be if we could experience such communion regularly, be it with one another, or other brothers and sisters.

Later, Josh concludes with this:

[S]ometimes (probably more often than not), just being together with other saints is enough to bring our hearts into touch with spiritual reality.

May God haste the day when this is the kind of thing that comes to a person’s mind when they hear the word “church” and not all that other stuff we so commonly associate with it.

Yes! Exactly! “I am the better spiritually because we were able to get together.” This is what is means to share our lives with one another as we also share our lives with Christ.