Friday, January 15, 2010

True fellowship with God

Our pastor handed out a survey a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to working on it.  For the most part it's measuring stuff that I think our church is already doing pretty good at (caring for one another, understanding that holiness is something to strive for but not something we'll achieve in this life nor can self-righteously demand in others, etc.), but I just hit one question that has me stumped:

When measuring a church, we must look at the degree to which believers in the local church are regularly experiencing fellowship with God and one another.  Question: To what extent are the people in our church experiencing true fellowship with God and with one another in an integrated way? -- from the book The Measure of a Healthy Church

What is "true fellowship with God" and how in the world would I know if our church is experiencing it?  I can imagine coming up with an answer for myself (which would probably be something along the lines of, "is that even possible when you share a pew with kids?") but to answer that for the church? How should I know?

And what's the bit about "in an integrated way"?  Does that mean fellowship with God and one another at the same time? Or in the same setting?

Sounds like a bunch of Christianese to me.  Perhaps it's explained in the book but all I have is a photocopy of the survey. So, what do you think it means?

3 comments:

  1. hmmm... I think if I were filling in this survey I'd be tempted to answer: huh? could I have a translation please?

    fellowship with one another is tricky enough to define... I guess if we could work out what we mean by that we could work out what fellowship with God might mean... so what does it mean to experience fellowship with one another? does it mean that we meet and communicate and manage not to hit each other over the head?

    just thinking aloud...

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  2. I guess you just sense if it's real or not

    or just going through the motions [through familiarity]

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  3. I feel I have experienced it...with God and others at the same time...
    bu rarely [sadly]

    definitely back in '87, in a housechurch setting, that was local [so we knew each other in ordinary situations through the weeks, too]

    and also when I worked in a mission with others and we shared a house [some of us]
    in the late night chats around the big dining table at the end of the day, that sometimes were linked with prayer too

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