A Ban on Fellowship
I've heard it said, “There is no use saying something if you know you are going to be misunderstood.” I agree with that statement. It is the reason why Christian teachers and preachers are always defining words for their audience. The audience comes to the lesson or sermon with a certain amount of cultural baggage connected to specific words. When these words are brought up there is always a great risk of being misunderstood unless the word is properly defined. Obvious examples are words such as ‘love’ or ‘faith’ or ‘prayer’ or ‘church’.
It is tremendously important for teachers to keep allowing God to define the words he gave us in Scripture. However, lately I have been wondering if there is a point that a certain word has been damaged beyond repair? Is there a time when a word has lost all its speaker-intended meaning that it is no longer worth using anymore unless that person wants to be greatly misunderstood?
The word that immediately comes to my mind is one that has been particularly misused within the Christian community. It is the word ‘fellowship’. I've heard the word used so many times in so many situations that it is hard to figure out what it actually has come to mean. But I have worked out a common definition that suits almost all contexts: getting together with other Christians in order to do and/or discuss anything except that which relates to the gospel.
Three Christian guys getting together for lunch—working Christian men's fellowship. A church event where dinner is served—a church fellowship dinner. A home group going bowling together—home group fellowship night. The list could go on and on. Not that there is anything wrong with these types of activities. The problem comes in when it is proposed that men get together to discuss ways to get the gospel out at their workplaces or to chat about their struggles with sin. That can't be called ‘fellowship’ according to a vast majority of church members. Fellowship, by its newly-given definition, must not be serious or demanding. It is to the point that if a Bible study is advertised as ‘fellowship night’ people would accuse the leader of false advertising.
Unfortunately, church calendars are filled much more with ‘fellowship’ events than they are with Bible studies, evangelism training, and book clubs. Why? Christian fellowship is easy. It is quite easy to feel like you are participating in ‘the fellowship of the saints’ when you go to the types of events labeled ‘Christian fellowship’. Who wouldn't rather chat about the weather, sports, and music over a coffee than be challenged to grow in faith through God's Word or through a book? To make matters worse, most church-sponsored fellowship nights have little about them that is distinctively Christian in substance.
So, I am proposing a short-term ban on the word ‘fellowship’. This will call for some creative thinking about what we call our Sunday services and other events that rightly deserve the label. It is a shame to have to do this, for ‘fellowship’ is such a good word. However, it is worth not using this marginalized word so that we won't always be misunderstood when we propose, for example, to gather in fellowship to hear the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42). Try not using the word for a week. It will be hard; yet, it will be a wonderful opportunity to explain what the church of Christ is really doing.