A photo of an 'open-air' service in Dockhead Street, Saltcoats arranged by Townhead Christian Fellowship in Stevenston. Look at the wee lad with the number 5 on his back.
I remember hearing my good friend, Dave Bremner, the CEO and founder of Go! Youth Trust in Falkirk speaking to some volunteers at a weekend away at Faskally Christian Centre near Pitlochry in Perthshire. His talk was based on the first two chapters of the book of the Acts. Dave set the scene very powerfully. The disciples had witnessed the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension into heaven but they knew that the Jews were hostile to Jesus of Nazareth and the Romans had carried out the death sentence. The disciples could have settled for a life a comfort and mutual consolation in the upper room (Acts 1:13). They could have enjoyed fellowship together in the relative security and peace of this sanctuary - the upper room. Dave's challenge to us was to avoid the 'upper room' mentality. Darrell Johnson, whose book on Discipleship on the Edge has made an impact on me, talks about the 'huddle mentality.' This is a temptation which we all face in Christian circles and which I have witnessed in various churches I have known personally. We keep ourselves locked away in our wee gospel halls singing old fashioned hymns and having 'fellowship' or koinonia together. That is not what I mean by koinonia or community. It is not about making a safe place where we can share our gloom on the world out there and how terrible things have become and pray that Jesus will come back soon to take us away from this bad, bad world.
What about the great commission to 'go into the world and preach the Gospel' or make disciples of all nations? Please do not misunderstand my emphasis on 'fellowship.' I am not in any way playing down the impact of the last two verses of Matthew's Gospel. But I want to make two relevant points. Firstly, those who are not Christians are more likely to be attracted to the message of the Gospel if they witness for themselves koinonia in action for real. We cannot claim to be followers of Jesus if we do not implement his basic commandment to 'love one another as I have loved you.' (John 13:34). I believe that a church which truly demonstrates koinonia, which is primarily about enjoying communion and fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will inevitably make a huge impact on their local community and further afield. They will become more Christ-like with His compassion for the lost. They will not erect barriers nor discriminate against those who are different or marginalised or ostracised or persecuted. They will not imitate the Pharisees who were separatists - they shunned those whom they considered less righteous than themselves. Where there was a person in need, Jesus was there and available to meet that need with love and compassion. If we are enjoying fellowship with Him, we will be like that too.
Secondly, our postmodern world is crying out for koinonia. I will focus on this in a future blog. There has been a massive breakdown in community and this has created a vacuum in our society. People are isolated and bewildered and confused. All the pillars of our world are shaking and looking very unstable. We used to look up to our politicians, for example, but they have let us down. We used to trust our celebrities and public figures but one scandal after another has sent an earthquake through our world and we have lost our confidence and our security. In the United Kingdom we regarded our royal family as almost sacred and special but, again, we have discovered that they have feet of clay as the gutter press have delighted in exposing one scandal after another. In most parts of Scotland, there is evidence of a decline in our local communities. Gone are the days when people went out of their way to help their neighbour. There are big housing estates where people hardly know the name of the person living just a few doors away from them. The notion of the extended family has also taken a knock. We live very selfish self-centred lives spending too much time on our mobile phones and our tablets.
But this provides a great opportunity for a church to reach out and demonstrate Christian love in action. A church can be an oasis of love, care and compassion in a barren desert of isolation, hostility, negativity and selfishness. We will need to be equipped to engage in outreach and the basic first step is to discover what the Bible means by koinonia - fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ and then genuine fellowship with each other (1 John 1:3). We cannot and we dare not attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of those who are not Christians by pretending that they are missing out on something real when we are, in effect, living a lie.
[14] What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? [15] If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, [16] and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? [17] So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. [James 2:14-17 ESV]
In short, genuine koinonia in action will result in genuine outreach into the community and the world.
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