Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Fellowship (among believers) (10/11/07)
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TITLE: "Foreign" Fellowship | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mary Ann Sadlock
10/18/07 -
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I distinctly remember a visit to a new church that, while not physically far away from our neighborhood, seemed very foreign to me. Doctrinally similar to my home church, this one seemed huge compared to my little congregation of 100. And it was huge – thousands of worshipers at any given service. My mind went into overdrive, making all sorts of ungrounded assumptions about these strangers. Soccer moms who home schooled their kids, who scheduled their Bible studies around tennis matches. Dads who made comfortable incomes and coached their children’s ball teams and planned date nights with their daughters, just like the books said they should. Nothing bad, mind you – just foreign.
As time neared for the worship service to begin, the band began playing familiar melodies as the worship leader and singers took their places. Still, I felt as if I were drowning in a sea of strangers. “Lord,” I prayed, “I don’t know these people!” “But I know them,” replied that silent Voice deep in my heart that I have come to recognize as His. In that moment, I understood one more facet of the concept of fellowship. The kindred experience does not rely on who we are, or who we are with, but on who God is and why we are gathered. There is no denying that good, “warm fuzzy” feeling when we gather as Christians in the comfort of knowing and being known. The tie that binds us, though, is not our common experience but our common salvation, our common Lord.
Of course my assessment of those unfamiliar worshipers was probably way off base, and if I had the chance to get to know them, I would have most likely discovered that we had much in common. What mattered was that even without meeting them, we could experience the fellowship that results from knowing we are all sinners saved by grace. Indeed, that’s all we need to know.
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The tie that binds us, though, is not our common experience but our common salvation, our common Lord.