Valuable Community

I am a slow learner sometimes, so I have no right to second guess other people’s thoughts, preferences, or experiences. But I do like a sense of community, which some would call fellowship. My upbringing put church ‘fellowship’ into the Sunday Services, and maybe the occasional special service where tea and biscuits were provided, and a light evening of music was arranged. I liked it, and admit to this being part of my past. A personal observation: Sometimes we bring our past experiences into the present day, and think that’s how it should remain. No, no, a thousand times, NO!!

Now, when I think of fellowship, I think of minds which are alike, who enjoy the same things, and agree in matters of faith and God’s Spirit. More than that, these feelings of unity (because that is what fellowship is) mean we don’t even have to be in the same room. When we give something of ourselves in say, prayer, we are in fellowship with one another. When we give to others in need, we are in fellowship with that person in need. I have stopped thinking that my fellowship with God’s people ends when I am outside the church doors.

I am going to state the obvious. The ‘world’ starts outside the church doors too, and the ‘world’ has even provided the means for us to stay in fellowship with each other, and share our needs and burdens, to allow us to pray. The greatest form of fellowship we have with the Father is prayer, and I would suggest, the greatest thing we can do in fellowship for each other is pray. We also have the means at our disposal to aid fellowship. There are phones, cards, visits, and hey, there’s always Facebook!

I started off by saying I am a slow learner. There are times when we are absent from our own fellowship, for business, illness, or holiday reasons, and it is not possible to send a card, phone, or visit, but we can stay in touch. Sorry, but I am back to Facebook again. As I write this, I am away from my own church family, but I don’t feel the distance so much, because I am able to stay in touch with some family and church folks. I get to know about prayer requests, fun things, heartfelt encouragements, and all through the wonder of Social Media. Let me make a statement, and you can feel free to take it as you wish. Through the social media of Facebook, I hear from, and can participate in other Christian’s needs and lives, but unfortunately not so much from my own church family. I know there are reasons for this, but I would suggest we are missing out on something which is a continuation of the old style of fellowship I once knew in my church, but has been made alive again in a new and different form, and keeping the spirit of togetherness breathing in many churches.

Learning can be slow and even painful, but what about setting aside some of those prejudices we have about Facebook, and using it to God’s glory, and the fellowship of the saints? Just another thought!

I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Cor 9:22 NIV

Bitesize

We like our news and information to be bitesize. Not too deep, and something we can read in 10 seconds flat. This fairly new phenomenon is borne out in popular social networking sites, like twitter and facebook. You get most attention if you can keep your witty and personal twitter comments to less than 140 characters. Anything more than that and your readers go all glazed, and the attention wavers and you have lost them. This medium is mostly (but not exclusively) used by our youth.

I suppose bitesize comments and thoughts are good, and have their place, but I wonder if this shields us from a greater reality? Are we in the process of losing our ability to read an article? Newspapers are losing their readership in vast numbers, especially the broadsheets which deal in news reporting. The newspapers which seem to be doing better rely on lots of photos, and salacious celebrity gossip, both dished up in spades. The information we are served up here, is not edifying.

This leaves me with a thought. As Christian believers, are we at risk of falling into the trap of relying on the Gospel as long as it is given in bitesize chunks, or do we make an effort to read bigger chapters of good books, and especially the best ‘good book’, the Bible? We will only scratch the surface if all we get are small, convenient pieces of the Good News, but we have a much better chance of growing in our faith when we take time (more than 10 seconds) to read God’s Word, and inspiring books. If you have reached this point in the Blog, you have done well, because this is much more than 140 characters long. Could that be because you are over 25?