Christian Fellowship I: Why We Came Today

Veteran pastor Bob Anderson tells this one on himself. A Sunday School class was having a backyard cookout and they wanted the preacher there. However, Pastor Bob had an earlier engagement–a wedding, a committee meeting, something–and would be late in arriving. Finally, he finished whatever he was doing and drove across Baton Rouge to the cookout.

He found the neighborhood, then located the street. He knew the couple hosting the cookout and was fairly certain he knew which house they lived in. Fairly certain.

Since everyone would be in the back yard, Bob did not bother to knock, but opened the front door and let himself in. He made his way through the foyer and living area and walked into the kitchen where an unfamiliar woman stood at the sink. He stared at her and she at him. Through the window behind her, Bob could see there was no one in the back yard. He was in the wrong house. This was not good.

What do you say in a moment like this? Nothing has prepared you for such a moment, and the words erupt from your throat in a kind of spasm. Pastor Bob Anderson blurted out, “I’ve come for fellowship!”

He told this story in chapel at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary one day maybe three years ago. When the laughter subsided, he told the students, “You will be interested in knowing that that lady and her family started coming to my church and became wonderful members.” A tribute to the woman’s courage and to the pastor’s recovery, if you ask me.

I’ve come for fellowship.

We might as well write that out and hang it around the necks of every visitor to your church next Sunday. No matter all the reasons they think brought them there, the people who enter your worship center have come for fellowship, believe me.


Yes, they come for those other reasons too–to worship God, to learn His word, to hear a preacher they like, to see people they know, to make friends, to eat, to play, to give, to serve, on and on.

But I’m telling you, most of them come for fellowship. I’m not saying they realize it or would admit it. But from what I’ve seen in church for all these years and from what I’ve learned about human nature, they’re coming for fellowship.

By “fellowship,” I mean they’re looking for friends at the deepest level, people whom they can walk the journey of life beside, a support team for their children, people who believe in God the way they do. They are not looking for entertainment, although they want to laugh. They are not looking for education, although they hope to learn. They are not searching for jobs to do, although they will be open to finding places of service where they will fit. They are not looking for business contacts, although they wouldn’t mind if that was the result.

In a word, they’re looking for friends.

As a college student I visited in a Baptist church on the far side of Birmingham with some friends. It was a large church and that morning, a guest preacher filled the pulpit. I might have been 20 years old, which makes it 48 years ago, but I remember something the preacher said like it was last Sunday.

Just before he delivered his sermon, he prayed. The last sentence of his prayer and the opening sentence of his sermon were back to back separated only by an “amen.”

“Bless us, O God, as we come to worship Thee, for we are here for no other reason. Amen.” He looked out at the congregation and said, “People come to church for many different reasons.”

I sat there thinking, “Hmmm. He told God we were all here to worship Him. He told us we had come for many different reasons. Wonder who he’s not leveling with.”

I think we know. He told us the truth. And I suppose he told God what he figured the Lord wanted to hear.

But God knows. And it’s all right by Him that among the long list of reasons that motivate church-goers, fellowship may be at the top. The fact is He created us like Himself because He likes to be with people, too. James Weldon Johnson in his wonderful play, “God’s Trombones,” envisions the Lord at Creation looking out at everything He has made and saying, “I’m lonely. I’ll make me a man.”

God longed for fellowship. He wanted intelligent conversation with someone with a brain, he wanted significant partnership with someone who thought and reasoned and had opinions. He was not looking for a robot that did only what it was programmed to do. He was looking for more than the companionship of a pet. Something inside the Lord of the universe craved more than that.

He came for fellowship.

I wonder if that’s the missing element in our churches today.

Go back to the early days of this Christian movement. People in the Jerusalem area were hearing about Jesus Christ from their friends and flocking to the home gatherings to learn more. As they opened their hearts to the Lord, they found they were hungering for more of the Lord. They couldn’t get enough.

“They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer….Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42, 46-47)

Prior to Katrina, David Brown pastored the Lakeview Baptist Church in New Orleans while he worked on his doctorate at our seminary. One Wednesday morning, he sat in my office at the association and filled me in on what was happening at his church. I knew his wife Melinda was a chef, and that she filled in for the chef at one of our fine restaurants three nights a week. “We’ve started having Wednesday night suppers at the church,” he said. “Melinda is doing them.”

I said, “Not your average church supper!” He laughed, “We’re having Sunday morning crowds on Wednesday nights.” When he invited to come sometime, I said, “How about tonight?”

That evening, there might have been 50 people in the fellowship hall–this is not a large church. After a bit of socializing, we took our seats and Melinda brought out the dinner: a salad and lasagna and bread pudding for dessert. It was as good as anything you would eat in town. We enjoyed the occasion and visited with one another. Then, after a bit, David stood and welcomed us, made a couple of announcements, took prayer requests, led in prayer, and brought a brief Bible study. It was a pleasant hour and a half.

The next day, I phoned him to say what a successful evening it had been. David said, “I know they’re not coming for my Bible studies. They’re coming for the food.”

I said, “David, my friend, let me say something important to you here. Even if you did not have a Bible study, even if you did not offer a prayer, it still would be a great thing for your church to have a supper like this.” He didn’t say anything, so I added, “I don’t know your people, but I guarantee you that for some, this is the only time of the entire week they sit down with Christian people who love the Lord the way they do.”

The Bible puts it like this: “How good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” (Psalm 133:1)

When you plan your church activities and when you design your church buildings, do not forget that your people need places and times and occasions when nothing is on the agenda, when the assignment is just to sit around and enjoy one another’s company. And if it happens that you, the minister, feel guilty because you are not up talking and leading and praying, if you begin worrying that nothing productive is coming out of this event, please walk over to your wife or the chairman of deacons and ask them to knock some sense into your head. They will be happy to comply.

One thought on “Christian Fellowship I: Why We Came Today

  1. Joe: Amen on the fellowship. It seems over the past several years that we have lost the value of just sitting and talking to one another. It is not a waste of time when we have no agenda to attend to. People deal with agenda’s all day. Come to church and another agenda is offered.

    We gather in our meetings, say the obligatory prayers, sing a hymn or two, hear the preacher say some words, pronounce the amen and go home. No excitement, no joy. We have done our duty. We go home pat ourselves on the back as though we have done God a favor, watch the late news and go to bed. While outside there is a world of people who need fellowship of Christian people. Someone to point them to Christ. Without Christ as their savior they are lost! Eternally lost!

Comments are closed.