When considering how the church is built up in Christ, the starting point is and must always be the Word of God. It is by the Word proclaimed and sacramentally received by the praying community of faith that Christ continues to build, guide, sustain, protect, and nourish his church.

It is the church as the family of God, as the community of the Spirit, particularly when it is gathered for public worship, that receives the Word of Christ. Edification is a corporate affair (1 Pet. 2:5).

Indispensable Fellowship

OPC church planters, including myself, are all given a little booklet to read: Planting an Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Among its many pearls of wisdom is this sage observation:

In some church-planting circles, the concept of fellowship is identified as a separate ministry activity. However, it seems more appropriate to identify fellowship activities as one of the means to promote spiritual growth among the people of the mission work. The people whom God has drawn together to form a new church need to know each other and enjoy the sweet fellowship of the saints in order to grow and serve effectively. (91)

To summarize: fellowship activities must not be conceived as an add-on, as one aspect of what the church is and does, tangentially related to worship, Bible study, mercy ministry, etc. Rather, it is a vital factor in everything we are called to be and do as a church.

Gathering together in worship is constitutive and central, for it is there that we behold and witness to who we truly are in Christ. However, if we neglect gathering together outside of worship, are we truly walking in the light of what we are and express together in worship?

Back in December 2016, the New York Times published an article titled “How Social Isolation Is Killing Us.” Summarizing recent research on how more and more of us are feeling lonely, disconnected, and detached from meaningful communion with others, the article claims that social isolation is killing us. It concludes:

Individuals with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones. One recent study found that isolation increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent and stroke by 32 percent. Another analysis that pooled data from 70 studies and 3.4 million people found that socially isolated individuals had a 30 percent higher risk of dying in the next seven years, and that this effect was largest in middle age. Loneliness can accelerate cognitive decline in older adults, and isolated individuals are twice as likely to die prematurely as those with more robust social interactions. These effects start early: Socially isolated children have significantly poorer health 20 years later, even after controlling for other factors. All told, loneliness is as important a risk factor for early death as obesity and smoking.

The world around us is literally dying for lack of genuine community, that which the church of Jesus Christ has and is. Yet too often, I fear, church members feel the same social isolation as those in the world. Are we truly appreciating and living out what we learned at the Lord’s Table? Does our gathering together for corporate worship result in our being knit even closer together outside of worship? Do we truly recognize how glorious a gift we have been given in Christ in one another?

Take the time to read again what Jesus said in John 13:35. Read what the Apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:14 and 4:7–12. Consider what Paul wrote:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Rom. 12:9–18)

Clearly, this is more than an occasional exercise. It is not an add-on. It is a way of life, a culture, a society that shapes our daily lives in this world.

Powerful Fellowship

Marva Dawn wrote about how the lack of genuine love affects the church, its worship, and its witness. She lamented:

We might know some facts about each other, but we do not actually know who a fellow congregant really is, so we talk about trivia when we gather. We do not know how to share what genuinely matters, how to deal with the real lives and deep hurts or doubts of honest people, or how to speak the truth. Lacking sincere intimacy in congregational fellowship, we often put false pressure on worship to produce feelings of intimacy. Alienated by the lack of true “public” worship, many people, conditioned by our culture’s sterility, prefer merely to attend, and not participate in, worship. They can get lost in a crowd of passive spectators or worship solely through televised services. (Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, 28)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is not how it should be. What can we offer those around us who are dying for lack of true, intimate, meaningful fellowship, if we ourselves are not living out of the inheritance of the communion of the saints graciously won for us by Christ? What argument can we offer to those who prefer to stay home and “watch” worship?

Put plainly, we need to spend even more time together: visit each other regularly, call each other regularly, pray for each other regularly, have each other into our homes regularly, and spend time with each other both in and outside of worship services.

And when together, we need to open our hearts to one another—our hopes and our fears, our doubts, our weaknesses, our joys, and our sorrows. We need to really talk and really listen. We need to encourage one another in the things of the Lord. We need to pray not only for but with one another.

We were not meant to walk the way of the cross alone. We need to remember that a truly glorious aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that by his death and resurrection he not only reconciled us to God (though that is the best part), but also to each other.

And we need to believe that the Holy Spirit gives to each member of his church gifts and graces that are indispensable for the wellbeing of the other members—gifts and graces that can only be shared with and enjoyed by others when they are together. The fruits which flow out of the communion of the saints will be mutual edification, a deeper and more profound sense of gratitude and praise for God in worship, a closer bond in public worship with those who with us, next to us, are singing God’s praise, and the drawing in of those outside who see among us something that they are dying to have.

All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by his Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory: and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man. (Westminster Confession of Faith, 26.1)

The author is pastor of Pasadena OPC in Pasadena, California. New Horizons, December 2024.