Fellowship.

It’s a word used predominately in church life to describe friendship—except that it’s more than friendship.  It’s describes something like the close bonds you get in a great family—except it’s not based on a biological relationship.  It’s a sense of common purpose that happens (too rarely) on a great team—except it’s not based on sports or talent.  It’s what often happens in a small town when people grow up together—except it’s not based on age, sex, or race.

I don’t like to use Greek words from the Bible because most people don’t know them, but if I did I would use the word Koinonia–the friendship, fellowship, and family closeness that comes when believers share their lives and their hearts together.

Whatever word you want to use, it’s something that we want to build into our church.

And it doesn’t happen just by sharing an hour together in worship.  I  highly enjoy public worship, but I don’t build great friendships there.  I sing, I shake hands, I listen, I pray–but there’s not enough interaction to really get to know someone.

So if we want friendship, fellowship, closeness, family, or koinonia, we need a smaller group where we can get to know people, work with people, serve with people, listen to people, and share our hearts with other people.

For that reason, we are absolutely committed to small groups, and we highly encourage our members and attenders to join a small group or two.  It could be a Sunday School class, a choir, or a ministry.  We have a great group of classes and groups already, and we intend to add more in the coming year.  Some of them will meet on Sunday mornings; others will meet on Sunday nights (like our Mom2Mom ministry), and others (like our Celebrate Recovery Ministry) will will meet during the week.  Additional small groups and classes will be announced in the coming months.

I usually close this article by inviting you to worship with us on Sunday.  I do so again, but I also invite you to join one of our classes our groups.  There you will find real people who love God and who love others.  Don’t get me wrong–they’re not perfect people, but they are real people who want and need some of the same things that you do.  Friendship.  Fellowship.  Family.  Koinonia.

See you Sunday!  Or Wednesday.  Or Thursday.  Or Saturday. . . .