When I first began attending church in 1975, I was a very broken, young (23) woman who had just lost her brother to suicide. I found myself in a tiny church (maybe 70 members), which (in those days) gathered on Sunday mornings and again in that evening, Tuesday morning for Bible study, and Wednesday night for "family night." Many Saturdays, we gathered for a softball or basketball game and a picnic, and on some Monday or Thursday evenings, for "Koinönia." That's what our pastor called it. There were many issues with the theology of this body of believers, but they had love. Those people helped to heal me. We all knew each other well, knew the inside of each other's homes, and when someone had a need, we all knew about it and helped. When my father also committed suicide, my pastor noticed something as he stood up on the platform and looked out over the congregation that following Sunday morning. He noticed that the majority of the parishioners were sitting as close as they could to me, in the middle pew on the left of the church. He described it as antibodies, all rushing to heal a wound. So much has happened since I was attending that tiny church, and for a while, I haven't attended anywhere. But recently, my husband and I found a tiny church (built in 1901) in a tinier town close by that, although this one is different in may ways to that first church I attended, and they only meet once a week, there's a sense of Koinönia as we gather in the back room after service for coffee and snacks.
my church is called Koinonia Fellowship! our church culture is very heavy in the “fellowship” area! the thing i have learned most though is that true fellowship while it causes a lot of pain sometimes it also leads to so much growth and beauty. the vulnerability it takes to create genuine fellowship can really tear people apart. we are all fallible humans. but when there is a need, great or small…i could list story after story of people stepping in for one another. its amazing to witness the love of God through Christian fellowship!
Thank you for this. As someone who exists in the middle of powerful koinonia literally every day in my ministry context, I have become convinced over many years that the church has missed its best opportunities to develop cultures that model the Acts 2 and Acts 4 community -- which is the lived experience of the Kingdom that Jesus was promoting. And I don't mean small groups, which are great and necessary, or even weekly gatherings that are somehow more community-based. I mean developing and promoting the means for people to physically share life in some way every single day. This is an extremely difficult to achieve notion within our larger American cultural context, where everything, including our churches, accommodates the lifestyle ideals that actually lead to isolation. We have to stop measuring success on metrics like how many people get together for an hour on Sunday, and aim for how lives are being connected in self-directed ways every day.
I get to see this happen, largely through the existence of effective spiritually-based Third Places on college campuses, and have become increasingly pushed to think about how this can translate into our larger cultural contexts. It's a daunting challenge, but one that I believe holds the key to both breaking down the toxic realties of our current church culture and accommodating people in genuine, transformative experiences of community and faith.
When I first began attending church in 1975, I was a very broken, young (23) woman who had just lost her brother to suicide. I found myself in a tiny church (maybe 70 members), which (in those days) gathered on Sunday mornings and again in that evening, Tuesday morning for Bible study, and Wednesday night for "family night." Many Saturdays, we gathered for a softball or basketball game and a picnic, and on some Monday or Thursday evenings, for "Koinönia." That's what our pastor called it. There were many issues with the theology of this body of believers, but they had love. Those people helped to heal me. We all knew each other well, knew the inside of each other's homes, and when someone had a need, we all knew about it and helped. When my father also committed suicide, my pastor noticed something as he stood up on the platform and looked out over the congregation that following Sunday morning. He noticed that the majority of the parishioners were sitting as close as they could to me, in the middle pew on the left of the church. He described it as antibodies, all rushing to heal a wound. So much has happened since I was attending that tiny church, and for a while, I haven't attended anywhere. But recently, my husband and I found a tiny church (built in 1901) in a tinier town close by that, although this one is different in may ways to that first church I attended, and they only meet once a week, there's a sense of Koinönia as we gather in the back room after service for coffee and snacks.
my church is called Koinonia Fellowship! our church culture is very heavy in the “fellowship” area! the thing i have learned most though is that true fellowship while it causes a lot of pain sometimes it also leads to so much growth and beauty. the vulnerability it takes to create genuine fellowship can really tear people apart. we are all fallible humans. but when there is a need, great or small…i could list story after story of people stepping in for one another. its amazing to witness the love of God through Christian fellowship!
Thank you for this. As someone who exists in the middle of powerful koinonia literally every day in my ministry context, I have become convinced over many years that the church has missed its best opportunities to develop cultures that model the Acts 2 and Acts 4 community -- which is the lived experience of the Kingdom that Jesus was promoting. And I don't mean small groups, which are great and necessary, or even weekly gatherings that are somehow more community-based. I mean developing and promoting the means for people to physically share life in some way every single day. This is an extremely difficult to achieve notion within our larger American cultural context, where everything, including our churches, accommodates the lifestyle ideals that actually lead to isolation. We have to stop measuring success on metrics like how many people get together for an hour on Sunday, and aim for how lives are being connected in self-directed ways every day.
I get to see this happen, largely through the existence of effective spiritually-based Third Places on college campuses, and have become increasingly pushed to think about how this can translate into our larger cultural contexts. It's a daunting challenge, but one that I believe holds the key to both breaking down the toxic realties of our current church culture and accommodating people in genuine, transformative experiences of community and faith.