Facilitated by Florence Glaubius
Includes a light lunch and futher fellowship
From the back cover: “Fellowship among believers is more than just talking over coffee after church service. Biblical fellowship in New Testament times―or koinōnia―had rich and varied meanings, including covenant relationship, partnership in the gospel, communion with God and others, and the sharing of earthly possessions.”
Jerry Bridges lays out the various ways this word is used in the NT and how we can strive toward this kind of fellowship, this sharing the Christian life as we are called to do in many passages.
Bridges, quoting from J. I. Packer, writes-Historically, the church’s Apostles’ Creed speaks of “the communion of saints,” referring no doubt to both the objective community relationship and the experiential sharing of spiritual fellowship with one another. Packer tells us, “The Puritans used to ask God for one ‘bosom friend,’ with whom they could share absolutely everything and maintain a full-scale prayer-partner relationship; and with that they craved, and regularly set up, group conversations about divine things.”
Our goal in working through this book together is to first understand the foundation for true community as we must first be in relationship with Christ and second what true fellowship looks like as we seek to share this common life with other believers.
As Pastor Joel has so recently taught us from Acts 2 - “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer”, this sharing of a common life was a mark of the early church.
The book is written with a shepherd’s love for the flock, exhorting with loving encouragement.
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