Church fellowship

“ Church fellowship, rightly managed, abounds with blessings, when the bishops or elders and the people are united in gospel bonds to promote each other's peace and holy enjoyments—their great happiness being to extend the benign influence of the Redeemer's kingdom. Let Watchful be the porter; Discretion admit the members; Prudence take the oversight; Piety conduct the worship; and Charity endear the members to each other, and it is a house 'beautiful.' 'Christians are like the several flowers in a garden ”

“ How far have men a right to be hearers—profited and believing hearers—in the Christian congregation, and yet decline the duties of Church fellowship? They eat the Church's bread, but will not do her work. They expect like children to be fed and nursed and waited on ”

“ II. Our share and fellowship in the work of the Gospel is to make all men see their interest in it, to make them understand its true catholicity, to make all men see that it is from the first the will of God that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs. By the Church is to be made known the manifold wisdom of God. ”

“ Constitution, Worship, and Discipline.6
Bound under Christ its one head into an articulated whole, the church ought by the co-operation of all its members conditioned and determined by position, talent, and calling, to build itself up and grow (1 Cor. xii. 12 ff.; Eph. i. 22 f.) . Development will thus be secured to natural talent and the spiritual calling through the bestowment of special gifts of grace or charismata. The first form of Christian church fellowship, in the Jewish as well as the Gentile Christian churches, was of a thoroughly free character ”

“ The Church, we say, is a living fellowship—not in the first place an organization, but in the first place an organism—not an institution, but a body, built up of many cells, many individuals, just as the body has cells that grow and change and perform their several functions under the direction of an all-pervading, all-embracing life. That is what a living fellowship means. This life received through direct contact with the Divine life is the one essential of the Christian Church. ”

“ If they do seriously profess, that what they do is in obedience to the will, and, as they judge, to the call of Christ as their indispensable duty;—that they join in church fellowship to meet with and enjoy God, to receive out of his fulness to enable them to perform all duties, and to conform their hearts and lives in his will to all things;—such persons may undoubtedly be accounted worthy members, and admitted as such. ”

“ No other fellowship offers to men of faith so great an opportunity to make distinctive contribution to the race's spiritual life. In the presence of the Church's service and the Church's need an unaffiliated believer in Jesus Christ is an anomaly. For enrichment, stability, and expression, faith must have fellowship. ”

“ Will you not agree with me that there is one comprehensive Church whose fellowship consists in the desire to purify and ennoble human life, and where the best members of all narrower Churches may call themselves brother and sister in spite of differences? ”

“ ANY man who is a christian, or is in Christ, can be received into the fellowship of the church. If a man is not a christian, not in Christ, he can not, in any consistency, be received into the church or into the pulpit. We would not give much for any man’s principles, who can set them aside for a little act of courtesy, or a little pretence of liberality. It is nothing but a sham, an empty pretence and hypocrisy, to receive a man into the pulpit, and recognize him before the people, to whom you would not give the right hand of fellowship. ”

“ We are not now speaking of the membership of the Church, but of the ministry, and we are not speaking of the man who is troubled by grave doubts and wonders whether with his doubts he can honestly continue his membership in the Church. For great hosts of such troubled souls the Church offers bountifully its fellowship and its aid; it would be a crime to cast them out. There are many men of little faith in our troublous times. It is not of them that we speak. God grant that they may obtain comfort and help through the ministrations of the Church! ”

“ That offering of ourselves must be made not only by our lips in the act of worship, but also by our lives, in deeds.
So, also, the spirit of Christ is the spirit of service, through love, in behalf of others—the spirit of true fellowship. Now we cannot realize that spirit without sacrifice of selfish inclination and desire. We saw that the main body of the church {25} represents that portion of Christ's Church which is on earth, and that the nave suggests the idea of fellowship as the very spirit and law of the Christian life. ”

“ The doctrine of plurality was a great bugbear to me, till I got to Florence and read the works of brother Orson Pratt; and now I see that it is heaven's own doctrine, and the Church of Jesus Christ can never be perfect without it. Had I known as much of the Church of Jesus Christ and its doctrines before I apostatized as I now know, I think I could not have back-slidden.
I have come here to get good society —to get your fellowship. I want your fellowship; I want your God to be my God, and I want to live with you for ever, in time and eternity. ”

“ The church, as the fellowship106 of the Holy Spirit, is the instrument that God created to speak and act for Him in each generation. Our human response to His calling us to be His people and servants produced the church as an institution, with its organizational and denominational divisions. As any perceptive person realizes, there is often conflict between the church as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the church as institution. As institution, the church faces the temptation of being more concerned about itself than about God and His purposes for His people. ”

“ Be ready to lay aside your preconceived ideas as to how the Gospel should be preached, how Church matters should be handled, discipline enforced, and your own position in the Church.
Come as a learner, and men who were Christians before you emerged from childhood will give you the benefit of a ripe experience, and if you prove worthy of it, admit you to fellowship in service. ”

“ Therefore, each Christian, especially if he fills such an office and partakes of this fellowship, should be intent, in that whereunto God has called and appointed him, upon serving God faithfully and doing that which is commanded him. The anxiety respecting the Church's continued existence and her preservation against the devil and the world, can be left to the Lord. ”

“ That letter has been brought to the notice of the two General Assemblies of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Those assemblies represent nearly five thousand ministers of the gospel, and a still larger number of Christian congregations.
"Believing, as we do, that it is the will of Christ that his church on earth should be one; and recognizing the duty of doing all we consistently can to promote Christian charity and fellowship, we deem it right to say in few words why we cannot comply with your invitation, or participate in the deliberations of the approaching council. ”

“ By these means chiefly comes that "kingdom of God which is within us," and is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," Every other work will be done efficiently by the whole body just as this inner work begins and progresses among its individual members. But the fellowship and mutual aid of the members of the Church in "considering one another, and provoking to love and good works," and in contributing their share of God's gifts and grace bestowed upon themselves for the comfort and edification of their brethren, also belongs to the inner work of the Church. ”

“ When we consider the divine nature of the church's organization, with the ever-living Christ working mightily in all his ministers and through them in particular administering its government, we can see that the entire church was necessarily one body joined together in a common fellowship and actually laboring together in the performance of common tasks. ”

“ Fellowship.—Man is a social being and he seeks contact with his fellow men. Many of the worldly ways in which this fellowship is sought are ways which lead to the wrecking of man, body and soul, or to the obliteration of all the finer feelings. The mission of the Christian Church is to strengthen the social bond by seeking to cultivate all the better impulses and finer feelings in man, and to place society on a firmer footing in love, purity and righteousness (1 John 1:3; 1:5; Acts 2:42; 1 Corinthians 1:9) . ”

“ It is no business of ours to pronounce judgment upon the spiritual state of other persons. We shall thank God for every sign of the Christian virtues and graces shown in other persons who have not been brought to baptism; we may believe that they are members of the Church in heaven; but still, I would submit, we must say for all purposes of practical working, that the Church on earth is the fellowship of the baptized. ”

“ Roscoe.—"Yet I still prefer fellowship with our own church, while cherishing fraternal esteem and fellowship with our Christian brethren of other churches."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Certainly. When we say that the members of our church, and the various orders of Dissenters who have seceded from it, ought, in obedience to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, to cherish reciprocal esteem, and live in peaceful harmony, we do not mean that they are to separate themselves from their own communions, or cease to give them a decided preference." ”

“ The apostles, if I recollect rightly, required repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as essential qualifications for admission [515] into the church; and if any member walked disorderly, he was separated from Christian fellowship."
"It is so amongst us Dissenters. We do not profess to have a perfect church, but we do not suffer any one to remain in membership with us who dishonours his profession by any known act of impiety or immorality." ”

“ Note 8.—A church excluding a member has no just cause of complaint against another church for receiving such an excluded member, since the one church is just as independent to receive one whom it judges worthy of fellowship, as the other is to exclude one whom it judged unworthy of fellowship. ”

“ To both ministers and members, such a manual, it is hoped, will prove a valuable helper in the interest of church order, and of denominational unity and prosperity. Especially for the younger members, so many thousands of whom are yearly admitted [p. 6] to the fellowship of the churches, with an unlimited franchise, while but imperfectly instructed as to either doctrines or order, it should prove a most valuable assistant. ”

“ Thus in good fellowship the church works unitedly to further Christ's kingdom. New organizations are formed as some enthusiastic member discerns a new need or a new field. It is a veritable hive of industry whose doors are never closed day or night. ”

“ Touch the head and every part of the body senses it. And so it is with every particle of the body—it is a perfect system; and so is the Church of God, and each of the organs, members in particular, thus the organized body walks in the path that God marks out, and seeks to accomplish all things that he designs for us to do. Hence there is a mutual sympathy, affection and regard, and a brotherhood and fellowship among the Saints of God who are living their religion, all through the organization of the Priesthood, from the head to the foot. ”

“ The reading of the Scriptures was of the greater consequence, since it was desired to make every Christian familiar with them. (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 1, Page 412.)
THE FELLOWSHIP
The leading idea of this term is that of joint participation. We have fellowship with God because we are made partakers of the divine nature, as we escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. We have fellowship with Jesus Christ because of the common sympathies which his life and sufferings have established between himself and us. ”

“ Note 19.—It is neither a Christian nor an honorable course for a church to grant an unworthy member a valid letter, and send him to another church as one in good and regular standing, in order to be rid of a disturber of the peace, or to avoid the trouble of a course of discipline.
Note 20.—No church is obliged to receive a person to membership, simply because he brings a valid letter from another church. Each church is to be sole judge of the qualifications of persons to be received to its fellowship. ”

“ When I look back upon my own religious experience, or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ,—alas! how much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus. ”

“ No point of doctrine is made a criterion of fellowship, but Christian fellowship rests alone on the true bias of spirit and practice. They are simple, unassuming, and spiritual in their preaching and worship; the labor of the ministers is to make their hearers good: a great share of singing and prayer is interspersed through their meetings. ”