If we ask ourselves the question “what does scripture say should happen when believers gather together” (i.e. the weekly service) we might be surprised. One thing that dominates the various passages (Rom. 12:6-10; I Cor. 11:17-24;I Cor. 14:26-33; Gal. 6:2; Eph. 5:19-21; Col. 3:16; Heb. 10:24-25; James 5:14-16) is that there should be the mutual exercise of gifts to edify one another. This may not seem radical at first, but it is rare and it is biblical fellowship. How many Sunday services have you been to where many different people exercise gifts to edify others in a mutual way? Usually the preacher does nearly all the ministry. Preaching is important but is this biblical fellowship?
It is true that the worship time is a time when people other than the pastor exercise their gifts. But where are the different people exercising the various gifts in Romans 12 (e.g., exhorting, teaching, leading, mercy, service, prophecy)? Where are all the different contributors mentioned in I Cor. 14? In Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16 believers should be speaking psalms and hymns and songs to “one another”. Other mutual activities mentioned in other passages include exhortation, bearing one another’s burdens, praying for each other, confessing sins to each other, encouraging one another, exercising various ministries, and building one another up. This is biblical fellowship.
The key point is that these activities are supposed to happen at regular meeting times, because this is biblical fellowship. All believers are supposed to be involved and contribute because all have gifts, and some are ministers. This might lead us to say that it is impractical to do all these on a Sunday morning. I sympathize with that, but should that stop us from trying to do more? And then making sure the remainder of biblical fellowship happens during the week? To put it another way, is it really okay to just avoid the passages? It’s understandable if someone tells God that they would like to try, but they don’t know how. But is it okay to fall back into denial or avoidance? We can encourage the exercise of gifts in small groups during the week, but shouldn’t we be actually doing it on Sunday too if possible?
Maybe biblical fellowship is the best way of doing fellowship. Maybe it is the best way of edifying believers.
Thinking about this another way, how would the Apostle Paul evaluate a gathering where there was no mutual exercise of gifts? It seems like he would say the gathering has been gutted of the most important activities. If scripture says this is how we should do fellowship then maybe there is a good reason for it (since it is the inspired word of God.) Maybe biblical fellowship is the best way of doing fellowship. Maybe it is the best way of edifying believers.
This would mean that our Sunday service should be designed to maximize the exercise of gifts and ministries by as many different people as possible. You can have more testimonies. You could have a dedicated ministry time in the middle of the service or at the end (which the pastor needs to encourage because of natural shyness to ask for prayer). You can probably come up with more ideas if you worked on it. But the main point for now is that the first step towards biblical fellowship is to accept what scripture says and not avoid or deny it. And secondly, to try to do it. It is okay if it takes time, but at least we should try.
In the meantime, look for small groups that practice biblical fellowship. Try to find places where the believers are mutually exercising their spiritual gifts. Then everyone will receive the blessings God wants to give through biblical fellowship.
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