Is Christian community happening much in our churches? Unfortunately, it is not. Fellowship is happening -- but only at a minimum, probably not in a form that significantly glorifies God. We seem to settle on giving God the least and justify it by stating that we are mere sinners, as if God had not created us for community, close interpersonal relationships and obedience.

What are the definitions of fellowship and community?

FELLOWSHIP occurs when a collection of people meet as a group to work at accomplishing a purpose other than significant involvement in one another's personal lives. Such a group might be the whole congregation or a sizeable portion thereof, or even a church committee. Actually most church groups are fellowships -- but not communities. Programs and activities are not fellowship, only occasions for fellowship. If church members are using such informal times together as occasions to draw closer to one another in Christ, fellowship is occurring. If such times are primarily for entertainment, recreation, or individual spiritual growth, genuine biblical fellowship is not occurring to any great extent.

COMMUNITY is generally only possible in small group meetings of 6 to 12 people where an attempt is made toward significant involvement of group members in each others' lives. This will require implementing those things Christians are commanded to do when they get together; what we call "The Togethers." This kind of community will glorify God and meet the personal needs of group members. Community can be thought of as the most significant kind of fellowship. Or we can say it a different way: all community is fellowship while not much of fellowship is true community.

Fellowship gives Christians a sense of belonging while Community gives them a sense of personal involvement. Both are to be done through God's power in the Holy Spirit and in accordance with God's nature.

Why is Christian community so rare in churches? Sadly, it seems that Christians are resistant to true community. It doesn't seem like the real business of the church. I hope you will soon see the grave mistake this is. In many ways, Christian community is more important than most of the other things that go on in our churches.

"Now, wait a minute!" you might be saying. "It surely is not more important than worship!" Soon I will show you that Christian community is a main form of worship. And that leaving it out is abandoning a huge chunk of the worship of God. Christian community is very, very important.

You might be asking, "Why is Christian community all that critical if the churches don't do it much?"

Christian Community Is Worship
Let me start with the BIG argument. And that position is that Christian community is a main part of worship. We probably all agree that worship is the biggest responsibility and the best privilege of the church.

Let's start with the assumption that the worship of God is our highest privilege and duty. For the purposes of this discussion, let me define worship with the simple and popular definition that it is "ascribing worth to God."

Now, here is the critical point! How can you use anything other than God's own character, His attributes, to ascribe worth to God? How can you use something inferior to ascribe worth to something superior? You can't.

Therefore, true, authentic worship, as recently explained by my own Sunday School teacher, Lane Cohee, is reflecting back to God his own character and nature. It is reflecting the attributes of God -- to God.

The more you think about this, the more it makes perfect sense. So let me say it once again. True, authentic worship is reflecting back to God His own attributes.

When we praise God with words, we speak of his wonderful nature, his character, and his attributes. When we thank God sufficiently, we refer to his attributes such as his forgiving nature, his love, etc. So when we worship in prayer, we use words to reflect back to God his own attributes. We describe Him by his own character, since any other description would be below Him, inferior to His standard.

When we worship through the sacraments, we speak of God's character. Communion speaks of his saving grace through the death of Christ. Baptism reminds us of his perfection and his desire to save his people from their sins.

Our most worshipful holidays center on God's character. Christmas emphasizes the infinity of his love in the Incarnation. Easter speaks of the sacrificially compassionate aspect of his love, that he gave his only begotten son to die for us. These are but incomplete descriptions of how we reflect to God his own character when we worship Him. Each act of worship, each sacrament and each holiday hopefully reflect many aspects of His character.

Yet, our lives also have the privilege of worship. We have potential through the help of the Holy Spirit to effect by our obedience worship that reflects to God his own glory, his own nature, character, and attributes. When you or I forgive someone, we reflect to God his own forgiving character. Forgiving someone, then, is an acceptable and important act of individual worship.

So you can easily see that not only by words can we truly worship God. Our very lives can be worship to God. In Romans 12:1 the Apostle Paul exhorts us this way: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- which is your spiritual worship." It is with our thoughts and words that we start the process of worshiping God. But it is with our actions and our very lives that we CONFIRM those worshipful prayers and testimonies. Our very lives are to be worship, reflecting to God his nature by our obedience to his commands that flow forth from his very nature.

I need to point out that our Western, individualistic culture can blind us to the biblically obvious fact that God most delights in the corporate worship of his people -- together. And, please pay close attention here! If the lives of his people together are not obediently worshipful in their deeds, if their behavior together is not in line with His nature, then He will not listen to their verbal worship. The prophet Amos clearly stated to the people of Israel in Amos 5 after he had enumerated various behaviors that were an affront to God's character, "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.... Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps."

Therefore, it is Christian community that gives us the most important opportunity to reflect to God His own character -- as a people -- as His people! Each of the 65 "Togethers" are acts of corporate worship in that each is reflecting in some important way God's own nature back to Him.

The Togethers
Each Together is an act of corporate love, actually God being loved by his people. Obedience to those things God commands Christians to do when they are together is the small group's expression of love. The Bible makes it clear that to obey God is the main way we show love for Him. Jesus himself said as recorded in John 14:21, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." Talk without obedience is not love.

Each of the 65 Togethers is a critical building block of worshipful Christian community. And each of these 65 building blocks of Christian community is a specific act of worship that reflects God's glory back to God. The obedience is love, the substance of what is obeyed is worship. Let me say that again. Obediently doing each of these 65 Togethers is an act of love. The actual thing done is an act of worship because it is a reflection of God's character, nature and attributes.

These are great privileges (!) -- to reflect back to God his own characteristics through small group community! Added to corporate worship in church services, the opportunity to worship God grows geometrically through community and the 65 Togethers. The "Togethers of Scripture" represent concrete opportunities to more fully worship God.

Few realize that Christian community is actually worship. As you hopefully can see, community is one of the PRIMARY ways we worship God on earth. We will also do so even more in heaven. The Kingdom of God has its earthly expression and its heavenly expression. Now is the time to obey The Togethers as practice for the eternal community we will join at death.

So, back to the question of how important is Christian community. A church's worship of the living God without Christian community is a mere pittance. Christian community must make up the largest percentage of our corporate worship. That community can be worship is more than enough reason to pursue Christian community with all our hearts, souls and minds, and corporate strength. Remember also, Christian community is the primary way that a church loves God through obedience.

The only thing usually stated as a reason to pursue Christian community is that it is good for the believers. That is true. Christian community is vital to the successful Christian journey with Christ. Christian growth without community is growth stimulated only by personal motivation. It is limited in scope and value. But Christian growth in community is stimulated by the needs of people and the necessity to deal with things that would otherwise be avoided.

Add another consideration. Christian community is the vehicle through which the early church grew by leaps and bounds, taking over the world in the first four centuries. Christian community is the most powerful witness, the most powerful church growth tool. Jesus himself said, "All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another."

Now, add a clincher. Christian community is the Kingdom. Jesus said (recorded in Luke 17:21), "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." The NIV footnote says that the last phrase could just as easily be "because the kingdom of God is among you." Christian interrelationships ARE the Kingdom. Christian community is the Kingdom of God!

Think about this carefully: a kingdom is not the territory but the people, the society that inhabits the territory. A king who owns a lot of empty land without people would not have a kingdom, only territory. Christians living in community with God and one another IS the kingdom of heaven on earth. Later, after physical death, that kingdom will include the angels.

I hope I have convinced you that community is critical to the church. The "Togethers" outline how to implement community. Our larger, 9-hour tape set on Biblical Relationships gives you much more instruction and many more examples. And our tape sets on small group leadership explain how church leaders help to make community happen.

Christian community gives us the opportunity to love God much more, worship Him much more, grow spiritually much more into the image of Jesus Christ, exhibit a powerful witness to Christ, grow the church, and enjoy living right now in the kingdom of heaven.

But let me awaken you to an urgency regarding earthly Christian community.

SOME OF THE TOGETHERS ARE NOT ETERNAL!

When we accepted Christ as our Savior we became a part of the church and entered into the kingdom of God, or as it is also called, the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom, this society, has two expressions, here on earth and there in heaven. And while the kingdom of God on earth is in many significant ways preparation for the kingdom of God in heaven, there are some "Togethers" that are for this life only. The opportunity, the great privilege to worship God through these temporal "Togethers" is limited to this earthly life.

In other words, there are aspects of earthly community that will not survive the transition to heavenly community. Now is the only time we will have to worship God in these ways. The opportunity to worship in these ways is disappearing every day. Because of the lack of true community in churches, many will never worship God through many of "The Togethers." They will miss this wonderful privilege.

Consider that a very special event is coming to town and it is the only possible chance you will have to participate. It will never come again. That event could be a Billy Graham crusade or a special movie right down the alley of your interests or a championship athletic event that might never ever again occur or a visit from your great grandmother who will most likely die before you can ever see her again. YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO MISS IT! You and I would do all we could to rearrange our schedules so as to be able to take part.

When we look at the Togethers of Scripture, we find that some of them can only offer us the opportunity to worship and praise God in those specific ways this side of heaven. All those wonderful opportunities to reflect to God his graciousness toward sinners will disappear when we go to heaven, since there will be no sinners there.

This is the ONLY TIME we will get to honor and glorify God through those Togethers related to man's sinfulness that will either disappear at death or be significantly diminished.

Of the 65 Togethers, it appears that 30 will be completely lost when we die. We will never get another chance to reflect back to God in behavior with one another his loving nature and character with regard to sinfulness. There will be no more opportunity to hurt with one another and imitate our Lord's crying over Lazarus. We will never again be able to battle temptation together and reflect God's standing with us in our weakness. We will never again be able to live as Christians in a non-believing society and show love to pagans in the fashion that God provides rain to the just and the unjust. And we will never again be able to proclaim the gospel to unredeemed men and women imitating God's declaration of His existence through nature or His reaching down to save men and women from their sin.

For example, the privilege of bearing one another's burdens will soon be gone. And this will be a big loss since bearing one another's burdens is the closest we can come to imitating our Lord Jesus' paying the penalty for the sins of believers. As I will explain soon, the privilege of bearing one another's burdens is actually the privilege of paying the consequences of other people's sins. It is the way that we worship the Lord with our behavior and so reflect to him his own goodness in taking the penalty for our sins. How sad to miss this opportunity to praise God in this specific way.

Furthermore, there are another 27 Togethers that are not limited to but have significant applications to the sinfulness in mankind. We will never again have the opportunity to hold to the truth together in the face of challenge as did Jesus in the wilderness when He was challenged by Satan. We will still hold to the truth together in heaven, just not in the face of dispute which reflects to God his glory in a specific way not available to us after death. In heaven we will most likely still administer God's grace to one another, just not to sinning men and women. And while in heaven we will live in unity, it will be much, much easier and not reflect the same qualities of God as we now have opportunity to do.

For example, one of the Togethers is the command "Be devoted to one another." When Christians in a small group set themselves aside for one another no matter the time of day, their behavior reflects God's own selfless total availability to us. By implementing this command to belong to one another more than superficially, Christians show their love to God by obeying and at the same time worship God by offering back to Him his own character of devotion to his people.

But this can only be done significantly in small group community. At an individual level, the best that usually can be done is devotion to a few friends. In the small group, over time, it will entail the group's devotion to group members who are not acting as we would have them act, requiring God's kind of devotion -- devotion to people who are continually disappointing. It is likely that each individual member as well as the group leader will fail in that consistent devotion to a difficult group member, but the group as a whole can remain continually devoted. Thus is offered to God a more complete reflection of His character. Thus the small group can offer more holy worship than can individual Christians.

If 57 of the 65 Togethers have specific earthly opportunities to worship, now is the time to do these things. Only 8 of The Togethers will not lose some opportunity to offer our Lord worship that behaviorally reflects to Him His nature. These essentially are the same on earth as in heaven. These 8 we practice for continuation in heaven. But, now is the critical moment for the kinds of praise to our God represented by obedience to the other 57 Togethers, and, especially those 30 that completely disappear at death.

The primary reason to know and be able to automatically remember the 65 Togethers is to capture precious opportunities to worship God through true Christian community. It is how we help bring an answer to our prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

But there is a second powerful argument for Christian community not explained in detail here. And that is that the overwhelming plurality of Scripture explicitly teaches community. The Word of God clearly tells us that God desires, wants and commands a plural expression of faith in community. Perhaps elsewhere in the world this is clear and individual holiness must be encouraged, but certainly in Western society it is church holiness that is overlooked.

Both our 9-hour tape set on Biblical Relationships in Christian Groups and the individual taped titled "The WAR of All Wars" extensively deal with the overwhelming biblical evidence for community. But let me quickly point out here that there was a reason that Moses had to hold up his arms with the help of others for the Israelites to win the battle at Rephidim. There was a reason that Aaron did not get to go into the promised land even though his sin of not making sure that Moses acted obediently is only implied in Numbers, Chapter 20. There is a reason why 36 Israelites died and all of his family put to death because Achan got away with living so autonomously to be able to steal Jericho plunder.

And, although we usually miss the plurality in Scripture, it is everywhere. We are to wait and hope on the Lord together. That's why there is more than one eagle in Isaiah 40:31. We are to primarily focus on community - that is why all of the Lord's Prayer is in the plural. Loving community is to be our primary witness -- that's how Jesus said people would know we are truly his disciples. (See John 13:35.) It is the church that is the recipient of the "all things happen for good" of Romans 8:28. And it is the church first and the individual only by inclusion in the church that is being completed as the Greek plurality of Philippians 1:6 clearly shows but the English language confuses.

Serious students of the Scriptures will readily see that God desires, wants and explicitly commands a plural expression of faith in community. And the reason and result are probably because it is just superior worship.