Are you looking for other spiritually hungry people like yourself to enjoy fellowship with? Where and how do you find them? In this episode of Little Lessons, David Servant addresses these questions, offering advice for everyone craving authentic Christian fellowship. Learn more!
Someone wrote to us in response to a Little Lesson that I did asking the question, “is it a sin not to go to church?” If you haven’t seen that Little Lesson, you might want to view it, and you’ll get the basic gist of what I said, but I’m sure that you know.
If you don’t know, here’s what I did say, summarized very quickly. We need to be in fellowship with other believers. The Christian life is not meant to be lived alone, but the idea that you have to go to a formal church to get that is not necessarily true. Again, going to a formal church is one way to get that, but it’s not the only way to get that. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst.” He didn’t say it had to be 200 or 300, or 20 or 30; just two or three. A tiny small group can constitute something that God blesses in Christian fellowship, and Jesus will actually be there in the midst if you’re gathered in his name.
Now, I’ll tell you, I just can’t help but want to follow this little rabbit trail real quickly. That is the fact that just because you’re going to a church doesn’t even mean Jesus is showing up at all. Just because you’ve got 10,000 people and saying, “Hey, we’re here. This is the church.” No, Jesus said, “If you gather in my name, I’m in your midst,” so there has to be something to the effect of we’re gathering in his name. Now, do you have to say that out loud formally? I don’t know. I think it’d be expressed some way or another. I think then if people believe that, that it would be indicated by their actions.
Okay, so if we really believe that Jesus is in our midst, oh my goodness, that’s pretty special, isn’t it? That’s holy and sacred. Every Christian needs to be a part, I’ll say it this way, of holy and sacred gatherings that include Jesus. Now that that kind of puts a new view on it, doesn’t it? Because you just instantly think, “Boy, that’s not necessarily happening at church gatherings.” Because people come and go, and they listen and don’t listen, and they’re so irreverent.
Again, if Jesus did show up, ask ourselves if Jesus actually physically showed up and we looked and there he was, how would we act? Well if we believe that he is showing up when we gather in his name, we ought to act like he showed up. Oh, that’s simple but profound.
Someone asks, “Well, how do I meet these other hungry Christians like myself?” I get letters like this quite often. “I can’t find a church that really satisfies me spiritually, because it seems so surface level, so shallow. They’re just playing games and there is really no church near me that seems is really seriously seeking God with a pastor who really has a vision to make disciples who obey all that Christ commanded.”
I’ve made recommendations. I wrote a recent, what I call an e-teaching, titled Totally Loving My Tiny Church. I describe my tiny church, the tiny church that meets in my house every Sunday afternoon. We have a lovely, lovely time. We are far from a perfect church, but we’re striving to please God and to act like Jesus is meeting with us.
I describe one way that you could start. Anyone can start one of those kinds of meetings. There’s a wonderful online course on making disciples and it’s called Zume, Z-U-M-E, which is the Greek word for a yeast. The idea behind it is that the yeast permeates all the bread. A little yeast permeates the whole bread, and that we like yeast are disciples who make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples, who will ultimately populate the whole world with the kingdom of God. We’re spreading the good news, and it’s touching lives, and it’s infecting everywhere, kind of like yeast.
If you go to ZumeProject.com, and you can sign up there for their 10 week small group discipleship training. You need about two hours every week. You need about four people at least all total to gather with. If you can find three other people that’d just be willing to commit two hours a week for 10 weeks to come together and learn how to be disciples who make and multiply disciples, that would be the theme, then man, you’ve got something really good going on that could easily then grow into something that you could actually define as a biblical church, a simple church, but a biblical church and one that could actually be making disciples who multiply, which that is the mandate from Jesus. Make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I command you.
How do you find some people? Well, if you don’t know of any hungry Christians who’d be willing to gather and commit for 10 weeks, then pray. Pray that God would lead you to some people like that, and then start talking to people. Yeah, an act of faith. “Lord, you want me to be meeting with other spiritually hungry Christians. I don’t know any. I need to find some, so help me find them.” Then act on your faith, and start talking to people, and find those people that the Lord is going to bring you to. You might have to go through a number of people that aren’t spiritually hungry, but eventually you will find them.
Seek and you will find, Jesus promised, but seeking implies action. I’m going out there and looking, because I believe that there are other people out there. They might, at this point in time, be unsaved people who are spiritually hungry who will be a part of your group, and you’ll get the great blessing of introducing them to Jesus Christ. But you’ve got to seek. Jesus said, “I’m making fishers of men.” Well, fishermen don’t just sit around waiting for fish to jump into the boat. You’ve got to get out there, cast your net and throw your line in, and put some bait on the end there, and get a fish to bite that worm.
All right, I’m out of time for today. Thank you so much. That was a great question. Hope I gave you at least a little bit of an answer. See you next time.
