Covid-19 and Church Fellowship
“Should the church meet amidst the Corona situation?”
Right in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, some churches are having disputes and cold wars among themselves on this suddenly significant question.
One group says that God is all-powerful to protect us, it doesn’t feel like “church” without meeting physically. Another group says that we should use wisdom, be obedient to the government, take every precaution and live responsibly. Some think it is lack of faith while others think it is lack of wisdom.
The blame game of lack of faith and lack of wisdom continues.
The two groups will probably never be able to come to a mutually agreeable conclusion as long as they continue to think non-biblically and inappropriately about the biblical principle called ‘Fellowship’.
Covid-19 and The Biblical Principle of Fellowship
To straighten out the dissension, we need to go beyond the present situation, traditions cherished for centuries, and fragmentary comprehensions of the principle – ‘fellowship’.
The author of Hebrews (10:25) tells the Christian community, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…” The author is primarily asking believers to fellowship (a principle, a function), but if you notice, he doesn’t command a distinct form, structure or pattern of how this fellowship should transpire.
Gene Getz is a pastor, professor, and director of Centre for Church Renewal. He, in his book ‘Sharpening the Focus of the Church’ comments on Hebrews 10:25, says this –
“These Christians were to meet together regularly. However, the passage does not specify WHEN they were to meet, HOW often they were to meet, WHERE they were to meet, or WHAT the specific order of service should be when they would meet together.” (Emphasis mine)
Further he says that functions (like fellowship) are often described in the New Testament but without a description of form. And even if the form is described, it is partial or incomplete, and it varies from one setting to another.
What Getz attempts to say is – Christian fellowship is a principle, a directive, but the Bible does not prescribe a particular form (how, when and where we should do it) of the fellowship.
Holding fast to traditional forms will make us judgemental towards fellow believers and churches for adopting different forms of fellowship than ours. This unnecessary judgmental spirit will goad us to sin against the body of Christ and the ‘cold war’ will continue in churches.
The Conclusion
- Therefore, we should seriously educate our churches on biblical principles, and different forms which could be adopted situationally to practice those principles.
- We must always make sure that we don’t neglect the principle of ‘Fellowship’ but simultaneously, be agreeable to embrace feasible forms.
- No form of fellowship should be considered as the absolute biblical form.
Forms of fellowship vary from meeting physically with all the precautions, dividing the congregation into small groups, to online platforms. Let us fulfil the principle (fellowship) but embrace the forms as situation demands.
Really appreciate your effort to educate the churches in India ,felt the complete and exact meaning of Biblical fellowship is been explained may God continue grant you wisdom to educate and equip church and her leaders Thank you