FELLOWSHIP VS. FOLLOWSHIP
9 January 2004

I. Introduction

-- turn in Bibles to Acts 2:42-47
42. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
43. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
44. All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
46. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
47. praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

-- the other day, Brooke and I were going to town and we rode past a church sign -- she turned to me and said, "What is followship?" -- I looked over at the sign and saw that she had misread it -- it was actually a message about fellowship but she thought it said, "Followship"
-- and then it hit me -- Brooke, in her child-like manner, had just hit on the entire purpose and function of the church -- fellowship and followship

-- in Rick Warren's book -- the Purpose-Driven Life -- he identifies five purposes for us as Christians and for churches -- we talked about them again last week -- do you remember what they were? -- you need to be living them out in your life

-- Rick Warren got his five purposes from two passages in the book of Matthew where Jesus is speaking to His disciples

Mt 22:37-39 -- 1. Love the Lord w/all your heart - worship
2. Love your neighbor as yourself - ministry
Mt 28:18-20 -- 3. Go & make disciples - evangelism
4. Baptize disciples -fellowship - identification w/body of Christ
5. Teach them to obey - discipleship

-- you can sum up these five purposes in two words -- Fellowship and Followship -- in the passage we read from the book of Acts, we can see how the early church blended the two functions of fellowship and followship to develop a vibrant and living community

-- but right now, our churches in America are suffering -- we can hardly be called a vibrant and living community of believers -- the churches in our nation are divided on issues of theology and doctrine and worship and social persuasion -- and this has caused us to experience a dramatic decline that we've never seen before in the history of the church
-- all major mainline denominations have been losing members over the past two or three decades -- and we are seeing more and more people who identify themselves as "unchurched" Christians
-- the Barna Research Group said that 10 million self-proclaimed, born-again Christians in America have not been to church in the last six months, apart from Christmas or Easter.
-- (Barna defines "born-again" as those who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important today, and believe they will "go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.")
-- for these people, spiritual life has nothing to do with church.
-- why is that? -- I believe it is because the church has forgotten its calling -- I think its because we have forgotten our purpose -- our function as the body of Christ here on earth
-- I'd like to spend a few moments this morning talking about the two functions of the church: fellowship and followship

II. Fellowship
-- fellowship, as the New Testament defines it, is not coming together for social activities -- it is not coming together to have a covered dish dinner -- it is not getting together to take a trip to Wild Adventures or Ichetucknee Springs
-- no, fellowship is much more than that -- it is community -- it is a group of believers -- a group of people who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior -- and who come together on a regular basis to worship together -- to pray together -- to learn together -- and to support and encourage each other in the work of Christ
-- the act of coming together as a corporate body of believers defines fellowship -- as James Packer points out --the Greek word for fellowship comes from a root meaning common or shared -- So fellowship means common participation in something either by giving what you have to the other person or receiving what he or she has -- Give and take is the essence of fellowship
-- in true biblical fellowship we gather together to give praise to God -- to offer prayers to God -- to give ourselves to the building up of the church -- and we take from the church comfort and support and encouragement
-- I heard a message from Dr. Dobson one time that I think speaks to the heart of fellowship -- one day his two young children were arguing and fighting with each other as children do -- Dr. Dobson said he had had enough of their fight so he called them over to him -- he led them to the window and told them to look outside -- he said, "outside of this window is a hard world -- it is a world that will tear you apart if you let it -- the only way you can survive in this world is if you have someone you can trust who will always be there to support you
-- as brother and sister, you are called to be there to support each other so that when you go out into the world, you won't be destroyed -- you are not called to destroy each other before you get out there"
-- true biblical fellowship is characterized by trust and support and encouragement by our brothers and sisters in Christ
-- fellowship has an internal focus -- it is when a church -- speaking of a local body of believers -- gathers together and focuses on worshiping God together and on supporting one another so they can go back out into the world renewed and revived

-- in Rom 1:11-12, Paul wrote, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong-- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith." -- and in 2 Thes 5:11 he wrote, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" -- Paul understood the value of fellowship
-- as Tim Stafford pointed out in a recent article in Christianity Today -- "People need people -- God's people need God's people in order to know God -- Life in Christ is a corporate affair -- All God's promises were made to God's people—plural -- All the New Testament epistles address Christians in churches -- The Bible simply does not know of the existence of an individual, isolated Christian"
-- I want to leave you with one more picture of true Biblical fellowship -- remember the movie Forrest Gump? -- when Forrest was in Vietnam and was out on patrol with his buddy Bubba, they were trying to sleep in the jungle in the middle of a thunderstorm -- all they had to lie in was mud -- Bubba slid over to Forrest and said, "Forrest, put your back up against my back and you lean on me and I'll lean on you and we won't have to sleep in the mud"
-- fellowship keeps a Christian out of the mud

III. Followship
-- now, let's look at the flip side of fellowship -- the function of followship
-- followship is easy to define -- it is simply following Christ -- in the Bible, Jesus told us that if we were to be His disciples, that we needed to pick up our cross and follow Him
-- that means to follow His commandments for us and that means to imitate His life here on earth -- in other words, followship means evangelism and ministry
-- unlike fellowship, followship is externally focused -- servant oriented -- it is when the church leaves the sanctuary building and goes out into the mission field
-- followship is outreach -- reaching outside the church -- meeting the needs of the poor and the oppressed -- reaching out to the marginalized and oppressed -- reaching out to the hurting in our midst
-- when the teacher of the law came up and asked Jesus the question, "who is my neighbor?" Jesus told him the parable of the good samaritan -- where both the priest and the levite refused to help a man who had been robbed and beaten but where a samaritan was willing to step in and help -- in Luke 10: 36-37 Jesus concluded by saying, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." -- Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
-- followship is going and doing likewise

-- there are three different forms of followship:

1) financial followship -- giving out of what God has given us to help meet the financial needs of others -- individuals do this when they offer to God their tithes and gifts -- churches do this through apportionments -- through offerings and gifts to ministries and people in need -- and through special donations

2) physical followship -- this if "foot leather" Christianity -- getting out and getting our hands dirty for Jesus -- ministering to the people where they are -- witnessing to them and sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ -- Jesus told us that when we ministered physically to another person we were, in effect, serving Him -- in Matthew 25: 35-36 He said, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'" -- physical followship involves all of these things along with evangelism and witnessing to others

3) spiritual followship -- this is primarily intercessory prayer -- intercessory prayer on behalf of others -- intercessory prayer on behalf of our nation -- praying for someone to come to Christ -- praying for revival -- praying for spiritual leaders -- praying for demonic forces to be bound on earth and the power of the Holy Spirit to be loosed in its place

-- do you want a clear picture of followship in action -- think about the tsunami relief efforts -- it is comprised of all three of these forms of followship -- churches right now are making financial offerings to help support relief in tsunami-stricken areas -- they are praying and interceding for victims and their families -- and lots of Christians are there on site -- physically showing the love of Christ by giving food and water and clothing and shelter to those in need
-- followship is the natural reaction to fellowship -- once you have been involved in fellowship -- once you have been revived and restored by praising and worshiping God -- once you have been built up and encouraged and supported by the church -- then you are ready to go out and pick up your cross and follow Christ
-- I think no one sums up the concept of followship better than the prophet Isaiah -- in the Book of Isaiah 6:8, Isaiah says that he heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah responded, "Here am I. Send me!"
-- followship means responding to Christ's call to go and do likewise

IV. Closing
-- fellowship and followship are forms of active Christianity -- both are needed in your life for you to be complete -- you cannot call really yourself a Christian unless you are participating in both
-- I think the crisis in our churches and the crisis in America shows that the time for passive Christianity is over -- the time for apathy and complacency is over -- it is time for us to rise up and do what God called us to do -- to fellowship with Him and each other and to pick up our crosses and follow Christ where He leads us in the world
-- we cannot neglect either of these two areas -- in Hebrews 10:24-25, Paul wrote, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." -- in other words, how we can participate in followship
-- he goes on to say, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." -- in other words, participating in fellowship
-- as we start this new year, I want to encourage you to put an emphasis in your life on both fellowship and followship -- commit to coming to church -- to actively praising and worshiping God with other believers -- to support and encourage others as they support and encourage you
-- and commit to some form of ministry -- maybe this means making a commitment to start tithing -- maybe this means a commitment to a more dedicated prayer life -- maybe this means getting your hands dirty and serving others in Christ's name
-- as I close, I want to leave you with this one final thought on physical followship -- we will always have opportunities to minister to others every single day -- we just need to look for them -- just remember, ministry might be in a place you don't expect and to someone you didn't expect to be ministering to
-- if you have a ministry idea, you need to bring it up before the church -- it doesn't matter if we've never done anything like this before -- it doesn't matter if it will cost a lot of money -- it doesn't matter if we don't have enough people to put it into place -- if it is a ministry God wants us to do, He will make it happen -- He'll show us what to do -- He'll provide the money and the people to make it happen
-- God has given us a purpose for our lives and for our churches -- to participate in fellowship and followship -- will you make a commitment to do that in this new year?
-- let us pray