CHAPTER 25
SHARING WITHOUT FELLOWSHIP
When Freddie Little started visiting our assemblies, we were all
happily surprised. For many years he and Sarah, his faithful wife,
had gone their separate ways religiously. She was always at our
every service, and he was equally active as a Baptist. With increasing
frequency, however, he came with Sarah and he soon seemed at ease
in participating in our services.
In time, Freddie went beyond a more passive participation in the
singing, praying, communion, etc. He would enter into the discussions
in classes, say "amen" at the conclusion of prayers,
sing the invitation with special earnestness, and invite others
to our services. When it was Sarah's turn to "prepare the
communion " (?), he was always right there helping her. Once,
when she was ill, he prepared it alone. He helped her with her
World Bible School correspondence courses, and he even helped
her teach a prospect in their home using filmstrip lessons.
Everybody liked Freddie for he was an inspiration to all of us.
But a problem developed with Freddie. Because he had been so much
a part of us for so long, many newer members thought that he was
a member. It happened at a midweek service: there was a noshow
for the dismissal prayer, and the fellow in charge called on Freddie
on the spur of the moment. Freddie led an excellent prayer.
Undertone reaction was immediate, though no one wanted to hurt
his feelings. The elders were quick to deal with this serious
mistake. At their direction, the minister gave a lesson the next
Sunday on "Does God Hear A Sinner's Prayer?" That settled
the congregation fairly well, but Freddie was absent that Sunday
and did not hear it. So was the deacon who was newly appointed
to be in charge of appointments. So, a few weeks later, this deacon
appointed Freddie to help serve the Lord's Supper. There he was,
right there in front of everybody Sunday morning! The preacher
was put on the spot by this, but he wisely decided not to deal
with the problem in his sermon which followed.
Freddie still did not know of the problem he was causing. Feeling
so accepted because of those appointments, he "came forward
to place membership" (We speak as the Bible speaks!) in the
congregation during the invitation song. The preacher and congregation
were so relieved to see him come down the aisle. The eager preacher
asked him if he wished to be baptized and to become a Christian.
Freddie replied that he had already been baptized and had been
a Christian for many years. The whispered discussion between the
two was so long that it became embarrassing to those assembled.
Finally, he explained as apologetically and tactfully as he could
to the assembly that, although we love Freddie and want him to
continue to come and share in our services, we cannot have fellowship
with him in his present state.
Please forgive me for stringing you along, but Freddie and Sarah
Little are fictitious characters. Even though the story is fictitious,
it deals with some grave and starkly real problems of ours. It
reveals a strangely inconsistent fantasy that we have about being
able to share without fellowship and of mutual participation without
communion. Somehow, we seem to think that having a person's name
on the church roll (Where do the Scriptures speak of one?) puts
one in our fellowship, but that sharing/communion/mutual participation
in our corporate singing, prayer, communion, and giving is not
really fellowship. It is sharing without fellowship!
Our words fellowship and communion are both translated from the
same Greek word koinonia. This noun means: a sharing in common,
partnership, fellowship. Every week there are persons in our assemblies
whom we welcome and encourage to participate in our spiritual
exercises. They share in common with us; yet we deny that there
is fellowship! How can we explain and excuse such a contradiction?
If we cannot recognize fellowship with a person, we should not
be in fellowship with him or her by mutual participation. To be
consistent, we must either accept fellowship with whoever examines
himself and has partnership in our activities, or we must examine
others and reject from partnership in our activities those whom
we judge. There can be no sharing in common without fellowship.
Traditionally, in the Church of Christ, we have practiced "open
communion." We invite anyone who wishes to participate in
the Lord's Supper. In this participation in the body and blood
of Christ, we share the truest experience of communion. We are
each sharing in Christ on equal basis, in full partnership. We
are one bread, one loaf, one body. Anyone who eats and drinks
not giving discernment to the oneness of the body does so unworthily
and thus eats and drinks damnation to his soul. For our participation
to demonstrate any sentiment of party loyalty or rejection of
others in Christ is but to destroy the real purpose and meaning
of the communion itself. This mortal defect is widespread among
us. If each person is to examine himself as his prerequisite to
communion, then we must accept him on his selfexamination
rather than our judgmental examination of him.
To withhold my own judgment of a fellowcommunicant and to
commune with him on his own selfexamination would cause
me to commune/ have fellowship with one who is in error but thinks
that he is not. True. But that person, and everyone else, is doing
the same thing when they commune with me! I have not yet reached
such a state of selfconceit and selfdeception as to
think that I am totally free from all error. What about you? "I
don't know of any error that I believe or practice," you
may protest. Neither does the other fellow. You examine yourself
and he will examine himself.
Fellowship does not mean approval or sanction. If it should, I
truly would be limited in my fellowship, for most of the members
of our congregation do things that I disapprove-the judging of
others in Christ, for one example! But because others are members
of the Church of Christ, wearing the right party label, we feel
free to be in fellowship even though those persons are not free
from all error.
Why can Freddie Little commune with us but not serve the supper
or offer one of the prayers? Is one action fellowship and the
other not?
The Scriptures speak neither of a church roll or people being
members of the church, yet we have made this the big issue in
fellowship. We can enjoy the fellowship of Freddie in our spiritual
exercises but not on the roll. To be consistent, we must either
accept him as an equal in Christ or exclude him from participation
in the singing, communion, etc. I know that we don't want to face
that choice, but we must, if we are to be honest. Freddie cannot
share with us without fellowship.
The other fellow's errors are worse than mine; so, I am justified
in refusing fellowship, I may rationalize. Such selfrighteousness
allows one to forget, or ignore, all that Jesus and Paul told
us about judging our brother.
Traditionally, we have considered being in the "right church"
with doctrinal and practical correctness as the acceptable basis
for fellowship, and we have necessarily become judgmental in determining
who has met those prerequisites. But the basis of fellowship is
the sharing in Christ, and we must accept a person on his or her
own profession. If that seems too shaky to you, just remember
that you saw few of the persons whom you accept baptized and you
don't know their real purposes of heart, yet you accept them on
their profession.
"Open membership" is an ugly term among us, but "open
communion" is considered praiseworthy! I do not advocate
open or closed membership. That puts men as the judges and the
church roll at the center of importance. God is the one who adds,
or fails to add, members to his body. I do advocate open communion
of those whom the Lord has added, for he put us in fellowship
in one body. And the only way that I can have reason to believe
that a person has been added to the body is by that person's own
claim of it.
If I cannot accept one on that basis, then I must exclude him
from our communion and from participation in our spiritual activities,
for there can be no sharing in these things without fellowship.
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