Beyond the Building

Real Fellowship with God and Others in Everyday Spaces

by Michael Donahoe

Many of us who claim Christianity usually find a place to worship with others who are like-minded. Yet, so often it seems that we Christians cannot accept or agree with one another.

Even after many years of attending the same church with the same friends, if we leave one church for another, usually those friends stay behind and we may not hear from them again.

This makes me wonder why the building seems to be so important. Is our Christian love for one another really that dependent on a building?

My wife and I grew up in the organized church system, and we have many friends who are still a part of the institutional church system. Yet, after many years of feeling uneasy, questioning, thinking there has to be more than just sitting in a pre-planned service every week, we decided to look for fellowship outside the walls of a building. We felt that sitting in a service every week, listening to someone else tell us what they think God is saying is really not that biblical.

The Bible talks about the priesthood of ALL believers. 1 Peter 2:5, 9. It talks about when we assemble, each one has something to say. 1 Corinthians 14:26. We say we are going to the Lord’s house, yet the Bible says we are the temple of the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Truthfully, how much fellowship do you get sitting in a service looking at the back of someone’s head? The most fellowship I remember in a situation like that was when the pastor told us to get up and shake somebody’s hand. I do not call that real fellowship.

We are finding more fellowship outside the walls of organized religion when we meet with other Christians during the week. Often, we meet online. Sometimes we meet in houses, cafes, and restaurants. We talk about what God is doing and what grace means to us. We are getting to know more about each other, we pray for one another and care about each other. Open discussion makes more sense to us rather than just sitting, listening to one person talk.

People say by not going to church, we are disobeying the Bible where it says to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. We always ask where it says that it has to be in a particular place on a particular day in an organized service. It does not say that, and meeting anytime or anywhere two or three come together, talking, praying, enjoying each other is a more meaningful assembly to us.

I say all of this to ask this question, why can’t we accept each other where we are currently in our walk with God. It does not make a difference if you go to church or not, or if you think Sunday is a holy day or not. It’s OK to think of every day as the Lord’s day and not just Sunday. It is OK to realize church is not a building you go to but the people, saved by grace, living their lives for God daily.

We need to realize God is working in each of us in different ways. We are at different stages in our walk with God and we are not all going to be the same. Let’s accept each other and not try to force our way of thinking on everyone else.

God is our focus. Loving God and loving each other is what we are to do as followers of the way of Jesus. Other than that, we should let our way of doing things be just that…our way. We should not expect everyone to agree with us and do things just like we do.

None of us have it all figured out. None of us are right on everything. Many views and ideas in the Bible are up to interpretation based on word meanings and customs of the day at the time of writing. We all have various ideas on interpretation. We will never agree on everything, yet we often get mad at other Christians when they see things differently.

Let’s accept each other in the love of Christ, realizing that God is in control and the Spirit will lead us into the truth in His timing. It is not our job to force others to see things our way. It is our job to love each other, accept each other and encourage one another. God will do the rest.