The Lost Habit of True Fellowship

One Sunday, our church finally changed the sign over a large meeting room. It used to read “Fellowship Hall.” Now it reads “Chapel.”

It wasn’t a small decision, or simply an aesthetic one. We realized that “fellowship,” once a vivid, pulsing reality of New Testament faith, has become a tired word for many of us overused, under-lived, hollow. Like “encourage.” It shows up in programs, but precious few programs show us how to live it.

But fellowship is not optional. It is not extra. It is a means of grace, appointed by God, that nourishes and sustains our hearts with Christ.

Fellowship Bigger Than Us

If fellowship were only about being friendly or feeling comfortable, it might live or die with our moods. But the New Testament uses fellowship (Greek koinōnia) more like a means a divinely ordained channel by which Jesus builds, holds, and protects His church. It’s not just something we enjoy. It’s something we need.

The goal of all Christian fellowship is to know and enjoy Jesus Christ not simply to be more upright, more informed, or more “spiritual.” As Philippians 3:8 says, Christ surpasses all. And Jesus Himself prayed that we might know the only true God and Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). Fellowship, then, is one of the means by which God brings us into that knowing.

Something More Than Friendship

Real Christian fellowship goes beyond pleasant coffee, potlucks, and chatting after the sermon. It’s covenantal, costly, consistent. It pardons awkwardness and self-centeredness. It carries others through pain. It’s thick with dirt and suffering, not just sentiment.

The apostle warns that our hearts harden when we drift away. Fellowship arrests that drift. Through fellowship, God uses people not perfect people, but committed ones to exhort, rebuke, encourage, forgive. (Hebrews 3:12–13; Hebrews 10:24–25)

God Gave Us Each Other

Hebrews 3 and 10 especially show that perseverance in faith isn’t an individual sport. Our souls don’t thrive in isolation. When we neglect gathering with the people of God, when we skimp on real, flesh-and-blood relationships, our hearts grow cold. But when we stay connected “as long as it is called Today” we not only receive grace; we become conduits of grace to others.

These two passages are like twin warnings and invitations:

• Warning: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away.” (Hebrews 3:12)

• Invitation: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together … encouraging one another … as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24–25)

Fellowship in Practice

What does this look like in everyday Christian life?

• Choosing to show up even when you’d rather stay home

• Listening, asking hard questions, being vulnerable not just sharing victories, but fears and failures

• Speaking truth in love; stirring up one another toward love and good works

• Staying long-term, not just when life is easy

• Creating space for others to carry you, and you to carry others

Don’t Let the Word Die

Words die when they drift far from their meaning. Fellowship risks that drift. But God’s design for us is gathering, encouragement, shared confession, mutual perseverance. The church isn’t just a place we go when we feel like it, but a family we belong to, a body we both receive from and offer ourselves to.

So maybe that “Fellowship Hall” sign wasn’t so bad. But what matters far more is this: is it a hall of fellowship true, sacrificial, gospel-centered fellowship or just a name on drywall?

May we reclaim the habit. Not because fellowship is trendy, but because the Lord promised to use it His people together to keep our faith alive, strengthen our hope, soften our hearts, and magnify the greatness of Christ in the world.

If these thoughts blessed you, share them with someone you fellowship with or subscribe to our newsletter for more reflections toward faithfulness in daily Christian life.