Category Archives: Fellowship

Fellowship

March 4, 2021 By in Confession, Fellowship, Forgiveness Leave a comment

What is fellowship?

Koinonia is the Greek word most closely related to New Testament fellowship. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defines it as “fellowship, association, community, communion or joint participation.” Koinonia embraces the idea of a close knit community where people are invested in one another.

Christian fellowship usually occurs in a small group where people can openly share their thoughts, insights and concerns with one another. Fellowship could be an “official” meeting at a set time and place or it could be two friends eating lunch together.

True fellowship, however, involves being willing to be transparent.

Transparency – oh, that can be hard.

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Robert R. Wright (1933 – 2015)

February 26, 2015 By in Discipleship, Fellowship, Missions, Organic Church 5 Comments

Last month, on January 6, 2015, my dad died peacefully in his sleep after a seven year struggle with dementia. His was a life well lived, in service to the King of Kings and His Kingdom.

This is a blog I first wrote a couple of years ago about my parents. I am re-posting it as my tribute to him and the legacy he leaves behind.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Roots

The last several years have been a wonderful journey of seeing folks come to the Lord and fellowships emerge in highly improbable places. In my own life, the roots for this go back to my dad and mom, Bob and Mary Jane Wright.

tree_rootsIn the 1970s and 80’s, the Lord used them as pioneers in what we’d now call simple “organic” church – before that term became popular (even though today, unfortunately, it can mean nearly anything).

Forty years ago, they helped birth a regional network of open, participatory fellowships in Maryland, where people could find and express the vibrant life of Christ in dynamic gatherings as everyone ministered one to another – rather than having directed, scripted meetings.

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The Miraculous

February 8, 2015 By in Fellowship, Prayer 4 Comments

Every once in a while we get to touch the hand of God. When we hold a loved one’s hand there is a connection that transcends more than the mere physical touch. Holding hands unites the emotions with the physical. Touching the hand of God unites creation with the Creator.

hand of godThis morning God reached His hand down to the Sunday fellowship group that meets in our home. After a short time of sharing we began to pray for each other. Some of the shared needs will require the totally miraculous to happen.

I believe that God is in the business of the miraculous. When we prayed this morning the supernatural presence of God filled the room. Almost everyone had a word, Scripture or a picture from the Lord to share with the person who was receiving the prayer. The sense that the Lord was standing right there in the midst of us was overwhelming.

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Hospitality and the Kingdom of God

April 21, 2014 By in Fellowship, Hospitality, Kingdom of God 9 Comments

Playing Chicken Feet

 
Yesterday, like we often do, we had family and friends – some old, some new – over for supper and fellowship. Marianne cooked the main dish, I put on a big pot of coffee, and they brought everything else.

Because it was Easter, we opened our home to folks who didn’t have family in the area and invited them to spend the day with our family. They included guys from several fellowships we’re linked to, and some not in any church.

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Dopeless Hope Fiends

April 9, 2014 By in Fellowship, Hope, Jail 1 Comment

While visiting one of our indigenous fellowships in the local jail yesterday, a brother blew me away with this comment:

“On the outside, we were hopeless dope fiends. In jail, God is turning us into dopeless hope fiends.”

I liked that, and love how God brings hope to the hopeless.

~ Jim Wright

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Come to the Waters

July 22, 2013 By in Fellowship, Redemption, Water Baptism 4 Comments

Just some of many who gathered Saturday to celebrate new life!


On Saturday, over sixty people gathered for a mass baptism at our house, involving various fellowships and ministries relating together here in Virginia.

After we buried lots of old natures, and lifted lots of new believers up into that same resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead, we enjoyed a cookout and just hangin’ with each other.

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Intentional Discipleship and Sound Doctrine

July 11, 2013 By in Discipleship, Elder, Fellowship, Leadership, Teacher 6 Comments

Among the fellowships relating together here in Virginia, we’re seeing a deep hunger for mature discipleship, in-depth training and sound doctrine.many_pieces

That hunger was reinforced earlier this year, when Miguel Labrador visited several of those fellowships. Miguel, with his wife Claudia, has been a catalyst for the rapid spread of the gospel in Ecuador – where they’ve helped birth many generations of new believers and fellowships over a relatively short time.

Like us, they have a “go and sow” approach – where we go and sow the gospel in existing communities, thus allowing local fellowships, believers and leadership to emerge indigenously within those communities.

This stands in stark contrast to the more common “come and gather” approach, which urges people to organize around a single church with its central building, programs and pastor.

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True Church

June 26, 2013 By in Community, Faith, Fellowship, Great Commission 12 Comments

Do we minister “to” the poor, despised, destitute and abandoned…

Or do we open our lives to each other, in mutual ministry one to another?

circleDo we have programs “for” the poor, despised, destitute and abandoned…

Or do we open our tables to each other, in mutual fellowship one with another?

Do we “go” to the poor, despised, destitute and abandoned…

Or do we hang with each other, in mutual friendship one for another?

Do we “fix” the poor, despised, destitute and abandoned…

Or do we need each other, in mutual humility one with another?

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Glasses

June 10, 2013 By in Church, Fellowship, Gifts 8 Comments

In this journey of faith and fellowship, I keep coming across books and blogs by authors who decry this or that perspective in the Body of Christ, while then arguing that we must see things through the glasses of their own unique perspective – often under very enticing rhetoric.

diversity-clipartIn essence, their books and blogs express unrealistic aspirations – as they promote some theoretical concept of church and community that looks, thinks and acts just like them.

If truth be told, we’re all guilty – to some extent – of trying to do the same thing.

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Breaking Out

June 1, 2013 By in Creation, Culture, Fellowship, Great Commission, Kingdom of God 9 Comments

What is the church and it’s purpose, what is God’s grand design, and what is our calling in Christ?

Talking about those questions often is muddled by all the either/or, false dichotomies touted by various voices in the Body of Christ who want:

  • the Living Word without the authority of His written Word
  • grace without transformation
  • relationship without discipleship
  • fellowship without accountability
  • favor without sacrifice

It often seems that these either/or false dichotomies are rooted in the prevailing existential, post-modern perspective of this age – which heavily influences many Christians and seems to stunt us from growing up and reaching out.

This produces a very self-content, “I’m OK, you’re OK” mentality that seldom breaks out of its insular cocoons.

With them, Jesus seems little more than a friend with benefits.

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Discombobulating Fellowship

May 25, 2013 By in Community, Fellowship, Institutional Church, Organic Church 6 Comments

Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more from folks who are frustrated because they are wanting, but not finding, participatory fellowship rooted in ongoing community.

Discombobulated

Discombobulated

In our area, we’ve been seen such fellowships emerge over the last several years. Many of my blogs arise from what God is doing among us.

Those fellowships typically involve anywhere from eight to as many as twenty-five people intentionally meeting at least weekly to encourage and minister to one another.

More importantly, folks in those fellowships are relating together and supporting each other throughout the week.

Such fellowships don’t look anything like traditional “church” or even appear on traditional organizational radar screens – often because they are informal (even though intentional) and functioning within communities on the fringes of society.

Rather than come together for directed meetings or spectator “services”, we are learning to allow Christ in us to be expressed among us and through us – both in our gatherings and in existing communities.

Lately, though, things have become somewhat comical as we watch others try to figure us out.

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Spectator Church

May 23, 2013 By in Fellowship, Institutional Church, Organic Church 2 Comments

church-service“Years of sitting in traditional church has not prepared us to do church in the manner described in the New Testament. We have been taught to come, to sit, to watch, and to listen to what others have prepared. This is Spectator Church.

By contrast, the church described in the Bible invites us to engage in a kind of Participatory Church, where everybody talks, laughs, eats, worships, in an atmosphere where all learn, all minister, and all grow.

These groups are not cell groups, or even just Home Groups. They are real churches, complete and autonomous.”

~ Graham Cooke and Gary Goodell, Permission Granted to Do Church Differently in the 21st Century

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Roots

May 17, 2013 By in Discipleship, Fellowship, Missions, Organic Church 5 Comments

The last several years have been a wonderful journey of seeing folks come to the Lord and fellowships emerge in highly improbable places. In my own life, the roots for this go back to my dad and mom, Bob and Mary Jane Wright.

tree_rootsIn the 1970s and 80’s, the Lord used them as pioneers in what we’d now call simple “organic” church – before that term became popular (even though today, unfortunately, it can mean nearly anything).

Forty years ago, they helped birth a regional network of open, participatory fellowships in Maryland, where people could find and express the vibrant life of Christ in dynamic gatherings as everyone ministered one to another – rather than having directed, scripted meetings.

Often, we gathered in living rooms, shared meals as we shared Christ with each other, and sat in circles to encourage and minister one to another. We didn’t worry about being led by a “worship band” or some “professional clergy”, as anyone could start a song, pray, share a teaching, give a testimony, ask a question, or otherwise participate as part of the whole Body of Christ – just like we are told to do in the New Testament.

Rather than being directed pew sitters in a scripted “service”, we learned to let the vibrant life of Christ flow through us – each and every one.

We didn’t “go to church” to encounter Christ, but were the church as we expressed Christ one to another and to a waiting world. And by so doing, many became strong in the Lord and made a difference in each others’ lives and in the lives of our surrounding communities.

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Intentional Ministry

May 2, 2013 By in Counseling, Discipleship, Fellowship, Mentor, Ministry 2 Comments

Last night was the second week in a semester-long class Marianne and I are teaching, through Nathan’s Voice and our fellowships, on pastoral counseling. We had a full house (literally!).

counseling-picture

The Art of Pastoral Counseling

We previously taught this two years ago, and many are now ministering grace and healing in our county to those trapped in the bondage of addictions, past abuse, and controlling emotional wounds.

About half of the class comes from our fellowships, and the rest from other churches in the area.

But this morning, I’m tired…

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The Delusion of Organic Church Intensity

February 17, 2013 By in Church Planting, Existentialism, Fellowship, Frank Viola, Gifts, Great Commission, Organic Church 9 Comments

Have you ever noticed how those who heavily promote organic food and natural health with the most enthusiasm and sincerity, sometimes look the most sickly and anemic and seem to have the most health problems?

They are reacting to real problems, but have turned their idealistic and seemingly good-sounding concepts into an all consuming idol – to the exclusion of real health which comes from a balanced life.

I’ve also see this among some who are the most ardent proponents of organic church. They’ve fallen prey to unbalanced reactions and aspirations which prevent authentic life and sustainable, healthy fellowships.

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Authentic Discipleship

February 4, 2013 By in Community, Discipleship, Fellowship, Gifts, Hospitality 2 Comments

A newly-wed couple in our fellowship invited Marianne and me to a Super Bowl party at their apartment last night.

True Discipleship!

True Discipleship!

Marianne couldn’t make it because she needed to finish her lesson plans for the week (she’s an elementary school teacher), so I went.

When I showed up, I was blessed to see some old friends – including guys I knew from the surrounding woods. That evening, we enjoyed lots of good food and good times as we hung out and watched the game together.

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Single Parents

February 2, 2013 By in Church, Community, Fellowship, Ministry, Single Parents, Struggles 6 Comments

single momSingle parents are ubiquitous in the church; however, often they are a very misunderstood group that usually doesn’t quite comfortably fit anywhere.

As a former single mom with 25 years of single parenting experience, these are some of the impressions I have collected. Maybe it is different if you are a single dad, but I don’t have any expertise in that area.

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Slaying Giants

January 1, 2013 By in Bondage, Courage, Fellowship, Jail, Redemption, Victory 6 Comments

giant-slayerOn Christmas eve, Marianne and I spent time with about thirty brothers in the jail. During our time of fellowship, one of the men read the poem below. Here’s the story behind the poem, then the poem….

Earlier in December, I had shared with those men how our journey in the Lord is like Israel’s journey from slavery in Egypt, through the desert, and then into the promise land.

God takes us out of the bondage of Egypt, but then uses the wilderness to burn Egypt out of us.

In the wilderness, God prepares us to take possession of the promise land – that place where we are able to own and responsibly manage the things He has created us to both be and do.

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Myopic Ekklesia

December 3, 2012 By in Fellowship, Gifts, Institutional Church, Organic Church 11 Comments

In Romans 12, Paul lists what Biblical scholars often call the seven “motivational gifts”.

Promoting Our Own Core Motivations

I like that description. After years of pastoral counseling with hundreds of people, I’ve come to deeply respect how God creates each of us with different core motivations. Furthermore, among Christians, those seven core motivational gifts often correspond to God’s unique calling for each believer.

When we tend to elevate our own gift, motivation and calling above all others, however, and think the Church and God’s people need to do the same, our “gift” becomes oppressive.

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Organic Church Worship

December 1, 2012 By in Faith, Fellowship, Gifts, Holy Spirit, Life, Organic Church, Worship 20 Comments

Lately, I’ve been contemplating what worship is, and looks like, when God’s people authentically gather together as His “ekklesia”.

In the Bible, “ekklesia” is the Greek word often translated “church”. But it means far more than what most “churches” have become.

For Christians, the New Testament concept of ekklesia involves God’s people actively forming community, including meeting together. As a community, and in our gatherings, we then participate – each and every one – in expressing the life of Christ in us, among us, and through us. These days, that ideal is often called “organic” church.

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Organic Church Dead Ends

August 30, 2012 By in Church Planting, Fellowship, Great Commission, Institutional Church, Kingdom of God, Organic Church, Postmodern 75 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about why significant segments of the organic church community in the Western hemisphere have failed to achieve Biblical viability – becoming instead anemic, self-focused and insular.

Even a casual observer must acknowledge that “organic” or “simple” churches in the West (unlike other parts of the world) seldom exhibit dynamic spiritual power; consistent reproduction, growth and maturity; or tangible, transforming impact.

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