FELLOWSHIP AT THE CHURCH
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 10:25 & 1 JOHN 1:3
APRIL 5, 1992
When I was a child, I was not allowed to say shut up. I was not allowed to say it to my parents, not allowed to say it to anyone because I was told it was rude to say shut up. I was, however, allowed to say clam up, which wasn’t quite as impressive, but it carried roughly the same meaning. I must confess, however, that as a little child, I wasn’t certain exactly what a clam was. I imagined that a clam was rather quiet since clam up meant be quiet. I also imagined that clams were relatively happy because I sometimes heard people speak of being happy as a clam. Now, today, I know a lot more about clams and you need to bear with me because, believe it or not, this is going somewhere.
Now, there are 12,000 species of clams, and some clams are very small, smaller than an ounce, weighing less than an ounce. Some clams are very large, like the giant clams off the Great Barrier Reef near Australia. The giant clams can weigh 500 to 600 pounds, each clam having 20 to 30 pounds of edible flesh, which makes for quite a clam bake. Now, I know that clams like to be left alone. They’re solitary animals and they really like to be left alone, and they love to dwell privately, securely within that shell. Of course, clams can open their shells, but clams oftentimes shut their shells and they can shut them really tight, which is really why clam up means shut up. They not only like the security of the shell, but clams also like the security they find when they can kind of bury themselves in the sand. And each clam has a foot. Each clam uses that foot to dig into the sand and at least partially bury the shell.
So again, they can be away and secure and alone. The expression ‘happy as a clam’ is really the shortened form of the true expression, which was ‘happy as a clam at high tide’ because, you see, clams not only like to be covered by their shell and by sand, but they like to be covered by lots of water. Of course, that’s what happens at high tide. At high tide, clams are not exposed and clams don’t want to be exposed. Now, it occurs to me and perhaps only to me, that a lot of people are like clams. They really are. A lot of people are trying to build shells around themselves. They want to kind of cover themselves with a protective shell. A lot of people just want to be left alone, particularly in this hectic world in which we live today. There’s a lot of people who do almost anything to keep from being exposed.
But you see, it is a profound theological and biblical truth that people were never meant to be alone. It is a profound biblical truth that people were never meant to be like clams. Christians were never meant to be like clams. In fact, we were really meant to be like lambs biblically. Any zoologist will tell you that lambs are highly social animals. In fact, a lamb alone is a lamb lost. One of the great purposes of the church of Jesus Christ is to take people and bring them into a flock experience. That they might experience what it’s like to be in fellowship with some brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
There’s a game that sometimes people play. Perhaps you’ve played it. This game is played at parties and particularly large parties which have more than a hundred people. But at parties where they play this game, each person is given a phrase from a song. A number of people at the party will have other phrases from the same song you have a phrase from. In total, many songs will be represented, and of course, many phrases from every song. And when somebody says go, everybody’s supposed to kind of go around singing their phrase of their song. It’s just a sea of chaos. You know, as the lyrics and the melodies are all sung simultaneously and people are kind of laughing and embarrassed as you’re supposed to go around and look for other people who are singing other phrases from your song. So all the people with one song can come together and sing that song together. When the game’s over, there’s a whole bunch of songs and a whole bunch of people singing each song.
When you really think about it, that’s kind of what the church of Jesus Christ is called to do, to bring people into fellowship with some other people that together they might make great music and to help you find some other people with whom you can come together and make that music. You know, some of you have been in Koinonia groups as we’ve already seen this morning. Some of you have never been in a Koinonia group here at the church. Others of you have been in a Koinonia group and you didn’t feel like it worked. I mean, you were in a fellowship with some other men and women and it just didn’t seem to click. You’ve just given up, not realizing that perhaps you were with some people who were kind of singing a little different song. I mean, maybe you hadn’t found the other people who shared other phrases in your song and you need to give it another try because Christ has called all of us to be in fellowship with some brothers and sisters in Christ.
He’s called all of us into koinonia. The truth of the matter is, biblically, that we only experience the full power of God, the full power of Jesus Christ, when we are in community with other Christians. We only begin to experience his full power for transformation, that we might become more like Jesus Christ, when we are in active dynamic fellowship with some brothers and sisters in Christ. We only begin to experience the full power of His healing, when we’re in active dynamic fellowship with some other Christians who are interceding and praying for us faithfully. We only really understand fully His purpose when we were in fellowship with other Christians. In fact, the word “koinonos” is a word the ancient Greeks used, and it’s related to the word koinonia. And the word koinonos was used by the ancient Greeks to describe small groups with great purposes.
See, that’s what our koinonias are meant to be in the church, small groups with great purposes. When you come together with some brothers and sisters in Christ and you realize, you realize that you all belong to Christ and you gave your life to Christ, you gave your lives to Christ, and you have a kingdom to serve in this world, and you have eternal life ahead of you. If you come together with that knowledge that you’re called to be salt and light on this earth, and you can begin to co-labor together and pray for each other, it’s only then you begin to understand the purpose of the kingdom of Christ as you’re in fellowship with other Christians. You only begin to have your needs met too when you’re in close fellowship with other Christians.
You know, the word koinonia, one of its meanings is to share. The Greek word koinonia can mean to share. When you come together in a small group of believers for Bible study, prayer, and fellowship, you learn to share. I mean, that’s what we hope you learn to do. You learn to share your life with someone else and others learn to share their life with you. As you share, as you really learn to share, you begin to meet each other’s needs physically and emotionally and spiritually. Really, even the joy of Christ is only fully experienced in Christian fellowship and community. That’s why the Apostle John wrote to Christians and he said, “We’re writing this, so you might have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father, with His Son, Jesus Christ. We’re writing this, that your joy might be complete.” So this is the call of our church, one of the calls to bond people in Christ and to bring people into community.
You know, there are 400,000 churches in the United States of America, 400,000 churches. More than 50% of those churches, more than 200,000 of them have 75 people or less. More than 50% of the churches in America, when they gather on Sunday morning, more than 200,000 of those churches have 75 people or less at worship. When you go to a church like that, you can’t be a clam. You see, when you go to a small church, somebody’s going to pry open your shell. I mean, you’re going to be exposed. You can’t walk in the door and not expect people to know you’re a visitor. When you go to one of those 200,000 small churches, the minute you come in the door they know you’re a visitor. Every single person there knows that you’ve never been there before and suddenly they’re going to begin to invade your space. But you see, it’s not that way at larger churches. I mean, there are almost 200,000 churches in America larger than 75 people. There are a few churches, a few churches in America larger than 2,000 people. In theological schools, these churches larger than 2,000 people are called megachurches.
I hate the title, I hate the word, megachurch. It sounds grandiose and it sounds egocentric. Yet this is the term theological schools are using now to describe these large churches which are over 2,000 people. They tell us that people come to megachurches for a variety of reasons. They tell us that some people come to megachurches because of the message and the music. Certainly, large churches tend to have great music. And we’ve got great music here. I mean, there’s a variety of tastes for music. Certainly, Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church has great music of a more traditional form, but of the form of music we use here, which is a little more contemporary, it’s great. Many people come to this church because they love the music. I get letters from people and they say, “We come to Cherry Hills because we’ve never heard music like this. We love the music.” That’s why some people go to the large churches. They love the music. Some people come for the programs because large churches tend to have a greater variety of programs than some very specialized programs, specialized programs for children and youth of high quality. Large churches tend to have specialized programs for women and specialized programs for singles and certainly many people come to what they call megachurches because of these variety of programs and high quality specialized programs.
But theological schools also realize that people come to these large churches for another reason. A lot of people come to these large churches for anonymity. I mean, that’s why, you know, when they’re talking a husband and wife say, “Maybe we ought to go back to church. We haven’t been in 10 or 15 years. Maybe we ought to go back. Where shall we go?” Well, they want to go someplace where they can just slip in and try it out without being noticed. You can’t do that in those 200,000 church of 75 people. You have to go to a megachurch. You got to go to a large church to do that. People can come to a large church and be anonymous. They can come and be a clam. No one’s going to try to pry open the shell. I mean, a large church is a great ocean, and it’s always at high tide. In that sense, it’s safe for visitors. You know, you could come to this church at 8:00, 9:30, or 11:00, and it might be your first Sunday. No one’s going to know that. No one’s going to know whether this is your first Sunday here or whether you’ve been here for two years.
Anonymity, in a sense, is good. In a sense, that’s good because people who just want to explore spiritual things, people who just want to have a few questions answered about Christianity and the claims of Jesus Christ but don’t want to be conspicuous, they can come in here and they can hear the gospel of Christ. They can hear about the love of Christ. They have an opportunity to fall in love with Jesus Christ. In that sense, these large churches are serving a great purpose.
In fact, it’s a great. There’s an incredible quote by Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker, of course, is for some people the preeminent secular prophet. He, of course, has predicted many societal trends with great accuracy. Peter Drucker recently made this statement: the emergence of the megachurch is the most significant event of the 20th century. Isn’t that an amazing statement? I mean, he’s fully aware of the invention of nuclear weapons, the fall of communism. But he says, “the emergence of the megachurch is the most significant event of the 20th century.” And he says, and I quote, “the megachurch is about the only social structure today that is working. Federal, state, and local governments are not working well. The family seems to be losing favor as an institution. School systems in most cases are in terrible shape. But the large, fast-growing church seems to be meeting the needs of an increasingly larger segment of the American population.” People in America across the nation are just flooding to large churches. In fact, we’ve reached the point now where 50% of the people in the United States who go to worship go to 7% of the churches. That means they’re going to large churches, partly for the reason of anonymity where they can be a clam. Peter Drucker says, in the 21st century, the megachurch is going to boom. It’s going to be the new ecclesiastical form.
I am not so sure of that. I believe those large churches that are going to survive and prosper into the 20th century are only going to be the churches that really bring men and women into vital Christian fellowship. I think those megachurches that just allow people to be clams forever, they don’t really charge people to come into, encourage people to come into small groups and provide means by which they can. I believe those large churches will ultimately die out because, you see, people weren’t meant to just come and spectate. That’s not what it means to belong to Christ and be a Christian. It’s not what the church was meant to be.
A church—particularly a large church, but truly all churches—must bring people into intimate Christian community. We have a hundred koinonias in this church, a hundred small group fellowships. We should have 200. We should have 300. God is really challenging us.
As we approach the years to come, we would realize and effectively communicate this truth: that God has called us to fellowship with one another. “Do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but get into a situation where you can encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near, the final day.” Today in the gymnasium, we have a special booth set up where you can find out more about koinonias and how you can become involved in a small group fellowship. Let’s close with a word of prayer.