Fellowship
One of the most exciting experiences of adulthood is also one of the most life-changing: moving to a new area. Everything is unfamiliar and, more than likely, everyone is a stranger. But one of the best ways to meet Godly friends and connect to your new community is to find a local church where you can find fellowship with other believers.
Need Help Now?The Importance of Christian Fellowship
Fellowship with Other Believers
Christian friendships mean celebrating milestones, laughing over a good meal—even crying together.
As fellow believers, Scripture calls us to embrace friendship with those who share our faith: "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
Shallow Friends
With the advent of social media, the definition of friendship has completely changed. Facebook has diminished the meaning of the word friend to include anyone who has ever affiliated with you or someone you know.
From TikTok to LinkedIn, there's a never-ending race to have the most connections—yet no genuine, meaningful relationships. In fact, the chances of you meeting a Facebook friend for coffee is remote at best.
The end result is having many shallow encounters that give the illusion of being well-known and liked, but leave us feeling empty and alone. It's like eating food that won't fill you up or nourish you. It will leave you wanting.
Life-Giving Friends
By contrast, true Christian friends are like deeply nourishing, nutrient-rich superfood that sustains us in lean times. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)
Surrounding yourself with people who share your faith brings you physical , spiritual, and emotional comfort and encouragement in all seasons. A hallmark of Christian friendship is Godly counsel and support in hard times, as well as courage to say the hard things.
Solomon wrote, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy." (Proverbs 27:6) Friends who warn us away from sin and challenge us to obey God are central to victorious Christian living.
The True Friend
It's important to seek out Christian fellowship. Ecclesiastes 4:10 says a friend is a real blessing. "If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."
In seasons when loyalty is low and trusted friends have let you down, just remember, "a man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18:24)
Jesus is that friend.
