Introduction
1. IT BEGAN IN SCOTLAND
   
2. THOMAS CAMPBELL WRITES HIS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
   
3. THE SPIRIT OF THE "DECLARATION AND ADDRESS"
   
4. PRINCIPLES OF THE DOCUMENT
   
5. HISTORIC NOTES ON OUR FIRST CHURCH
   
6. "LET CHRISTIAN UNITY BE OUR POLAR STAR"
   
7. THE NOBLEST ACT IN BARTON STONE'S LIFE
   
8. LEARNING FROM A BACKWOODS PREACHER
   
9. CHRISTIANS IN BABYLON
   
10. WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
    
11. THE ESSENCE OF THE CAMPBELL PLEA
    
12. THE DEATH OF A DREAM
    
13. THE SAND CREEK ADDRESS
    
14. A MUDDLED MOVEMENT
    
15. THE AUTHORITY TOTEM
    
16. THE PARTY SPIRIT
    
17. THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
    
18. OUR COSTLIEST SIN: EXCLUSIVISM
    
19. RESTORATION OR REFORMATION
    
20. A BOY LEARNS THE MEANING OF BROTHERHOOD
    
21. THE BUTTING BRETHREN
    
22. ANALYSIS OF LEGALISM
    
23. THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
    
24. THOUGHTS ON FELLOWSHIP
    
25. ON THE ROCKS
    
26. WITHDRAWING FROM THE DISORDERLY
    
27. CAUSING DIVISIONS
    
28. TWO GREAT ERRORS
    
29. UNION IN TRUTH
    
30. ONE BODY IN CHRIST
    
31. UNITY AND IDENTITY
    
32. UNITY IN DIVERSITY
    
33. IS DOCTRINE IMPORTANT?
    
34. THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS
    
35. MUST WE GIVE UP OUR OPINIONS?
    
36. WHAT DIFFERENCES DO DIFFERENCES MAKE?
    
37. THE "ONE BAPTISM" AND FELLOWSHIP
    
38. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE UNIMMERSED?
    
39. OUR FATHERS ON "WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?"
    
40. "OUR BROTHERS IN THE DENOMINATIONS"
    
41. WHAT IS "OUR FELLOWSHIP"?
    
42. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH?
    
43. I WOULD ABDICATE
    
44. A BASIC FALLACY TO OVERCOME
    
45. CAN WE BE UNITED AND NOT KNOW IT?
    
46. SEPARATED BUT NOT DIVIDED
    
47. THE ONE CHURCH INDIVISIBLE
    
48. UNITY WILL COME, BUT
    
49. IF NOT BROTHERHOOD, THEN CO-EXISTENCE
    
50. THIS IS OUR GLORY!
    
51. THE UNIFYING POWER OF THE CROSS
    

WHAT IS "OUR FELLOWSHIP"?

I seem to be hearing and reading it more these days, not less, and I think somebody should ask for a definition. What is meant by "our fellowship" anyhow? On the front cover of Firm Foundation, for example, there is a picture of Kenyans who had gathered for a school. The editor explains that not all in the picture are "members of our fellowship," for some belong to African independent churches. Inside the journal, where the mission to Kenya is described in detail, the same language appears, distinguishing "our" fellowship from the independent churches of Africa.

But this is not to gang up on the Firm Foundation, where this kind of talk appears now and again, for I find it in publications among Disciples of Christ and Christian Churches as well-and of course in religious journals at large where fellowship and denomination are used interchangeably. And if such language appears in this journal, I include myself in the question I am raising.

What kind of talk is this? It looks for the world like fellowship has become a euphemism for denomination. We dare not say "our denomination" since we are non­denominational (so we claim), so we find "fellowship" a useful alternative. We in Churches of Christ are even uncomfortable in saying "our church." But even our leaders seem to be at home with "our fellowship." And I've noticed that Christian Church leaders, who are equally uneasy with the word denomination, have been using the euphemism, fellowship, for a long time. It is well­nigh common lingo among Christian Churches.

There is an odd development for a people who claim to speak as the scriptures speak and to call Bible things by Bible names. The term fellowship appears in scripture, to be sure, but never in the way we are now using it. There is, for instance, in Philip. 1:1 the "fellowship of the Spirit," but most of us agree that such a fellowship includes all those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Surely there are some in whom the Spirit dwells among the "African independent churches," as well as in those of "our fellowship." So I take it that the Firm Foundation does not refer to the fellowship of the Spirit when it refers to "our fellowship." In this context "our fellowship" must mean the same as "Church of Christ," or to be more candid, "our denomination" as distinguished from the African denominations.

Then too the Bible is clear as to how we enter the fellowship of the Spirit. We are called into it by God himself according to 1 Cor. 1:9: "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." And 2 Thess. 2:14 shows that God calls us "through the gospel." It follows, then, that God calls us into the fellowship (or the church) when we hear and obey the gospel. If there is but one church, there is but one fellowship, just as there is but one gospel that calls us.

If there is but one fellowship, which is the one church, why all this talk about "our fellowship?" All God's children, whether in Kenya or in Texas, are in the fellowship, which is the only one there is-the only one, that is, that God calls us to be a part of! I have no interest in belonging to any other. In God's sight there is no such thing as a "Church of Christ" or a "Christian Church" or a "Presbyterian Church," for there is only his Body, which is the church, the fellowship of the Spirit.

If any of us have a fellowship apart from the one that 1 John 1:3 refers to ("our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ"), then we may presume to exercise control over it, accepting whom we will and "withdrawing" from whom we will. But we have no control over the fellowship of the Spirit, for it embraces all those in whom the Spirit dwells. And if it is God who calls people into that fellowship through the Gospel, it is only God that can exclude them. Jesus is described as the one "who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one will open," (Rev. 3:7) which makes it risky for us to be in the business of opening and shutting. He controls the fellowship and not ourselves. We, therefore, have a lot of soul­searching to do in all this "withdrawing fellowship" that goes on. If Jesus "opens" to someone, it is futile for us to try to slam the door on him. None can shut! Thank God for that. Except for that glorious truth I would have been out long ago!

None can open is an equally pungent truth. Just because some church accepts a man or he receives applause from "our fellowship" doesn't mean that Jesus has opened to him.

Let's face it. If we use fellowship to refer to anything less than the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church throughout the world, we are using it in a sectarian sense. There is no such thing as "our fellowship" except in terms of a sect, whether in Kenya or in Texas. Of course we may refer to the fellowship that we enjoy together in any congregation as "our fellowship," but even then we recognize that the fellowship, which is the one church, embraces all God's children everywhere, and we are communing with them as well as with each other, wherever they may be gathered. 1 John 1 seems to have some such view:

"What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."

(Restoration Review: Vol. 20, No. 10; Dec. 1979)