Fellowship is about a mutual exchange of life with other people. Stated another way, it is about sharing or living life together. We are talking about building life-giving friendships.

Welcoming new people as new friends requires intentionality; it won't automatically happen. The purpose of the fellowship function in the church is to help believers to connect with and commit to new bonds of friendship in the faith community.

The words "connect" and "commit" represent two phases in a person's journey as they enter the body-life of the church.

Connect

A person can connect by accepting an invitation to meet with a group or attend an event. When the church offers groups or ministries that relate to a person's felt need or interest, that person is more likely to connect.

Commit

But will that person commit to being a member of the local church body? Will they truly join the faith community in their journey? People are more likely to commit to a group when they perceive that the commitment will be mutual. Is the church committed to them, and is the church truly interested in them?

Attracting new people into the church's fellowship requires more than impressing them with how wonderful the church is. The church needs to authentically demonstrate that they are impressed with how wonderful the newcomer is.

Think about friendship. Can you make new friends with an attitude that says, "Look at me! Look at how wonderful I am!" Of course not. An attitude that says, "Look at how wonderful you are!" is much more effective.

How can a church authentically demonstrate that they are interested in the newcomer? Are the already-committed members of the church ready to take time to listen to the stories of new people? As their stories are told, the church needs to be ready to "call out the gold" that they discern in that person. In other words, affirming the worth of each individual is so important. It's called "honor."

At some point, commitment will include a resolve on the part of the newcomer to devote their "time, talent and treasure" to the furtherance of the church's mission. Membership classes and gift discovery opportunities can help to guide them into this aspect of their life in the faith community.

Let's do what we can to facilitate connection, and then let's provide a church culture where people truly want to make the commitment to live and serve together.

Pastors are devoted to the care of people. They are intimately involved with congregants, and they want to make sure that everyone’s needs are met. People with a pastoral anointing and calling generate a church culture all around them that is characterized by care. Members of the congregation are supernaturally drawn together around that anointing, just as sheep are drawn to their shepherd. For the pastor, ministry is all about care and the meeting of needs.

What can be confusing is that through the passing of time, the church world has settled into referring to the primary congregational leader as the “pastor.” The term “pastor” is seldom used in Scripture to refer to congregational leaders. Floyd McClung is correct in saying, “’Pastor’ is an overused term.” In many cases, the person holding the title, “pastor,” does not function under the anointing of a pastor. He may be an apostle—a big picture kind of person who needs others on his team who are prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and able to teach. Or the congregational leader may be an evangelist. In such cases, he may need to partner with apostolic and prophetic leaders, and a team of pastors and teachers may be needed as well. A congregational leader can be any one of the five within the five-fold model; he does not have to be a person who functions primarily in a pastoral anointing. In fact, Harold Eberle goes so far as to say, “God’s intention was that pastors work among the sheep, not rule over the local church.”

To be clear, in this five essential functions model, the pastor is not the only person delivering care. He or she is in the church to empower the entire church to minister to one another through relationships of mutual care. This empowerment is at the heart of the fellowship function.