5 Ways to Build Fellowship and Spiritual Growth

Written by Richard E. Dodge

Fellowship is more than merely a time of activities and food. Every fellowship event offers an opportunity to develop the vertical dimension of fellowship as well as the horizontal element. Make your next fellowship event one for personal growth as well as relational enhancement.

The vertical relationship entails at least two specific elements: Our relationship through spiritual growth and our Christian growth through service. While some fellowship events certainly can be primarily a social activity, some should be designed to help us grow personally as we study the Word or minister to the needs of others. 

Connect with local agencies. Traditional ways of helping through organizations include local social agencies. But many churches conduct special activities in the winter, such as a ministry to homeless persons called Room at the Inn. Classes in your church might offer to assist this ministry.

Focus on spiritual maturity. A more aggressive approach to spiritual growth might be to replace or change annual class events. Provide special study materials that would focus on some area of personal spiritual growth. Focus on how to make someone's holidays special in some way through the study itself.

Provide special gift opportunities. Invite everyone together for a study and assessment of spiritual gifts. Identify ways learners can use their gifts to help someone in a personal way. Emphasize that each person should find some way to use his or her special spiritual gifts for this activity.

Send personal spiritual blessings. Send anonymous notes and letters to others in the church telling them how much they meant to the writer. Use specific passages that reflect how the receiver has been a blessing.

Conduct a prayer fellowship. Spend 30-45 minutes in prayer as the main activity of the fellowship. Place names of members on one set of cards, unsaved friends and neighbors on a second set, people with special needs in another set, and so forth. Ask people to form groups of three to five people. Encourage everyone to pray aloud at least once. Distribute cards to each group, allow 5-10 minutes for prayer, then bring that portion to a close. Distribute a new set of cards, provide time to pray, then close that portion as well. Continue until each set of cards has been distributed.

Every fellowship can be a time of fun, laughter and, of course, food. But some events need to have a decidedly spiritual nature to them. Help adults discover this month how to grow vertically through fellowship.

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