The Pattern for Biblical Fellowship, Part 1

I want to talk to you about the doctrine...what the Bible teaches about fellowship...fellowship. You might not think that fellowship is a doctrine, but it is. It’s a clear teaching of Scripture. Doctrine is just a stiffer word for teaching, I guess you could say. So we want to talk a little bit about fellowship, what fellowship really is. Fellowship is a word that’s been thrown around the church as long as I can remember, having been raised in a church as a pastor’s kid. I always...I always heard the word “fellowship,” virtually every church I was ever in had a place called Fellowship Hall. I assumed that whatever happened in that place was fellowship because that was Fellowship Hall. And my definition of fellowship had to do with stale cookies and red punch and the smell of old coffee because that seemed to be what went on in that place.