"Life is meant to be shared. Fellowship is experiencing life together.
Every Christian needs to be involved in a small group within their church.
In real fellowship people experience authenticity. People get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives. They share hurts, reveal their feelings, confess their failures, disolve their doubts, admit their fears, acknowledge their weaknesses and ask for help and prayer.
Of course, being authentic requires both courage and humility. It means facing our fear of exposure, rejection and being hurt.
Being authentic is the only way to grow spiritually.
Every time you understand and affirm someone's feelings, you build fellowship.
It is in times of deepest crisis, grief and doubt that we need each other most. When circumstances crush us to the point that our faith falters, that's when we need believing friends most.
Fellowship is a place of grace, where mistakes aren't rubbed in, but rubbed out.
You can't have fellowship without forgiveness. You will never be asked to forgive someone more than God has already forgiven you." PDL Chapter 18
Are there any groups really like this - authentic? How does a group like this get built? In my experience, true fellowship, as defined in this chapter, is extremely rare. I think that a place for fellowship and forgiveness (again as defined by this chapter) would be wonderful, but it involves people being willing to be vulnerable. It's most people's inclination to put their best face forward instead of baring their souls. In many groups people easily talk about the needs of others, but don't easily talk about their personal crises.
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