The 4 Marks of the Church: 2) The Apostles' Fellowship

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)

It is the apostles’ teaching and the apostles’ fellowship that we promise to “continue” when we make or renew our Baptismal vows. The two go together. You cannot separate them. And yet, far too often, too many in the Church attempt to do just that.

To be fair, it is not easy to maintain both a strong teaching and a diverse community. And yet, we are called to maintain both strong teaching and diverse community. We are called as a Church to fulfill the vision of Psalm 85:10: “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

To continue in the apostles’ fellowship, therefore require a willingness, sometimes, to live with some level of disagreement. It means not sweating the small stuff. And when something happens in church that we don’t like, it means asking ourselves why we are so bothered before we express that bother. If we think about the causes for our personal anxiety, then we might find that what’s bothering us has more to do with us than the issue. And once we separate out our personal anxiety, then we can speak to the issue itself, to the truth that we perceive, without getting defensive or personal. And those with whom we disagree will likely be more receptive to our point of view.

To continue in the apostles’ fellowship also means a willingness to live in God’s time (kairos) than our own time (chronos). The Church has been discussing, debating and deciding lots of theological issues for a long, long time before any of us were here, and will be for long after we’re gone. Very few decisions are as final as we’d like to think they are. Sometimes, the Church may test something in a holy spirit of discernment (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21), and keep it, or not. Trust in God’s time, and be patient with your brothers and sisters in faith.

When we commit ourselves to continuing in the Apostles’ fellowship, we need not fear disagreements over the Apostles’ teaching, because we know that over our disagreements hovers the Holy Spirit, who guides us together, and comforts us together, always together.