I'm burdened with the idea of trying to bring new people into church by means of fellowship and relationships that show a good time and friendly faces but not Jesus. My burden is that the Christians in these fellowships are not very Christian; so are we bringing people in to show them a lack-lazy example of following Jesus and a good time with food and fellowship...or are we showing and sharing Jesus?
It's like feeding the homeless food without sharing the gospel. It's not our calling just to feed but to feed the soul and do it all in Jesus' name... Not in the name of a full belly. In the same respect if all we offer is fellowship, food, and fun then all we are is a social club at best, Satan's instruments for distracting and leading people astray at worst.
A social gathering where we pray before we eat and never mention the name of Jesus or build each other up in encouragement for the work of Christ is not a church fellowship activity. We do more harm than good by advertising a church fellowship then proceeding to display how "Christians" don't act very Christian and in fact are pretty much the same as the world. If there's no difference in our lives then what is the appeal? Its these poor examples of Christ that are damaging the image of Christianity as a whole. They'd do more good never mentioning Jesus in their conversation and getting out of the way of Jesus' work.
You can argue as many do that it's all about the heart, but our heart is made manifest in our actions. If I say "yeah, but you don't know my heart" I am lying to myself and others because what's in your heart comes out in the way you act.
I think it's time we make being in a group of fellow believers what God intended for it to be. A time of prayer, encouragement, worship, accountability, and discipleship. When done right, as we bring people into our lives through fellowship and building friendships, we should be pointing them to Christ; not just a place of fun and acceptance but of truth and accountability. We should be setting high standards (afterall Jesus was perfect, and if our love for him superceeds all else our desire will be to shoot for the same) for ourselves and those around us and living lives that please God, not each other or the world.
