Hanging Out

This past weekend we spent a lot of time hanging out with our church family. Friday night, we were together with our Bible study group. Saturday, we had a churchwide progressive dinner. Then last night we got together with our Bible study group again to watch the Super Bowl and polish off leftovers from the previous night's dinner (our group did most of the hosting for the progressive dinner).

At one of our stops on Saturday, the host shared from the following passage:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 - emphasis mine)

Fellowship is a spiritual act. God has been telling me for quite a while that fellowship is a key to growing the church. Because it is within these times of fellowships that relationships are developed and true accountability occurs. This is what Tod Bolsinger refers to as the spirtual discipline of "Hanging Out". He's absolutely right. I can look back at periods of my greatest growth as a Christian and it has come in the context of hanging out with other believers, whether individually or in small groups. The more we hang out together, the more that the emotional walls we put up are torn down by other believers and we become more comfortable with bearing each other's burdens.

Perhaps this is why the author of Hebrews wrote this verse:

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)