Over the years however, Fellowship Meetings became a monthly requirement in every region of the US where we had churches. The original intention was to give members of those churches to have a chance to see that there were other churches like theirs and that having church together was very exciting; they were to have that same 'old time' feeling. The 'more the merrier' so to speak. In addition, you could enjoy hearing a message preached by someone different, and afterward laugh, talk, eat!
Why were they stopped?
Well, they weren't, not completely. "Ahh, whatever happened to those wonderful 'Fellowship Meetings?'" some watery-eyed person would ask. This question seems to come up often, but maybe people have forgotten the things they 'didn't like' about them. There are still many meetings held, but only those supervised by an Overseer, and they aren't monthly requirements anymore. The primary reason for this, was to ease the financial burden on the churches and pastors, and stop the monthly disruption of their schedules.
Contrary to the rumor, it wasn't because the ministers "weren't trusted to conduct the services". There were no guest speakers, only the same pastors preaching to each other's congregations, and each other, every month.
Many times ministers are peers or Dorm buddies, so in some ways, the meetings became more than just a financial burden; the burden of resentment. FMs should never be a burden. But for some people, everything is a burden.
Count the Cost
Going to a fellowship meeting could sometimes be a budget buster! Consider for example...
*Expenses for travel including gas, meals, and in some cases a hotel room
*Soul-winning programs reduced 25% (1 week out of each month)
*Saturday services cancelled, impacting the church evangelistically and financially
But wait, there's more!
A few preachers strove over who was leading service, whose wife would sing, who would preach, etc. And then there's the preacher who took a cheap shot at another preacher on the front row, saying 'men who part their hair on the right, "are homosexuals" (?) Such behavior is un-ministerial, childish, carnal. Unfortunately you can't give people brains. There was also a degree of resentment on the part of some pastors for having to deal with some of this stuff, every month. Let those who lament the changes, remember.
The offerings taken up in those meetings went to the Home Missions program; a reserve fund for expenses related to helping fledgling churches in the USA. The money wasn't just given out to 'spenders', but used to bail out lots of Pastors in a bind, trying to get their church started. Those offerings didn't come near covering the expenditures, and the Org. carried the rest. Home Missions is no more.
Under the new setup, offerings go to expenses of the Fellowship Meetings to defray expenses of the meeting that fall on the host church, and whatever else is needed for the meeting, like refreshments, etc.
Some additional benefits of the new setup are things such as:
- Ingathering fellowship and food the night before
- Overseers supervising and preaching some of the meetings
- Pastors and Overseers getting face time
- Team building and growth
- Church members receiving spiritual benefits (Holy Ghost, etc)
- Meetings rare, making them more desirable and exciting
- More time to promote members attending
- All us preachers need to be preached to also!
My hope is that in the future, Fell. Mtgs. will be promoted more effectively and in advance. It used to be a great excitement for us because someone would get the Holy Ghost, or get saved, and the excitement was always high.
In Graham, we never have them because the nearby Pastors and some members come every Thursday anyway. Plus, the Graham congregation could never fit in the smaller buildings, and we have a lot of Conference-like services as it is. Either way, God is good! And now you know...the true, 'rest of the story'.
