26/03/2026
Fellowship or Church?
Please Note:
The views in this post is my honest personal opinion and what I as the Pastor of Faith Baptist Church believe. I have studied the New Testament regarding the subject mentioned above ( Fellowship or Church); and found that the idea among us Baptist Churches in PNG starting or establishing a new work and calling it Fellowship is unscriptural. Some work has been established for 10 to 20 years and are still being called Fellowship.
To begin with let me define this two words Fellowship and Church.
1. Fellowship - In Webster's Dictionary the word Fellowship generally means: Companionship; this refers to a relationship among the the members within an organisation and does not refer to an organisation.
👉 In its Theological usage the word Fellowship refers to the Greek word Koinonia and it's used in the context of Spiritual Relationship, Union and Communion particularly among the born again believers within the context of the Local Churches.
🤝 So in general Fellowship refers to an Activity either Spiritual or Physical.
2. Church - The Greek word translated as "Church" in the New Testament is Ekklesia, which means "an Assembly" "Congregation" or "Called out ones"
It refers especially to a gathering of people summoned together, rather than a physical building ".
🤝 So in general the word Church refers to an Assembly or Congregational gathering in a location.
📖 Let us see what the Bible says;
Jesus Christ was the first person to use the word Church. Matthew 16:18. "...I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Even at it's early stages Jesus Christ did not say I will build my fellowship, he said I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH. Also in Church discipline in Matthew 18:17, he referred to it as Church NOT as Fellowship.
And then from the great Commission to the book of Acts you will not find such thing as the Fellowship but the Church.
Acts 2:47. 5:11. 7:38. 8:1, 3. 11:22, 26. 12:1, 5. 13:1. 14:23, 27. 15:3, 4, 22. 18:22. 20:17, 28.
Paul also calls Churches in early stages as Church (Corinth - "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth..." Ephesus... etc ) NOT Fellowship. Even born again believers that were gathering together in the houses of certain Christian's Paul addresses them as Church and NOT Fellowship.
Romans 16:5 "...greet the Church that is in their house..." Philemon 1:2. "And to our beloved Apphia and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house."
Therefore, I for one do not agree with this unscriptural idea of calling a new work that are being established as Fellowship.
They are NOT Fellowship; they are churches made up of Born Again Believers.
Christ did NOT purchase Fellowship with his own blood; he purchase CHURCH with his own blood. Acts 20:28 "...to feed the church which he purchase with his own blood."
Conclusion - Fellowship is not a organism, it is an activity; Church is an organism. Fellowship is result of churches functioning as an organism. This mutual activities and relationships among the born again believers within the local Churches is called fellowship or communion. 1 John 1:1 - 4.
By Pastor Barthimeas Beggai (Evangelist Barthimeas Beggai)
