From the May-August 2010 Issue
They were together
Wieslaw and Aleksandra Kamyszek
Lodz congregationThere are in the New Testament at least two verses in which the writer clearly remarked on the fellowship of the church, yet not in terms of the liturgy or service only, but based on relationship and being together. Both verses we find in Acts. The first one reads as follows: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1) and the next one: “All the believers were together…” (Acts 2:44).
We do not intend to go deep into the contents of these texts. However, it is worth saying that they point to one of the most vital aims of the church, namely: to be together. And although a church by definition is an assembly, this aspect is not always understood in a correct way. It happens that the human mentality makes a mistake and wrongly believes it is entitled, even against the rules of the New Testament, to create its own concept of church affiliation. Sometimes it even seems that modern individualism has replaced the concept of the church as a visible community.
We are saying this to give a short report from the Soli Deo Gloria Church in Łódź concerning the way we care about fellowship based on relationship. One could write a lot on this subject, but let’s concentrate on one example only. By God’s grace it happened last year, first in May and then in October, when we went for a day trip outside our city. In May, our destination was a place in the beautiful woodland not far from Łódź. Our main purpose was to be in good company and enjoy the fresh air – to relax. Relaxing didn’t mean being idle or bored. We played football and badminton. In addition, we had a lesson on new methods of studying and remembering, and we had a sort of quiz where we were supposed to match the beginnings of verses from the Bible with their endings. We really enjoyed that. Our time together passed very quickly and the weather was wonderful; far beyond our expectations – it was sunny and warm. We came back to our homes fully relaxed.
In October we visited a Christian centre. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. The autumn weather was beautiful; there was a river next to the rest-house and we didn’t need anything else. Again we wanted to relax and spend time together. As had been the case in May, almost all the members of the congregation were there, plus a few people who don’t belong to our church. We experienced great joy in walking and talking; we enjoyed the weather and environment. A part of our time was assigned to lectures on the holistic Christian worldview – and also on how to apply first-aid properly! We spent time singing together and playing volleyball and had a similar quiz as we had in May. We felt we made good use of our time; we became closer friends than before and we glorified God because we were so grateful to Him for such great blessings.
We hope, if it is according to His will, to go again in May 2010 for a third trip like this. The aim is to be closer to one another, to talk to one another in different circumstances and in a different environment, which sometimes causes deeper thoughts and reflections; to get to know one another better. Even simply to laugh together.
Are such excursions worth organizing? Of course they are. We need to do everything we can so that the fellowship of the church will have this dimension as well; the dimension of inter-personal relationships, of friendship. The closer we are to one another the better. And that is why we are all looking forward to the next such event and to new impressions.