If you hurt fellowship you hurt faith

Fellowship is an indispensable partner to faith and prayer. It helps to build bonds of love and learning between people, and also helps to serve as a mirror for how we communicate with God. The more open and honest we can be with each other, the more we begin to understand each other. The more we understand each other, the more we begin to understand what it means to love our fellow human beings. Understanding how to love human beings brings insight to our relationship with God.

Hurting fellowship through your attitude to dialog shuts down the lines of communication. If you foster an environment where people would rather stay silent than engage, that’s the end of fellowship for them. Consciously or not, people take fellowship as a touchstone for their interaction with God. More so if you speak from a position of authority, people will find themselves staying silent in prayer as well for things they might otherwise address. As the ambassador of your faith, your walk becomes less appealing to others because your endorsement of this attitude says you believe God endorses it also. People looking for a dialog with God are less likely to find the expression of such a love in an example of condescension and belittling. 

Regardless of whether you’re ultimately right your point, you get no where if you cannot express the point clearly or respond to differing opinions in a measured and relevant fashion. Above being humble about your point, which is important, being humble about your method of communication, and your response to others points, is essential if you wish to encourage fellowship. If you can’t respond to others with real consideration to what they’re saying, you again foster an environment of silence because dialog again becomes impossible.

Trying to encourage people to enter a dialog with God is fruitless if you can’t present a model for open dialog yourself. A lack of open dialog brings about a lack of faith as people can’t see the free expression of their heart achieved with those who represent that faith. Always be mindful of how your approach encourages or discourages fellowship, and how much love is served if one party is always pushed into silence.