Am I too young to join Church Fellowship? (A teenager’s standpoint)

Penulis: Isabelle A. Manik

I started taking “fellowship” seriously as a teenager. I know, that must sound weird, but trust me, after understanding the full context, you might see the whole picture and relate to what I’m saying.

In this opportunity, we will be talking about fellowship at church, particularly for teenagers. I am a teenager myself, so let’s just say that I am qualified enough to talk about this. To begin with, you may ask, what exactly is “fellowship”? One may think that fellowship means attending a sermon, listening, praying, reading some of God’s words, and that’s it. Technically, it is not entirely wrong, but fellowship can have much more meaning than that.

Oxford Dictionary defines “fellowship” as a friendly association, especially with people who share one’s interests. Meanwhile, the Cambridge Dictionary defines the term as a group of people or an organization with the same purpose. All in all, both definitions include people- this makes it clear that a fellowship can only take place with people involved, either on a large scale or a smaller scale. Of course, communication is key when participating in a certain fellowship. People would gather as groups, and speak their minds and their thoughts, while others listen. This gives an ideal outcome of a fellowship.

Fellowship, in church particularly, is when groups of people gather, listen to God’s words, read the Bible, discuss their concerns, pray together, etc. Just like any other fellowship, communication is important. That’s just simply how fellowship works. Fellowship builds unity. Fellowship in church builds unity within believers and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Within believers, we can find new friends whom we can relate to, as we serve the same purpose, which is to build a relationship with God. For instance, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 1:9, which states: “God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” This verse is an excellent example when talking about fellowship. This verse tells us that God has called us into fellowship with Jesus Christ. Thus, it is clear that we, believers, through fellowship, can build a relationship with God. It’s incredible what communication and belief can do, am I right?

Now, let’s talk about teenagers. Teenagers nowadays are much more straight-up with what they want, compared to teenagers decades, even centuries ago. This basically means that teenagers in this generation have the accessibility and the ability to take part in handling occasions, events, or any of the sort. “Age supremacy” doesn’t really apply anymore as well. In terms of fellowship at church, teenagers are also able to take part in church services. We can use SIREM (Komisi Remaja) as an example, as it is our church’s youth service. Most parts of our youth service are run by the teenage participants of our church. Facilities are given by the church, but that’s pretty much everything. Worship leaders and singers are led by teenagers. Teenagers who are talented in music take over in playing praise and worship songs. Teenagers can also be ushers for their services. The sermon, however, is led by an adult as these teenagers don’t consume the complete knowledge to preach yet since it takes years of learning to preach. That is still impressive if you think about it, how 12-17 year olds just participate in running a fellowship.

To sum up, active fellowship is a good approach for those who want to build a relationship with God. Especially for teenagers, taking part in a service is a great way to start as well in your journey to build that relationship. Aside from building a relationship with God, you can find and gain friends with whom you can relate to, as believers. God is good, so all outcomes from taking part in church service or actively taking part in fellowship are good outcomes. May God bless all of us.