Clarice Bowman and George Harper: The current of power can only flow through a circuit which is complete. Life is not lived between people only. Life is not lived between God and me only.
However friendly and kind and helpful we are to each other, our fellowship will lack timelessness, unless we are related to God.
If I try to keep my relation with God, and then fail to live its spirit of fellowship with others, I become the end of a process that should go on. Life must be lived in a fellowship that includes God, others, and me. My life is grounded in God; I build relationships with others on that ground. Power comes to me from God; I share that power with others. I am lost in God's love; I love others as He would love through me. Others must ground themselves in God, too, else there is no common meeting-place for our spirits.
When more than one of us has the same life center, we become parts of a unit. No word is adequate to describe what happens. The word "Fellowship" is perhaps closest, but the greatness and warmth of the new experience of togetherness is too great for any word.
We vaguely suspected before that there could be such a fellowship of sharing and love. Here it is, and we are surprised to find ourselves in it. These were the bonds that knit the early Christians together in a fellowship of power that enabled their small group to overbalance the rest of the world.
Life is changed for us. Our personal relations begin to line up in a changed way. Certain acquaintances slip into the background, as we see that our relations with them have always been near the surface of life. We may have shared years of comradeship and common adventures, but now we know that down deep we have never been together in that place where God's power of love flows. They, too, will need to become God-centered in order to understand the real life we find. We long for them to have this new life. We sorrow over their dimness of vision. We feel for them what Jesus must have felt for His family and friends. Yet the fellowship of power is necessarily reserved for those who live the new life; power comes from a uniting purpose that binds together in a life experience beyond ourselves.
While some acquaintances move away from the center of our new relationships, others move in. They may not have been considered as special friends before. Suddenly we know them - really know them to the depths - because they are in the same fellowship.
A new sense of values changes our religious opinions. Some things we have counted valuable are seen to be worthless. We see some to be self-seeking, agitated, half-committed persons, working feverishly to cover up the fact that poise and peace of new life has not come to them. We see others giving themselves without reserve yet seemingly unwearied. We see ourselves, gripped by good intentions and very busy. Fast motion has kept us out of focus so that the love of God has had no chance, to "take." Now our hearts leap with the joy of discovery; and we are welcomed by those who patiently understand, into the fellowship of the power of love.
Those who observed the Christian community of the first century exclaimed, "See how these Christians love one another!" (Tertullian, 160-220). The fellowship of power has always astonished those who stood outside. In the early church, the concrete expression of love through the sharing of goods was only the outcropping of a profoundly deeper sharing of new life.
Through history, various upsurges of real fellowship in God have appeared: in the early church, in the beginnings of the order of St. Francis, in the group of early Friends [Quakers], in the early days of the Evangelical movement. In addition, there have been thousands of small fellowships-of-power across the centuries: wherever a handful of people centered in the love of God have lifted the life of their nameless community nearer heaven. History books do not recount these group experiences, but we cannot guess how much we owe to them today.
Man alone cannot create such a fellowship. We find God, give ourselves completely to Him as Jesus suggests. Then we find ourselves in the fellowship. As we increase in Him, we increase in the fellowship - the more powerfully as we have more of His life in us. The term "communion of saints" describes it. Paul saw the whole fellowship to be "the body of Christ" (1 Cor. 12:27).
Ideally, the entire church should be - could be - a Fellowship of Power. Actually, there has always had to be a Fellowship within the fellowship of the church.
In such a Fellowship, things are different. God's way cannot be forced into the mold of our little prejudices and social customs. In the Fellowship, the walls of racial differences are down, because they could never exist. National, cultural, economic, educational differences are all leveled. The Fellowship is not exclusive, not a society for "holier-than-thou's." Each person determines for himself whether he will belong, by his relationships first to God, and then with others.
The depth of the Fellowship is not measured by man-made social groupings. One may experience a deeper kinship with another member of the Fellowship who is of another race, than with one of his own racial acquaintances who refuses to enter. Here all men are on one basis: they are sons of God, living in His love, blessed with His presence, in brotherhood with each other. The scholar and the man of no formal education speak of the same experience, and know the same truths.
Members may hold to different theologies or systems of thought, but their hearts may glow with the same love. That is what counts, and upon that basis we find fellowship. Church boundaries are overleaped. Methodists, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Pentecostal Holiness - yes, and Jews and Christians together - all may be in the same Fellowship [from a human perspective, but Our Father may not agree totally with our authors about this! He requires us to worship Him "in Spirit and in Truth". Remember that "Thy word is truth." And Jesus said "I am the truth, the way and the life!"].
Such a Fellowship extends past boundaries of place and time. Kinship may be felt with those who lived in this fellowship centuries ago. We read with new appreciation the testimonies of the saints and seers, astonished, perhaps, to find how similar are experiences they describe to ours. We read the Scriptures (not merely as pious exercise or from a sense of duty), but because we wish to meet on this new basis the great souls of that day who were finding God and being found by Him. Minor differences of opinion about informational points in the text seem insignificant. We are trying to know the writers who lived this life with such power.
Great devotional literature becomes more meaningful. Brother Lawrence becomes brother Lawrence. Augustine becomes a friend through his "Confessions." The practical admonitions and whimsicalities of Thomas À. Kempis in his "Imitation" are not "old stuff," but life speaking to life. The saints of the past and spiritual leaders of today - like E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Kirby Page, Frank Laubach, Albert Day, Rufus Jones, Thomas Kelley, etc. - speak a common language because they describe in various ways a common experience: a Fellowship of Power.
The ground of this Fellowship through the ages is in God. Lives surrendered to Him (as the mystics say, "drowned" in Him) know one another in Him. When a person is wholly surrendered to God, no one can touch him without touching God also, observed Meister Eckhart of the 14th century. Like mountains rooted in the same earth, persons in the Fellowship of Power are related to one another through Him.
This fellowship is deeper than democracy. It is more than good-group-living together. It is more than a method of getting along with each other. God rules. Each person listens for His voice, seeks to follow His will. Political structures and systems change with the times, but this fellowship in God is eternal. Differences in national organization or creed cannot hold back this power.
Is this fellowship merely a general, universal fellowship with no local loyalties, no particular groups? No! There is the wide general fellowship, transcending space and time as well as man-made differences of language, etc. But within it there are opportunities for forming small, close-knit special fellowships of persons who can meet together often and carry a special concern for each other and for others.
Families
Families are our most intimate and constant relationships. They are the ones who love us best and whom we love best. The old practice of "family worship" is not as widespread as it used to be. Families need more than horizontal relationships: ties of blood that bind them person-to-person. They need a divine relationship, which will give new meaning and depth to all their days.
The family, because of these close-knit ties, can be the natural channel for a fellowship of power. Even after one or two periods of deep-felt prayer together, a family may grow into a new experience of one-ness. New joys are experienced in family fellowship in other realms - in fun, in work together, in purposes shared.
Rufus Jones describes his earliest memories of family worship at the farm home. There were cattle to be fed; breakfast was to be prepared; a thousand chores needed to be done. Yet here sat his family in quiet serenity for what seemed to him a long time. Soon he realized that they considered the Worship of God more important than any of these things. Even though as a child he could not fathom all the reasons why, he caught the contagion of their conviction.
Best friends
Next in our circles of intimate relationships come our best friends, those who understand us most. A student on campus may get to the place where he wants to share his prayer life with his room-mate or best friend. At first there may be a bit of embarrassment, but probably that room-mate or friend was eager for help once the door was opened.
One young couple, who had established a meaningful prayer life together, asked to have the Lord's Supper administered to them at the communion table alone, just before their marriage. Surely such a relationship founded upon the "depth-dimension" of prayer should last an eternity, as a fellowship-of-power.
Prayer-circles
An intimate group of a few persons find a spiritual kinship; share a spiritual preaching. "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). The number may be 8 or 10. Here is a little group whose members are in living touch with one another through the common ground of Him who underlies each individual life separately. There is a divine fellowship there, a "plus" added to their relationships.
When they gather, they may pray or seek guidance silently together, or read from some stimulating materials of devotions or discuss information about world conditions. The may speak or sing or keep silence as they feel moved to do. Theirs is not an "organization" with committees "to get up programs." Rather, in free informality and friendliness, they seek God and deeper fellowship through Him with each other. To be sure, they may make plans for their gathering-times; yet always whatever plans they make are subject to the "tides of the spirit."
How often does such a group meet? The number of times of getting together is not necessarily the index of a group's strength. How often they can meet, and how much they share depends upon how much time they have; what the conditions are; and a number of ordinary factors.
There come times when words only hinder ... when only in divine silence do we share and understand. "All friendships short of this are incomplete. All personal relations which lie only in time are open-ended and unfinished." Kelly.
Sometimes those outside tend to criticize members of a prayer-circle as being exclusive. No sincere God-seekers intend to be exclusive; it is their whole-hearted wish that as many as will join them. Those willing to undertake definite disciplines for growing spiritually, and for becoming a fellowship of power are few - too few.
The law Jesus spoke about individuals, holds true of groups also: that "whoso will save his life shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25). Only as a prayer-circle becomes more concerned for God's will and for others, than for itself as a group, will it have vitality as a leaven in a campus or church or community or world.
John Wesley used the idea of a fellowship-of-power in his "class meeting." Members met in small groups weekly, reporting and testifying to each other, and seeking guidance together for the coming week.
Farther back than that, the little groups that Paul set on fire "turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). As Muriel Lester suggests, "It was through the fellowship of the catacombs that the early Christians achieved the courage of the coliseum."
Youth groups in the Church
Youth groups in the church, often called "youth fellowships" may; or may not be, fellowships of power.
But where a few individuals within a group take their prayer life seriously, and seek God unreservedly, and try to practice Jesus' law of love in all their relationships, something soon happens in the group. A spiritual momentum begins to be felt. Prayer-time in their group worship takes on new depth and sincerity. There is direct carry-over into the stream of the group's actions and program. Its recreation takes on new zest, its service action is more wisely planned and more eagerly done.
The ideal is for a normal healthy youth fellowship in a church to become like a prayer-circle, in that:
- its members practice Christian brotherhood with each other.
- there is freedom for sharing of thought, and no one is made to feel silly or embarrassed to discuss the deeper things of the spiritual life together.
- organization and program routines are kept subordinate to the deeper needs of the youth.
- there is clear purpose in all plans and activities, a purpose constantly examined in the light of the teachings and life of Jesus.
What are some steps an adventurous group may take?
First, they need to become interested in worship and prayer - so much so that they will give it some thought.
Second, those who plan for worship in the group need to awaken to the sacredness of their responsibility! Let them pray before they plan. Let them realize that the group is depending upon them for guidance, in entering into the presence of God. Let them think of their part as "leaders", as not central, but from the sidelines; they are merely helpers to usher the group towards God.
Meaningless routines need to be ruthlessly cut. Never sing a hymn or read a poem, or do anything that does not have a definite purpose in helping a group worship God. Let prayer take a more central place: the climax, the high moment when the soul meets with God and finds fellowship to affect his life.
Materials for use in worship should be selected with utmost care. Ready-manufactured "programs" or "services" should be shunned, lest the group use them mechanically and fail to experience worship.
Third, customs such as having "opening" devotionals preceding discussion before the group is ready to worship, need to be re-thought. Let worship take place whenever in the course of a meeting the group has reached the place where it can worship in spirit and in truth.
Fourth, plans for worship in the group should anticipate a movement of the spirits of the worshippers Godward. It is not enough to assemble materials developing a theme; the sequence should help the youth "move" toward God. For example,
First, center upon God ... Take time to become aware of Him.
Lead the youth to that act of will by which they affirm that consciousness of God's presence, and willingness to be led by Him.
Second, with as much of a "God's-eye point of view" as possible, center upon the needs of persons, upon human relationships, upon the job ahead.
Third, the answer: self-giving. Perhaps at times, a deep awareness of places where we are failing; a consideration of the task, and prayer for strength of will and hand to follow through.
For worship and prayer to be meaningful and life-changing in a group as for an individual takes time. It also takes careful, prayerful preparation that is God-centered, not centered in the group itself, or in materials, or any human factor.
Pentecost comes again
When groups pray in two-dimensional fellowship, the same conditions are fulfilled as existed at Pentecost when, according to the story in the Acts 2,
"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication... When the day of Pentecost was come, they were all with one accord in one place... And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart."
Can it be that God's love is constantly ready, eager to break through, but is hindered except where the circuit is completed: fellowship of man with Him, of man with man through Him?
Why cannot all our relationships be made to pass through Him? The goal of all our living ought to be just that. Yet do we, as Christians, even expect to arrive at such a goal? But, starting from where we are, from our end of the relationships, we can begin and do our part. We can be hopeful, meeting each person with a silent prayer of love, doing all we can to make the relationship between us a "circuit" for divine love.
"The total effect, in a living Church, would be sufficient intersection of these bonds to form a supporting, carrying network of love for the whole of mankind." Kelly
The Christian brave of all the past are about us as a cloud of witnesses, a timeless Fellowship of Power. We join, with them, in prayer to the same God ... the same God who helped Peter grow from a wishy-washy opportunist into an unflinching Rock ... the same God who confronted Saul, the persecutor, and made him Paul, the Apostle ... the same God who led Judson, Slessor and early modern missionaries to the lands where darkness waited for light ... the same God who works with all who give themselves to His way upon earth today.
Fellowship stretches ahead. Our searching spirits seek out the saints of today and tomorrow, illumined, God-directed souls who will someday bring to more perfect fruition the work we are trying to do so crudely today. When all on earth actually share this Kingdom of Heaven within us, the Fellowship of Power will be complete, and the Kingdom of God will be on earth as it is in Heaven. And "there shall in no wise enter into it (the beloved community) any thing that defileth ... or maketh a lie .... They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Rev. 21, 22; Isa. 11)
Closer to God, our Father - more like Christ our Brother ...
Introduction to Power
Chapter One. Prayer and my Life
Chapter Two. Preparing to Grow in our Prayer Life
Chapter Three. Discovering what Prayer Means
Chapter Four. A Rainbow of Moods in Prayer
Chapter Five. Overcoming Difficulties
Chapter Six. Aids in Achieving "Disciples' Disciplines"
Chapter Seven. Prayer Changes Things and Persons
Chapter Eight. Toward a Fellowship of Power
By Clarice Bowman and George Harper, Source, Nashville, 1947
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