What Is This Fellowship Experiment And Do I Want To Be Experimented On? by Anita Wilson

The Fellowship Experiment (theFX) is a 6 week Bible study, Sunday evenings 6:00 pm, beginning August 16th, 2015 through September 27th, 2015 at Brian and Sandy Durnell's home.  The study will focus on the plural Hebrew names of God.  The first week we will talk about the great "I Am" , Jehovah".  The remaining five weeks we will look at the Old Testament and see how the name of God is used in such a worshipful way by saying WHO he is with WHAT he does. ( For example.  Jehovah Jirah  Means The LORD who provides.)  Names had such deep meaning to ancient Hebrews!

But wait there is more.... 



The Fellowship Experiment (theFX) came about through a prompting of the Holy Spirit on my heart. A few weeks ago my senior pastor delivered a message entitled "A Holy Ambition".  It was about young King Josiah's reign and how he kept making decisions for God as he continued to mature in his role as King.  The pastor challenged the congregation to pay attention to what God may be challenging us to do and to take some ambition to do it.  And right then and there the Holy Spirit started nudging and poking at my heart.  That night I had a dream about a verse in the Bible.  When I woke from that dream, it was a very strong call on my heart to do a 6 week Bible study formatted on that verse.

I was thinking ,"wow!  I haven't led anything or taught anything for over 6 years......"but I knew I had to be faithful.  I've been taking baby steps for the last 2 years since attending Heritage and this was, well, not a baby step.

I didn't know where the verse I dreamed  of was until I went to THE GOOGLE.  The verse is I Corinthians 14:26.  From verse 26 to the end of the chapter Paul is instructing the Corinthians to conduct orderly worship services, but theFX is loosely based on just verse 26.  In this verse Paul begins the orderly worship instructions by stating that when you gather together everyone has a hymn, or word of instruction, or revelation, or a tongue with corresponding interpretation to share it for the purpose of strengthening the church (each other).

Here is how The Fellowship Experiment (theFX) will work, and I'm sure you will want to be a part of it.... Each week the format of our time together will be based on what each person brings to the group time to share - a song, poem, scripture, testimony, journal entry, etc.  To help engender sharing each person will have 2 assignments every week:

1. Pay attention to how God has revealed himself to you during the week
2. Take efforts to advance the Kingdom Of God in some fashion (share the gospel, spread kindness, joy, service or sacrifice.)

It is my thought if we live the week with these 2 things in mind we will come together on Sunday evenings with an abundance of things to share together.

We will also pray out loud together and in a prayer posture of your choice. This may stretch some people.  We aren't used to having our voices heard by others, but this an experiment, remember.

We will also spend time in Scripture, as explained above. My father, a retired pastor, and I will be tag teaming the teaching.

At the end of the 6 weeks.  We will evaluate to see if we want the experiment to continue.

I'm excited about theFX.  I hope you are too!!!!  Feel free to invite someone.  If we crowd out Sandy and Brian's house, I'm sure we will figure it out.

Please email me or Facebook me with any questions.  You can call me too, but if you know me at all, you know that is the most unreliable way to get in touch with me....

God bless you all
Anita Wilson