May/June 2016

Of all the central truths in Christianity, the one my non-Christian friends are most likely to miss is the idea of Christian fellowship. Many assume that church is simply a place where we go on Sunday to worship God. But the biblical reality is that church is a family into which God has called us. It’s often said that Christianity is about relationship, not rules, and of course that’s correct – so long as we remember that this relationship is not only vertical (between us and God), but it’s also horizontal (between fellow-believers).

That’s why we’ve devoted part of this issue to the subject of fellowship. Mark Johnston gets us started by asking what real fellowship is, whilst Matt Francis helps us to look at our own churches to see whether our fellowship matches the biblical picture.

We also look at some of the relationships we have as Christians. Vaughan Roberts walks us through true friendship, whilst Katherine Richards describes her rediscovery of some 19^th century wisdom about the relationships between parents and their children. And, to bring it right up to date, Liz Rowe looks at Facebook, and how biblical principles about friendship can help Christians who use social media.

As always, there is plenty more in the magazine – everything from the return of Christ to infertility to voting to stories of real churches and real Christians. It’s a wonderful reminder that our faith affects every aspect of our lives, and more importantly, that God is concerned with every aspect of our lives.