Why Standards for Fellowship?
If we take a minute to think about it, everything that works well has standards from businesses that have standards for operating to lightbulbs that have standards for the size and shape of the bulb bases.
By affirming Standards of Fellowship, it provides the fellowship shared values in order to promote peace and harmony. Plus, when conflict inevitably arises, agreeing to standards of fellowship before the conflict, helps lay a path toward conflict resolution and reconciliation.
Jesus gave us the ultimate standard.
Jesus told us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then, throughout the New Testament, this broad instruction was made more clear with instruction regarding how to treat one another. These Standards of Fellowship distill all of the one anothers into a simple group of standards that can be used by any fellowship.
Who should implement Fellowship Standards
A fellowship, or koinonia, is a group of people who have a commitment to one another. It might be a
Marriage
Family
Local Church
Ministry
Etc.
Any group that is committed to each other and committed to care for one another and live in peace and harmony can benefit from adopting Fellowship Standards at their earliest convenience.