FELLOWSHIP AND RELATIONSHIP
Dear Friend:
Today, I write to you from my temporary residence in Birmingham, Alabama, where I have lived for more than a month now, and will be here until mid-June. Much has happened since my previous two Pastoral Letters on “Worship: Where God’s Mercy and Our Gratitude Meet.” On April 27, 2026, I received the life-giving blessing of a kidney transplant via my dear longtime friend, Grant Simpson.
Praise God, Grant’s kidney in me is working wonderfully. Grant is healing well also. “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 89:1). I am learning worship in a whole new and deeper way than I’ve ever known before.
Just two days later, I had a “mild” heart attack during physical therapy. Thank God, my new kidney and my heart suffered no significant damage. However, I earned a trip to the Heart Cath Lab, then serious Afib, and then to Intensive Care for a few days. Like Brother Billy Duke used to say, “A setback is just a set-up for a comeback.”
What has followed is a month-long odyssey praying and working towards recovery and a return to home in Mobile and a more robust work schedule; to be clear, I’m still working for CSM and have also had many “Divine Appointments” with people hungry for the Lord in their lives wherever the Lord sends me; even in ICU. A hospital is a vital mission field, and I’m honored to be a missionary. I will not overstate my trials, nor will I minimize them. God is faithful; to Him belongs all glory.
I hope to send out more updates to our CSM email list and on our various social media platforms. But I am eager to get into our word this month!
STANDING TOGETHER
Fellowship may be defined as relationship with a Divine purpose. My dear friend Pastor Jim Mather always says, “Life is all about relationships. The rest is just details.” My Dad often said, “A new relationship is like a door into a whole new world.” God’s call to you is personal; but you cannot accomplish your call apart from godly relationships with others He sends to you.
As Christ followers, we are called to be a fellowship together; believers gathering to serve one another so that we can fulfill God’s mission for us. We are a family, a community, a team, a spiritual army with a cause. It has been said by many that if we cannot stand together, then we will fall apart.
John chapters 13-17 tell us the importance of “abiding” in the Lord; they also tell us that part of abiding in Him is abiding together in love with other believers … and those not yet believers. Do not isolate from those who need the Good News or need mercy and grace. All of us need those blessings!
I don’t have time for a full summary of these chapters (months of study of these five chapters would be very profitable for us), but you can see in these moments, just before Jesus was arrested and crucified, He was sharing deeply from His heart with His disciples concerning the priority of relating properly to one another.
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John 13 – Jesus tells us that the world will know that we are His disciples by our love for one another
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John 14 – Jesus declares, “I am the Way,” and then promises that He will soon send the Holy Spirit
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John 15 – Jesus tells us that we abide in Him by loving one another in the same way that He loves us
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John 16 – Jesus warns His disciples, but comforts them in the promise the Holy Spirit will guide them into all truth
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John 17 – Jesus prays for us and says that the world will know that the Father sent Him by the love and unity of His disciples
Of course, Jesus was well-aware of the words of Psalm 133, which tell us that not only is it a wonderful thing for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity, but it is there the Lord commands a blessing of life forevermore. When we are together in worship — coming from many different backgrounds, different histories, different cultures, but all washed together in the precious blood of Jesus — and we began to lift up His name and praise Him TOGETHER in our hearts, then God Himself inhabits the praises of His people and He commands a blessing of life.
FELLOWSHIP IN ACTS 2
Following the glorious Ascension of Jesus, we see the followers of Jesus waiting together in the Upper Room for the Promise of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says they were all in one accord, which seems to be a lot of people to fit into a Honda!
They were of one heart, one mind, in full agreement, hungry together to receive the Promise and power of God. Being in a fellowship doesn’t mean that you won’t have disagreements … it means that you have a place and a commitment to work out your disagreements together in God’s presence. Likewise, God’s Covenants are not given nor made for the easy times but for the hard times, much as a ship is built for storms, not the harbor. Levees and sea walls cannot be built for sunny days and low tides, but for the cataclysmic storm when winds and currents whip waves into angry towers of white-capped fury.
“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
We make agreements, relationships, and promises based— not upon our momentary feelings of esprit de corps—but upon the grace of a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God Who causes us to commit to see each other through fiery fights and tornadic trials. The writer of Hebrews tells us the time will come when everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what is unshakeable will remain (see Hebrews 12). The purposes of God are born in fellowship.” – Derek Prince
Jesus warns us not to build a house on sand, but upon the rock because WHEN the storm comes, the house on the sand will collapse, but the house on the rock will stand (see Matthew 7:24-27). Many Westernized members of Christendom are sadly ignoring the teaching of Jesus and seeking to build upon their own pride, ethnicity, culture, carnality, and traditions rather than the Rock of Christ and His Kingdom.
We live in days when it’s all too easy to break relationships at the first sign of trouble. “We’ll be friends until the end, and this looks like the end my friend.” Too many people have been burned in relationships, broken promises, mendacity, betrayal, and even in churches. There is no hurt quite like church hurt, and it cannot be treated carelessly, cavalierly, or callously.
In general, too many Americans overall are trending towards being spoiled, immature, selfish, and narcissistic. “A house divided against itself will surely fall,” Jesus warns us in Scriptures such as Matthew 12:22-45, Mark 3:20-30, Luke 11:14-28. You see it sometimes when certain sports stars, politicians, preachers, pundits, or celebrities forget the concept of “team.” Rebellion is celebrated and so we get more of it. Jesus said we can know, or discern, a tree by its fruits (see Matthew 7; Luke 6).
No wonder in 1 Samuel 15:22-23, the prophet warned:
Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Let me hasten to say that this excellent passage has too often been twisted and used manipulatively by predators and wolves in positions of authority. To question or resist such is not rebellion against the Lord. The wolves, in fact, are in rebellion against God. Obedience to the Holy Spirit can sometimes be uncomfortable, but those who do will walk in His favor.
AFTER PENTECOST
In Acts 2, post-Pentecost, we see believers meeting together, learning from the apostles, eating together, fellowshipping together from house to house, sharing with one another, and seeing new believers come into their fellowship every day. People today are hungry for authentic fellowship; for a place to belong; a place of safety, trust, peace, and healing; for brotherhood and sisterhood; for Divine purpose; a community of deepest adoration and worship to the Lord Jesus.
Praise God, if the weary and wary in our time could see many more humble, repentant, tender-hearted, Christ-centered, people-loving churches in America and elsewhere; if they saw an authentic revival rooted in Holy Spirit power rather then carnal, ambitious showmanship, pride, and boasting … if that existed, oh my, we would see Christ’s Kingdom come and His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!
It is Christ Who establishes this; not us. Not Evangelicals, Charismatics, Popular Prophets, Exalted Apostles, Slick Preachers, Grand Cathedrals, or Megachurches out on the Frontage Road between Auto Zone and Popeye’s. (Not that there is anything wrong with Auto Zone or Popeye’s.)
If seekers see genuine love, concern, and commitment operating among us, the gifts and ministries operating among us, and if they see that they could have a place in it all, we won’t be able to stop people from wanting to be a part. Fellowship leads us into mission. And our mission as believers, given to us by Jesus Christ is:
“Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20).
MINISTRY UPDATE
My Dad, Charles Simpson, passed away in February 2024, after 100 days of serious illness. We miss him daily; I know many of you do also. Over the past two plus years plus, we have sought to honor and preserve his legacy in ministry and also to expand and add to it. Despite a severe downturn in our financial support, God has helped us to innovate and create new ministry resources, including continued work on our Covenant and Kingdom App! We have a warehouse full of unreleased audio and video resources and we’re looking to get these into your hands.
We’ve had to make serious and painful cuts to survive. Our staff has faced pay cuts and reduction of hours. Neither Susanne nor I have taken any salary from CSM for months, even as we have both faced life and death health battles. But thank God, we are still here. You don’t have to give a penny to continue to receive our ministry resources, including these monthly Pastoral Letters, videos and audios, and new materials. Just let us know you love and pray for this ministry. If the Lord leads you to send financial support, we would deeply appreciate it (see card enclosed or visit csmpublishing.org).
We will conclude this series next month with “Discipleship.” Thank you for your friendship. God bless and keep you in His life-giving Covenant Love,
Stephen Simpson
CSM President
