The church calendars are filled with luncheons and suppers and coffees and teas and parties and bowling meets and golf tournaments, all for the purpose of improving fellowship. In my judgement and experience as a pastor for over a third of a century, churches that approach fellowship in this manner have it backwards. Whenever you have a program activity whose primary purpose is fellowship, it will fail, even if a lot of people come. It will fail, because Christian fellowship is a by-product of mission, not a substitute for it. Fellowship is what happens when people become colleagues in the mission of the church.
Fellowship happens in our church all the time.
It happens on work days when members gather to weed, plant, mulch, and clean the grounds. It happens when the Piecemakers meet to make a beautiful quilt for the festival auction. It happens when potential new members sit through a grueling, five session Seminar on Christian Theology. It happens when the choir and chorus and children's choir rehearse in order to make a musical offering to God. It happens when the AIDS Care Team meets around the common cause of caring for people in need.