DearMBchurch.ca:
One of the things I love about the MB church is that we like to eat together. We are really good at it.
The Kitchen/Fellowship Hall in our church is the most used portion of our church building. We enjoy eating together, and worship naturally flows into and out of this. I’ve been to potluck breakfasts before church and potluck lunches after church. We’ve had book studies after soup dinners, and lasagna after Lenten liturgies.
Eating is a way to build community. Community with old friends, community with people we are just getting to know, and community with newcomers who are here for the first time.
Sharing a meal is one of the most invitational and engaging ways of interacting. Preparation has happened: food was cooked (good food!), tables were set, flowers were placed. People give their time by showing up: eating together is prioritized. And we always stop to give thanks: for the food and for the fellowship.
Have I mentioned how many good cooks there are in our church? Sometimes people make the food at home and bring it, but often women and sometimes men are cooking together in the kitchen. And men and women all pitch in to clean up. That is all part of being a church family: we celebrate together, and we clean up the celebrations together.
I think the monthly sharing of the Lord’s Supper is a good model for us of sacrificial giving, and hospitality that doesn’t count the cost. The night before Jesus died, he gathered together with his friends and ate.
After funerals, everyone who was there gathers around the tables to eat. For some people, this is the first time they have entered a church. At Thanksgiving, when we celebrate after worship with a turkey meal with all the fixings, lots of community people join us. A group of families also cooks a big dinner on Christmas Day for anyone who has no family dinner to go to, we always meet new people there. And our K-Days summer pancake breakfast brings out hundreds of people from our neighbourhood.
Alcoholics Anonymous hosts a lunch in our building every week, and once a year our church prepares a Christmas banquet for "lifers", people who are incarcerated for life in the penitentiary. The people who are prison guards and the people who are prisoners and the people who attend our church, all eat together.
Eating together--it’s not just about the food, although the food is fantastic. It’s about sharing the love of Jesus, a love that invites everyone to the table. You’re welcome.
Love, Carol Penner, Lendrum MB Church, Edmonton
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