As I write this, we are just gearing up for our weekly community group. Ours runs with a fairly standard setup. We meet together to eat a meal, then pray for one another and, after that, to chew over the sermon from Sunday a little more. But the meal is a key bit of what we do. I thought I would share a few reasons why it is significant for us.
Fellowship
For a start, there is something that happens over food. It doesn’t seem to matter what food it is. Something happens where people begin talking and opening up in a way that they don’t in other settings, or at least without a plate of food in front of them. There is something about eating together – and I honestly don’t know what it is – that fosters fellowship in a helpful way. I think there is a reason why Jesus has been said to ‘eat his way through the gospels’. He is always eating with people and I think there is something in food fostering fellowship.
Service
Not only does food foster fellowship, but it also entails meaningful service. Our group operate on a rota basis – every family unit represented cooks for everybody else on a rolling basis (apart from where it isn’t possible). This means everyone cooks for everyone else roughly once per month and everyone gets served by others two or three times every month. It is a great way to foster service. The meals don’t have to be fancy, expensive or even very impressive. But what they do is encourage everyone to serve and be served.
Inclusion
Depending on the mix of people in your group, this food setup is an easy but incredibly effect way of encouraging different people to share their culture with you. So much international culture centres around food. It is a joy to be able to eat food from people from Britain, America, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. All cuisines from different cultures. This also helps us engage more with the culture; it’s a short step from ‘what is this?’ to ‘where is this from?’ to ‘when would you have this?’ These are the kind of cultural learning questions that can help us get to know people and their backgrounds better. They are so easy to have when we begin with a plate of food that we might never have seen or tried before.
That’s been part of the Wednesday service of the church one of my sisters goes to in the town of Daphne in the Mobile area; it’s called Christ Presbyterian, and my sister helps to make the meal and works in the kitchen area, and there’s a meal and some study and fellowship, and it goes on pretty smoothly.
That’s great!
I imagine the approach will differ from place to place and depending on size, and a host of other factors. But I think eating together is great for the reasons I outline here.