Lets Talk Food

Let’s talk about the Fellowship meal. It is my perspective that most people enjoy our time together after church. Who doesn’t enjoy an opportunity to talk to other members of the church and also get to know new people? Right? This begs the question, if people love it so much, why don’t we have it every week?

The reason we don’t is because there are usually a small amount of people working very hard to make it possible for the church to enjoy this time. "Burn out" is a chronic problem when it comes to our Fellowship meal. Even with split duties, it is difficult for people to not miss out in Sabbath worship and enjoy the Sabbath morning. For anyone to have apprehension about coming to church and enjoy church, is something we need to look at.

Coming out of Covid, our church felt that two Fellowship meals a month would be something we could do in a "shared burden" kind of way. This worked, in most parts, but I have seen a turn in a last few meals. More of the same people are preparing meals, less people are bringing food, and even fewer are staying til the end to help clean and wash dishes.

This blog is not to guilt people to “try harder”. I am trying to look at the reality of the situation and see how our church can go forward. Meeting together is an essential part of church. Time to converse and catch up with others is a vital part of our church community. Can we still do this and not burden the few?

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Hebrews 10:25

I have noticed that the busiest and “happiest” part of our morning is right before worship. Sabbath School has ended, people are attending to physical needs, and this leads to a gathering of people in the foyer. Watching people enjoy their time together is a wonderful thing, too bad we have to interrupt it by chaperoning people into the sanctuary. Yes, it is nice if everyone could be in worship by 11:05. :).

Our board has come up with a temporary idea, to see if we can still fellowship and not have to prepare a full meal. We will still have our usual Fellowship meal once a month on the 4th Sabbath of each month. On the second Sabbath meal, we will only serve light snacks. These snacks are not to replaces your lunch meal, but only provide an atmosphere for people to stay and chat. Visitors are not always wanting to stay for a meal, but they might be encouraged to stay for a light snack and some light chatter. It would be a great way to meet new people and have longer discussions with members. The Church will provide the snacks and there will be a minimal “crew” to get the food prepared for this gathering time.

Let’s take every opportunity to share our good will with others, old friends or new. If we can convince people to stick around church a tad longer just to converse, I think we have accomplished our intended goal.

May the Lord bless us in our attempt to make community after church a blessing.

Connected to the Vine

-Pastor Danny