Eating Together
As I've said before, food is massively important to us as a church. Every week you will find us tucking into homemade cakes on a Sunday, and at our Wednesday cafe. But perhaps my most precious moment of the week is on a Tuesday night, where the core of the church meet together for a meal at 6.30pm. Often there are around thirty of us. All the food is prepared on a flat-packed table with two hot plates and a rice cooker. There is no hot water in church. Washing up is done in stations with bowls filled carefully from the urn. It is amazing what you can do with what seems like very little. Initially we were not brave in our food choices. Chilli, sweet potato and chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken and a spring chicken casserole came out month by month. Now a team of student chefs have varied the menu amazingly. No two weeks looks alike. They also cope with gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian and vegan options. Something we had honestly hoped to avoid but have embraced because this really is the place in church where everyone is most welcome.
It is a place where we sit and talk, where we sit and eat as family. Sometimes in one long table down the middle of church. Sometimes in smaller tables of four or six. Over the years I have sat with everyone. You don’t get to sit with your friends. It is good that it is hard for cliques to form. We are all family. It is true that some people are easier to sit with than others, there are times when conversation flows and there is much laughter. Sometimes dinner can feel like hard work. Small talk can feel like an effort after a hard day at work. But even when it is hard there is an unspoken agreement that we will try not to be on our phones. That we will not take refuge from the awkward silences by checking social media or email. Put simply it is family. It is not always easy. It’s not always comfortable. But we are called to love everyone. Not to stay within our usual friendship groups. And for me this model of sharing dinner and life together every week has really made me get to know people in the church that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve learnt how to love people very different from me. I find myself appreciating qualities that in the normal busyness of life, I would maybe have completely missed. I enjoy sitting by Will, who I have known since he was eight. He is great at asking me about my day and drawing me out of myself when I am tired. I like talking to Katy, hearing about her job as a carer. The students are noisy and joyful. They happily tell me of their busyness, their late nights, their looming deadlines. Rachel talks with great pride about the year six students that she is nurturing in their SAT year. We are all so very different. We all have so much to learn from one another.
I think for me the thing that most surprised thing about Tuesday nights is the number of visitors that we have. We always intended the evening to be for the Christians in our church. Everything else that we do in the week is outward facing, missional and engaging. We are a multigenerational church with a passion for reaching unchurched youth. We started eating together on a Tuesday nights to create a time that was about the core of the church. Unashamedly we have set it aside as a time for worship, prayer, teaching and discipleship. But time and again we are asked if someone can invite their friend along. And we always say yes. We have learnt that this meal, this time as family together is attractive. It feels comfortable and accessible. It doesn’t necessarily look like any stereotype that people have of church and so they want to come. In turn church members find it easy and safe to invite friends to. Regularly people join us for for dinner they stay for the meeting that follows. It is the highpoint of my week.
It is a place where we sit and talk, where we sit and eat as family. Sometimes in one long table down the middle of church. Sometimes in smaller tables of four or six. Over the years I have sat with everyone. You don’t get to sit with your friends. It is good that it is hard for cliques to form. We are all family. It is true that some people are easier to sit with than others, there are times when conversation flows and there is much laughter. Sometimes dinner can feel like hard work. Small talk can feel like an effort after a hard day at work. But even when it is hard there is an unspoken agreement that we will try not to be on our phones. That we will not take refuge from the awkward silences by checking social media or email. Put simply it is family. It is not always easy. It’s not always comfortable. But we are called to love everyone. Not to stay within our usual friendship groups. And for me this model of sharing dinner and life together every week has really made me get to know people in the church that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’ve learnt how to love people very different from me. I find myself appreciating qualities that in the normal busyness of life, I would maybe have completely missed. I enjoy sitting by Will, who I have known since he was eight. He is great at asking me about my day and drawing me out of myself when I am tired. I like talking to Katy, hearing about her job as a carer. The students are noisy and joyful. They happily tell me of their busyness, their late nights, their looming deadlines. Rachel talks with great pride about the year six students that she is nurturing in their SAT year. We are all so very different. We all have so much to learn from one another.
I think for me the thing that most surprised thing about Tuesday nights is the number of visitors that we have. We always intended the evening to be for the Christians in our church. Everything else that we do in the week is outward facing, missional and engaging. We are a multigenerational church with a passion for reaching unchurched youth. We started eating together on a Tuesday nights to create a time that was about the core of the church. Unashamedly we have set it aside as a time for worship, prayer, teaching and discipleship. But time and again we are asked if someone can invite their friend along. And we always say yes. We have learnt that this meal, this time as family together is attractive. It feels comfortable and accessible. It doesn’t necessarily look like any stereotype that people have of church and so they want to come. In turn church members find it easy and safe to invite friends to. Regularly people join us for for dinner they stay for the meeting that follows. It is the highpoint of my week.
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