Churches are known for Sunday potlucks and feeding the homeless. But an increasing number of congregations — from small, neighborhood houses of worship to mega-churches — are returning to the timeless tradition of using shared meals as a form of outreach for new members among the unaffiliated and recent arrivals.
Every Wednesday night there is a free dinner for prospective members at First Baptist Church of Orlando, featuring sandwiches, homemade cookies and sodas. Although the fare is simple, great care is taken in the preparation and presentation.
“If it’s a fantastic meal, and then you have a gospel message presentation, it all goes together in creating an environment where someone feels comfortable making a decision for Christ,” said Marcus White, the congregation’s director of food services. “We believe we’re a ministry in itself.”
Using food and fellowship harks back to the earliest days of Christianity. In the first century, the shared meal was a primary method of outreach, fellowship and evangelization following the crucifixion of Jesus.
“A strategy for evangelism based on table fellowship is very much at home in the Christian tradition,” said David Steinmetz of the Duke Divinity School. “There’s nothing new about the importance of food and drink for a genuinely religious life.”
Martin Marty of the University of Chicago agreed — in part.
“We know that the earliest Christians did not have ‘Evangelism Committees’ with sub-committees on ‘How to attract converts with food,’ ” he said. “They had something better: hospitality as a way of life.”
I attended a large national church planting conference at First Baptist of Orlando last year. It’s huge, having something like 10,000 members. And they are very well equipped to offer hot meals since the church runs a Christian day school with a large, full scale cafeteria. They are doing a lot of things right. I was impressed. I love the idea of having regular meals for PROSPECTIVE members, and not just current ones.
David Handy+
What I love even more at my little West MI Church is being fed each Sunday (and Wednesday) with the Word of God. Not that we don’t contribute to the local food pantry but on a Sunday morning we hunger and thirst for spiritual food and we find it.
We visited a small Mennonite church on the outskirts of town once, just to see what the service was like. We were surprised when the pastor invited us and another newcomer couple to dinner at his house afterwards.
Marvelous way to welcome people.
Jim Elliott <><