World Communion Sunday features one of the essential ways that Methodists show their faith and their connection to other Christians: by sharing bread and wine with people we know, people we don’t know YET, and people around the world we may never meet, but with whom we share something precious.
You’ve seen the ways North Church has reached out:
Sometimes with a ladle, with our Bread and Bowl ministry, that’s fed hundreds of our neighbors several times a week for many years now; and
Sometimes with a market basket, with the farmer’s market on Thursday evenings.
And then there are the weekly Eatin’ Meetin’s, which have made Fellowship Hall a pretty raucous place more than once!
Underneath all those events is the message that Jesus shared food with his disciples and his followers, and so should we.
But there are so many MORE ways we could be sharing food together in ‘radical hospitality.’
The young adults group now holds occasional picnic on the second Sunday of the month, after the 11:00 service. Anyone who feels like a ‘young adult’ is welcome.
Perhaps North might host an all-church-and-neighborhood block party in Tarkington Park.
About twenty years ago, the people of North Church organized a series of dinner parties called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.
The idea was pretty simple: church members and visitors had the option of signing up to be a guest or a host for a dinner for eight people at someone’s home. The host would provide the main course and the hospitality, and the rest would bring a dish big enough to share with everyone.
People who attended those dinners still talk about they met some of their best friends at North Church on those evenings. Since then, some of those dinner groups continue to meet and socialize regularly.
As we all know, North Church is too big a place to know everyone. But people who have shared a meal together are more likely to greet each other during the service, attend Bible study together, or share a cup of coffee before heading to choir practice.
Guests and hosts learn about each others’ children, our work, and what brought each to North Church. Strangers become friends, which might not have happened under other circumstances.
North Church is going to revive those adult “Dinners for Eight” this fall (on October 24) and again in the spring (date TBA).
If you’d like to host a casual dinner for eight or be a guest at a dinner, please sign up on October 4 or October 11 in the community room after the 8:30 service, in the West Entry after the 11:00 service to sign up. You can also call the church office (924-2612) or sign up at the Radical Hospitality blog: www.radicalhospitality.com.