The Joy of Lunch
Greetings dear friends!
Ever wish for a more substantial “coffee hour” spread before you’re off
to that great afternoon workshop or meeting here at the church? Kids starving so you can’t stay and
chat? What if … what if we fed each
other lunch every Sunday!
Now wait, I know what you’re thinking. You are groaning: “No! Not another thing for me to do, please,
I am already out straight. You are going
to ask me to volunteer and I don’t want to!”
I’d like to share with you one idea about lunch. Please contact me with your ideas too!
What if… what if someone you know and like from the church
invited you onto his or her “team”.
Your team consists of about a dozen people and there are say, six
teams. So every six weeks, you come to
church early because you love your teammates and you are honored to play with
them in the kitchen. Your team leader is
kind and enthusiastic and has shopped and planned the meal. You just have to show up and chop veggies or
put sandwiches together or stir the soup or chili, or what ever is
planned. Your teammates have all replied
to their email reminder in advance so you know who is out of town that week,
who can come early to prep, who can stay late to wash pots and pans.
You do this all not as a chore but with joy in your heart,
because you are in a ministry. It is
our lunch ministry and we are happy to do this for each other. This week I cook and feed you, next week you
will cook and feed me. We trust each
other that there will be lunch. You are
nourishing your friends. Your church has
opened its doors and new people want to visit us because we are kind,
forthright, open, fun-loving, and our food is delicious. The food tastes great because your joy has
sent its very vibration into the food.
Logistics: Contributions ( feedback here please: ?$5 person/
max of $10 per family? Kids under 12 eat
free?) would fund the program so that
shoppers are reimbursed, however, food is not withheld based on ability to
pay. Generosity encouraged. The six team captains would simply march out
on the calendar every 6 weeks until the end of the church year. The captains could get to know their group
and have an alternate leader if they had a scheduling conflict. It could turn out that within the groups,
folks may want to take turns being “head chef.” One person in the group would
take ownership of the email reminders and let the team leader know how many
hands will be on deck. The spirit is
playful. We will cook to uplifting
music. Maybe even the choir would stop
by the kitchen and cheer us on with a song!
I welcome your thoughts
Peace, love, and lunch,
Hari Kirin Kaur Khalsa
Aka Diane Pingeton
774-287-2233
I'd rather see this effort put into MNATC. I think the Caring Circles CONSISTENTLY taking turns putting on a substantial coffee hour is important and sufficiently welcomes visitors. For us, Sunday is for family activities, meals and gathering, outside of the church. With busy schedules it is often the only day we can spend quality time together.even if it is just a hot dog at a baseball game..
ReplyDeleteIt is a lovely concept, but I agree with the previous comment. I always really enjoy the lunches when they are provided. It is much easier to really talk and connect with people when we are sitting around a table breaking bread, rather than standing and wandering. However, these lunches so far have come as a beautiful surprise to me. If it was every week, it might lose its feeling of specialness. And being expected to pay $5-$10 may seem like a token amount to many of you, but it would prevent me from staying for lunch and would also be off-putting to first-time visitors, I believe. But I hope we will keep the creative ideas for coffee hour flowing!
ReplyDelete