Heidi Goerner

After our worship service, everyone is hungry for food as well as the spiritual opportunities to grow in Christ. Discussing the sermon, sharing struggles, and finding strength in the unity of the Word all strengthen the flock. Sunday is the only day of the week many will be able to gather for church activities, as the distance, weather, school, night-vision difficulties, and work prohibit trips for midweek Bible studies.

As the pastor’s family, we have tried to visit each of our long-distance members once a year. We would remind our six children when we arrived and they stretched out their legs from the drive, that this is how long that family drives every single Sunday to get to church, so that they would be more mindful of the blessing of living close to the church building.

Some weeks I’ve gone home after church, finally sitting down to eat “late” again, and remember that our traveling members haven’t even reached home yet! I’m sure many of them bring snacks in the car. Or they can stay at church and eat before they head out. But it’s not as meaningful to eat alone.

New Dynamics, New Routines

Every congregation is different in its makeup and needs. Just as a new school year brings new routines, changing congregational dynamics demand new ideas for food and fellowship opportunities. Our congregation has gone from having one family driving a long time—over two hours—to having five families driving an hour or more to church. We have also added two snowbird couples. If we do not maximize opportunities for fellowship with each other on the Lord’s Day, then very little fellowship would happen.

We have single adults and recent widows who find the Lord’s Day long and lonely. They are happy to join any who gather, always offering to contribute a dish to share, drinks, paper plates, or to clean up if they don’t cook.

We have tried a sign-up sheet with the dates that long distance drivers would be in church and not away visiting family or vacationing. Local members could then sign up to host on a Sunday afternoon. This was great for personal fellowship with a variety of people.

Keep It Simple

After 20 years of renting various buildings, Christ Church was provided by God with a building of our own. Six years later, in the spring of 2021, the plugs, lighting, stove, fridge, counters, and sinks were completed in a renovated kitchen and open fellowship hall in the basement.

With our finished kitchen, several families have preferred to host lunch in the church building after morning worship to save time for themselves and travelers. With plenty of tables and space, and ample paper supplies to make cleanup easier, those with a small apartment or few dishes could host larger families and add extra guests or new visitors at the last minute with ease.

Last July, George and Leslie Goerner, one of our snowbird couples who winter with family at Orlando, Fla., RPC, and summer in the Utica, N.Y., area (where they hosted exploratory Bible studies and became founding members of Christ Church in 1995), announced that they would be eating at the church every Lord’s Day after morning worship until they fly south for the winter. They explained that everyone would be welcome to join them and bring a dish to share or help with pot washing, trash duty, and supplies. Thus, weekly potluck lunches were born.

For me, this plan came at a needed time. After an extended illness brought on by stress, I can no longer host large groups or cook great quantities of food as I have in the past. Most of the six invaluable helpers I trained from birth have left to serve their own families and churches. But, as a pastor’s wife, I long to help my husband, providing times of refreshment and a listening ear in the congregation he shepherds. Being able to concentrate on talking to others around the tables, as I flit from group to group or engage quietly with one person, is possible because the work of preparing and cleaning up food is shared.

Some practical tips for hosting a weekly meal at church include plenty of advance communication, both with the church to make sure there isn’t another event going on, and with individuals and families you hope will stay. I have found that if I try to invite long-distance drivers once we are already at church, it is hard for them to be flexible enough to stay. They usually have food thawing or needing attention in a Crock Pot at home, or they must plan for pets.

Travelers from afar should also consider being the host of a meal at the church. They can assign sloshy soups or delicate layered cakes to those who live close by, and save the hearty salad in a cooler or cookies safely snapped in Tupperware that will hold up on their long journey.

Although you may want to try out a fancy new dish to show your love, as with all hospitality, make meaningful fellowship the main course. The purpose of breaking bread together is to sup with the Lord and His bride, the church, making ourselves ready and practicing for the ultimate banquet with Jesus Christ our bridegroom!

It takes forethought and effort to discuss the sermon’s application to our lives, to remember to ask about individuals in the Bible study these travelers are hosting for neighbors, and to learn about their community’s needs. It is amazing how different the challenges, culture, government, and concerns of an area can be just an hour away in the same state. It is worth taking time on the Lord’s Day to sharpen each other as iron for the spiritual battle of the week ahead.

Betty Burger

Other Weekly Fellowship Meals

While the weekly fellowship meals at Christ RPC began quite recently, some churches have had them for decades. When I asked Alex Edgar, at Broomall, Pa., RPC, how long they had been doing meals weekly, he said, “All my life.” So, I asked his mother, Gretchen Edgar, for the details.

In the 1970s when there were gas shortages, the elders decided to save folks driving back for the evening service by rescheduling it for the afternoon. This saved money, gas, and time. The congregation was encouraged to bring bag lunches for simplicity. Gretchen said they never looked back or regretted the choice. Some people stay for the lunch for the fellowship and then leave to put children down for naps. Most stay for the second service. The simplicity of bringing bag lunches with extra to share for visitors keeps it from burdening anyone. If a party or event had leftover food, it is put out to share. The system works very well.

On a more recent note, Providence (Pittsburgh, Pa.) RPC began in 1998 as a mission work. Various fellowship meals occurred in homes until the church acquired a building in 2001. Very shortly thereafter, they began two services with a meal in between. They have families who drive a considerable distance, so this makes a lot of sense. The meal has always been a potluck.

Participation in the meal and second service is strong, about 80 percent, said C. J. Williams, who was the first pastor of Providence RPC. He said fellowship meals on the Lord’s Day provide opportunities to get to know the body of Christ better, encouragement through Christian fellowship, and informal occasions for the pastor to check on the well-being of his flock.

Even more recently, Living Way (Bryan, Tex.) RPC began as a home mission plant in 2012. Pastor Steve Rockhill and his family arrived in 2017, and weekly meals have been held for most of the time since. While they don’t have their own building, they are blessed to rent a space with an adequate kitchen, so they are able to eat together. Maria Rockhill pointed out that, as a church plant, they are not able to have many regular events for fellowship. Having weekly meals provides opportunities for members and visitors to get to know each other in ways they would not if everyone went straight home after the service.