Being a part of the extended family of Diaspora is fun. I don’t mean that to sound frivolous or silly but it’s true. We have a lot of fun. And food, a lot of food.
Part of being the Church is that we share meals and have fun. Actually, it’s a very spiritual principle. We “break bread” and share meals. It’s a vital part of being hospitable and cared for and collaborating together. Look at all the interactions that Jesus had in the gospels over meals at peoples’ houses. Sharing food is a bond and a welcome for people. And especially in our isolated culture a time of sharing food is so good.
There are snacks, last minute meals, a planned meal with a family or two or any other combination of food and people. And there are potlucks.
What would a church be without potlucks? People bring their specialties or something they’re experimenting with or something they grab at the store or they don’t bring anything — and it’s all good. We never have too little food! Kind of like the loaves and fish thing that Jesus did except it’s not miraculous it’s just family.
Kind of like the loaves and fish thing that Jesus did
except it’s not miraculous it’s just family.
And we just eat or hang out or we play games or we tell stories. And we laugh and enjoy life together. Week before last we said “hey, spaghetti at our house, and then let’s go see ANT MAN AND THE WASP (the movie eh?). Anyone who wants to come, come on!”
And the deal was we might only have spaghetti and that was okay. It’s not about the meal or even the movie. It’s the being together that counted. It was simple sharing a meal and fun. And we said feel free to just come for food or just for the movie, whatever works. Very easygoing, flexible or as I like to say nimble. Some people said, “hey we want to go to MAMA MIA instead of ANT MAN.” And we said sure, you go to that movie and we’ll go to this one. It was all very flex.
But people brought stuff — salads, drinks, meatballs and on and on. We didn’t run out of food even when the whole thing exploded. At one point we thought 10 people, then 15 then it turned into 30! That was the record for people in our house. And they were everywhere and it worked. It was great fun.
Last night I had a discipling/mentoring meeting with one of the guys in Diaspora. We talked, we laughed, we encouraged and challenged one another. (I was encouraged and challenged so I hope he was too) I drove home and I felt so pumped. It’s so fun to be with our people, we love them!!
Sometimes we forget to take the fun times. I don’t know how we let that happen. What were we thinking?!
Well, I guess I do know what happens. We get caught up in the schedule or pattern of events. The default mode of getting things done that need to be done. For example, “okay let’s plan DC or let’s do The Gathering”. And we forget to keep the fun, the impromptu joy of being a family going.
We CAN’T let that happen. We need to make sure we have fun times where we’re just family together. It’s not a program, it’s just life together being The Church.
We need to make sure we have fun times where we’re just family together.