An item on the excellent Church Marketing Sucks web site caught my eye the other day. It simply made the point that the potluck dinner is a staple of many churches social calendars, but that doesn't mean it's good. The point being that if food is relational, then what are we saying to our friends and neighbors when we invite them to church and offer them overdone lasagne, with a bland side order of Salisbury's pre-cut salad and what ever was on special offer in the cold cabinets. Are there no cooks in the House, are we without culinary prowess? To make things worse, I'll bet that it's served on paper plates, on a plastic table cloth, with soft drink (no wine of course) from plastic or polystyrine mugs to 'save on the washing up'.If we are meant to do our best for the Lord, then we are setting a pretty low standard. We can't even be bothered to serve food on china plates. It's like saying to a visitor that they do mean a lot to us, just not that much.
Imagine the last supper as a pot luck do. Paper plates, no wine, and everyone brought salad. Would communion still be the same if Christ had taken the Tesco's mixed leaf salad lettuce leaves and Morrison's special offer orange drink as His body and blood?
What we are talking about here is getting our values sorted. Do we value those arround us who don't know God. Do we want to show them the value that He has for them. If it's yes, then we should value those folk as the Lord does, and give them the very best we can manage. If we don't - well, I think a rethink is in order, don't you?
