Dinner On The Grounds

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

Our little country church, Cornerstone Baptist Church, has been without a pastor for a while.  We have been praying and waiting and praying and waiting some more.  Well, good things come to those who pray (and wait).  Our new pastor started at the first of the year.  We are so happy to have him and his family!  One of the first things he requested is that we have...  Dinner on the Grounds!

See, this guy is starting things off on the right foot!  We usually have about 40 people attending morning worship services on Sunday Morning.  As I mentioned, we are a small church, but we are big on our love for the Lord, big on enjoying fellowship with one another, and big on having meals.  Generally, when we eat in our fellowship hall, if it will be light foods, we call it "Finger Foods or snacks."  If we are going to really get serious about eating, we call it "Dinner on the Grounds."

The term has a couple of mis-nomers in it.  It is not Dinner and it is not on the Ground.  We generally call the meal at noon, lunch.  We generally call the meal at night, supper.  But, oh well.  Secondly, we don't eat on the ground.  We all acted like respectable adults and sat in chairs around tables.  Seriously, I think the term means we are eating on the grounds of the church.  And that's what we did.

Dinner on the Grounds is when we ask everyone to just cook a meal with the main dish and ALL the sides like you ordinarily would for your family, but bring it to the church to share with everyone else.  Folks show up before Sunday School with all sorts of pots and pans, trays, and roasting pans, tupperware and aluminum foil wrapped goodies and put them on the table in the fellowship hall.  There are admonitions against sneaking a cookie or a slice of pie before church.  Then we go to Sunday School and "Big" church where we pray, sing hymns of praise, and of course, open the Word.  When the last verse of the Hymn of Invitation is sung, the preacher prays for the congregation and also blesses the food we are about to consume.

We put our "game faces" on and walk across the breezeway into the Fellowship Hall.  The aroma of roast beef, rice & gravy, jambalaya, sausage, fried chicken, and dozens of casseroles!  A few bowls of healthy salad stand in defiance against a table of any manner and sort of dessert.  Why, there are homemade pies and cakes and cookies and puddings.  At the end of the table, there are soft drinks, where you can choose what type of "Coke" you'll have: Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Barq's Root Beer, Pop Rouge, or Orange, oh, and of course, Coke.

Then we sit down and eat and visit with neighbors and eat and talk some more and eat and laugh.  Then, we'll get up and circle the table in search of something that we heard was good that we weren't able to fit on our plates on the first go-round.  Everyone brings their best and no one leaves hungry.  At the end everyone pitches in to clean things up.  We bid each other farewell, but knowing we'll be back at 5 pm for Evening Worship.  We leave the parking lot slow, thinking about going home and taking a big nap.

Church Fellowships like "Dinner on the Grounds" are a good opportunity to break bread with Christian brothers and sisters and truly be nourished both physically and spiritually.  Everyone is always glad they came. 

Dinner on the Grounds

We attend a small church in rural Jefferson Davis Parish that could never be confused with a mega-church (and that is a good thing).  We're not the perfect church and like every church, we have our 'warts' and imperfections.  But the Bible is preached at our church and when you are having difficulties, brothers and sisters in Christ don't tell you that they're going to pray for you - they stop you right there and pray for you.

We're small enough that if you miss a service, people call you to check on you.  We list prayer concerns by name in the bulletin so that members can pray for one another during the week or bring over a loaf of banana nut bread or pot of soup to ailing members.  We have a concrete parking lot on one side of the church - (the city side!) and an all grass lot on the other (the country side).  Right before Sunday school, you can go in the kitchen and help yourself to some homemade biscuits or sweet dough pies on your way to class.  When people have fresh produce from their gardens, they'll bring bags of turnips, mustard greens, cucumbers, lettuce, satsumas, etc. to bless other congregants. A couple of Sundays ago, our preacher stood in the pulpit and uttered the words that made everyone smile:

"The Sunday night service prior to Thanksgiving we'll be having "Dinner on the Grounds" in the fellowship hall at 5 pm.  The church will provide the meat dish.  Everyone else bring a side dish (and bring a lot)."

I pulled off the road the other day to take this photo of our church

If you've ever attended a small church, you know what I mean by Dinner on the Grounds.  Others might call it a pot luck, although there is no luck involved here - just some good, southern, home-cookin'.  These meals require good paper plates, not those flimsy ones.  The plates must be structurally sound in order to support large quantities of good food.  We had turkey, smoked pork roast, vegetables, jambalaya, rice dressing, and a myriad of delicious casseroles that everyone's mommas are famous for making.  Then there is a dessert table with homemade pies, cakes, brownies, cookies, puddings in sufficient quantities to put everyone's blood glucose serum levels into the High parameter.

The tables are set up and we give Thanks to God for the food.  We get in line, sit down, and visit and feast. Then we make sure everyone has been served and we'll go back for the second round as we might have missed Mrs. So and So's butterbeans or the fried pies that Mrs. So and So is famous for.  Or we might go back through the line because the Chinet plates were too small to hold a little bit of everything during the first trip (or whatever other rationalization we've made ourselves comfortable with).  Kids with 'red pop' mustaches from the Strawberry soda are finished and are running around and laughter echoes through the building.  Our bellies are tight.  The fellowship is sweeter, though, than anything on the dessert table.  One might be tempted to think this FEAST was just temporal pleasure for the flesh, but it is a feast for the soul as well.

Acts 2:42

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

It is a good time, but it is not over.  The Pastor stands and gets everyone's attention. He opens the floor to anyone to 'Count their Blessings.'  There is very little shyness. One after one almost everyone stands and tells what they are thankful for. Testimonies of God's goodness are poured out, tears are shed.  There are saints who recount the goodness of God who you know are struggling with sickness, trials, or heartache - and yet their gratitude is not conditional upon health, prosperity or ease. They trust God and are thankful for the blessings in their lives.  This goes on for a long time.

When the final words have been spoken, everyone gets up and helps clean up. Leftovers are packed up to be brought home and handshakes and hugs are liberally distributed.  In a few short days we'll meet again to worship the King of Kings, to encourage one another, and to pray for one another.  In summary, our church is great for growth - growth in both your spiritual life and your waistline.