In our little experiment we call (for lack of a better term) The Gathering, one of the things we hold dear is the idea that those of us who claim to follow Jesus should eat together regularly. There are several reasons for this, among them being:

The first church ate together.

The first Jesus followers were always eating. Seriously; look at how much bread breaking they are doing, all of Paul’s railings on table etiquette, The Emmaus story, Acts Chapter 2, etc. These folks were eating. And this was not incidental to what they did; rather, this is what they did. It was not in addition to “church stuff’, this was church stuff.

Jesus tells us to do it.

Do this in remembrance of me. Do what in remembrance of me? When Jesus said this, he was at a Passover meal. That happens once a year; Did he mean “When you have the Passover meal”? The early Jesus followers did not think so, as I pointed out above. They were eating together as a part of worship all the time. No, the first church took it to mean “Whenever you have a meal in common, do it in remembrance of Jesus”. And so do we.

Eating together echoes Jesus stories

Jesus had a lot to say about food. Jesus fed the five thousand, with tons left over. Jesus fed the four thousand on another day, again with tons left over. Jesus turns water into wine, and there much left over. We are told by Jesus how to act at banquets (take the worse seat for ourselves). We are told who to invite (the blind and the beggar). The Kingdom of God is often compared to a banquet or a feast. The Passover meal itself tells us that God will provide liberation for his people. Matthew 25 tells us that, in some way, our eternal destinies are tied to what we do with food. The examples are near endless.

Sharing food says something about what we believe.

When we eat together, it is making an economic statement: There is enough. It says we depend on each other. It says we can all contribute. It shows us that God made a world of abundance. It says that in the Kingdom of God, no one has to go hungry.

These are a few reasons why we make it a point to share food on occasion. Yesterday was one of those occasions.

There were our usual folks, plus some folks we invited for the first time. We sat down together, white and black, rich and poor, male and female. Many of us brought things — all of our regulars contributed.

There were burritos, soft tacos, hard tacos. There was a ton of refried beans and Spanish rice. For desert, we had huge chocolate chip cookies. We sat and ate, and talked and laughed. For the newcomers, we shared a bit about what we are looking to do. We invited them to come and be a part of us, to share their lives with us and to join us on this journey of following Jesus. There were a lot of questions, most of which were answered better than I could have done it by the regulars.

Here we are, hanging out and chatting before we eat.

Note: I keep getting asked when we will open it up to ‘outsiders’. The answer is still “I am not sure”. It is a lot like going to Grandma’s house. You love doing it, you get a lot out of it, but if you put 20 strangers in the living room, it changes everything. Right now, we are selectively inviting folks. We are not sure what the future looks like yet. Please be patient, and as we build this, we will invite more of you. Meanwhile, we appreciate your prayers, love and support.

This week, those of us at The Gathering began our discussion of practices our community wants to focus around. As I mentioned earlier, we are taking our lead from John Howard Yoder‘s book Body Politics and the five practices he mentions there-

• Group discernment and reconciliation
• Open Meetings–a community of equals
• Everyone has a gift and can contribute to the kingdom and the community
• Shared meals as a community (Lord’s Supper, communion, the Mass)
• Baptism as entry to a new world

This week we covered the idea of reconciliation and discernment as a group. We took our lead from the book of Matthew, chapter 18, verses 15-20;

“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Several things we discussed were:

That the goal in this process is never punishment, but reconciliation.  First and foremost, we want to settle disputes and correct wrong behavior, not wave a club of authority at sinners (which would be all of us…)

That brings us to our next point, which is that this is not something the ‘leaders’ do to the ‘congregation’, but is a responsibility of all of us Jesus followers.  We are to hold each other accountable.

That even in the worst case scenario (let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector), these are people who are objects of mission and the goal is always reconciliation and hope for repair to the relationship.

We discussed that the Bible is not a rule book, but a story or narrative and thus, we have to discern what is right or wrong (binding and loosing) with the help of each other and the Holy Spirit. Rather than give us rules, we have been a given a process, and this is it.

That this process is useful for reconciliation (such as if a member has an addiction, or is engaged in behavior harmful to himself or his relationship with us or Jesus), for individual discernment (what should I do in this situation) and for resolving disputes or discussion over ethics (Can I follow Jesus and be pro-choice? Even though we are not married, can she and I live together?)

Discussion was lively and spirited (We went over our time considerably) and everyone contributed to the discussion.  We also talked about how being in a community of Jesus Followers was a bit like a marriage, in that you give up something of yourself and your will in order for it to work.

Overall, our little experiment is going great! Already, our members are working to support each other, to correct each other and be there for each other.

Keep praying for us.

Photo Credit: Walwyn

Good News!

We have been successful in our search to find a location to do a weekly gathering. As things look right now (we are still working out the details of when), sometime in September we will begin meeting in the Tarboro Road Community Center, located just off New Bern Avenue.( Click the map to see the bigger map)

This location has a lot of advantages. We have friends who already live in the area, it is in a well lit, it is in a heavily trafficked location, there is plenty of parking for our friends with cars, there are lots of ministry possibilities in the neighborhood and they are willing to work with our very limited budget.

Stay tuned as we work out the details. Also, we will be looking for ministry opprotunities to impact our new friends in the area, so if you have any ideas, feel free to forward them to me.