Table Fellowship: Building Our Life Together

What could be revealed through sharing table fellowship together?

It is through food and fellowship around the table that the welcoming and caring actions of Christ are revealed to us in our struggling world. This is what the members of Christ Lutheran Church have found participating in table fellowship in our Wednesday Bible Study.

Picture tables in a fellowship hall arranged to form a rectangle so that everyone is seated facing one another. The aroma of home baked bread and soup simmering on the stove fills the room. Sitting on one of the tables is a loaf of fresh baked bread and some red wine poured into individual cups that will be distributed once everyone arrives and has a few moments to greet each other. People begin gathering and start chatting in small groups. The kitchen is the first stop for those who felt called to bring homemade cookies, fruit, and other snacks. The kitchen counter overlooking the tables begins to fill with these gifts of food for everyone to share. After a few minutes the small groups merge into one as everyone finds a seat around the tables. We give thanks for the bread and wine, and each is passed around from person to person.

Throughout this shared experience there is talking and laughing, usually compliments to the baker and wondering why individual communion cups aren’t made to hold more wine. Once the bread and wine has been received by everyone, we go around the table sharing our highs and lows from the past week. Then, after a lively discussion of the lectionary scripture readings for the coming Sunday, everyone gets a bowl of soup with a slice of leftover communion bread. We are creating unity and community through simply sharing food and life together.

“The meals we share, and communion,
make our gathering more special.”

A Place for You

Fellowship practices using food, also called table fellowship, are a key ingredient in building relationships and unity in the church. This comes from a biblical understanding of the Greek word Koinonia, which expresses the gifts and blessings to be found through fellowship in a community of faith in order to love, support and encourage one another. The research looked at the role of both Jesus’ and present-day table fellowship practices using food, and how they play a role in our faith communities. These practices can build relationships and unity to become a community that is more loving, caring, supportive, encouraging and empowering to all who participate.
People of all ages should have the opportunity to connect with one another through food and fellowship. Sharing a meal through table fellowship is the most powerful theological conviction that guides my project. Jesus was responding to a disconnect he saw and heard in the community and in religion. One of the ways Jesus addressed this was to invite people to the table to break down barriers and rebuild people’s lives and their community. By creating intentional table fellowship opportunities people will find ways to connect and reconnect with one another through God’s love. This is about discipleship, the kind Jesus called people to in order to empower them and make their lives better.

“Food is universal. It’s something that connects us all!”

The universality of food creates a natural element for fellowship opportunities. In general, people are drawn to sharing meals in community. Jesus knew this because he was also drawn to sharing meals in community. We see his example of table fellowship over and over in the Gospels. Jesus used table fellowship to create community and unity among his followers, the disciples, friends, family and strangers. It was a universal action of hospitality and love which he used to draw people together and bind them to him and to one another. Table fellowship with food will strengthen existing relationships and create new ones. Jesus was creating community. Through the invitation to the table, Jesus revealed how God uses the uniqueness of fellowship in community to accomplish God’s work in the world.

Possibilities Abound

Fellowship with food can be a key ingredient in creating connections and community in our life together. Life together requires us to have faith and trust in God’s presence in our lives. We need to adopt Christ’s spirit of hope and openness to create connections and community. Connections that will make our lives more meaningful and transformational in this world. It is an awesome mystery that our God loves us unconditionally and is present among us and with us through all the challenges we face as the body of Christ. God’s love is unconditional, drawing us into community and empowering us to do what we are called to do in Christ’s name.

Think of how these gifts could be used to build up our life together. This ministry innovation has taught participants that when we come together for table fellowship, we experience the opportunity to be the people God created us to be and shape our community. Jesus taught us that the greatest action we can undertake is to love one another. Jesus took table fellowship to a whole new level when he welcomed all people to a new life together at the table. We as the church can become the community Jesus envisioned by inviting all people to the table.

Building meaningful relationships in a congregation can be transformational in our everyday lives. People need to find a connection to God and one another in the church community. The visual of Jesus practicing table fellowship with his disciples at the last supper is very inspirational. This Daniel Erlander drawing of the last supper has been inspirational in recreating table fellowship at Christ Lutheran Church. It reveals a place where Jesus is at the center of caring, loving, embracing, healing, growing and so many more possibilities in this life. It is certainly a place where fellowship flourishes and all people are valued. I believe this ministry innovation of table fellowship is an opportunity for all communities of faith to be this place in our life together.

Key Resources on Table Fellowship:

• Ayres, Jennifer R. Good Food: Grounded Practical Theology. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2020.
• Scott, Emily M.D. For All Who Hunger: Searching for Communion in a Shattered World. New York, NY: Convergent Books, 2020.
• Vanderslice, Kendall. We Will Feast: Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2019.
• “Visit: St. Lydia’s – A Dinner Church in Brooklyn, New York.” https://stlydias.org/visit/.
• Womack, Deanna Ferree. Neighbors: Christians and Muslims Building Community. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020.