If you were to search United Methodist campus ministry websites, you will probably find one common strategy for most Wesley Foundatins or local church ministries – food. Food brings in students and there are enough mom-types at most UM churches who need someone to cook for – it’s a great combination.
One program that had been started before I came to the Yellow Door was a Tuesday evening meal called “Break Away Cafe”. It was started in May and went on through the summer. I believe they had any where from 10 to 20 students a night and gave me a list of about 30 students when I started in August. The congregation rallied and took turns each week cooking some amazing meals. Yet when I came on staff, I found myself quickly wondering about not the what of the night, but the why of it.
I first figured out this strategy wasn’t working when I e-mailed the students on the list and no one responded. I started calling the students only to find that the students who came were bugged by my intrustions. I began to casually ask the students who joined us in the fall only to learn that they were only interested in the cheap or free food. After seeing increasingly smaller numbers and talking with the other church staff, I decided the effort wasn’t the strategy we needed to begin a new community of young adults (because they weren’t coming).
Jesus did his best work around a table and over a meal. His disciples heard things there that others would only hear about. He broke down racial and class barriers, healed old wounds, and spoke words that would be repeated at meals down through history. He got a reputation for eating with the wrong people – those of us who follow Him could do far worse than to emulate Him in this one practice of sacred and scandalous hospitality.
It’s no wonder we have lost a sense of the sacredness of shared meals – most of us eat in our cars way too much. It’s a task, a biological inconvenience, or a means of social advancement – not communion. Heck, we don’t even know what fork is for the salad let alone that a common meal can be a setting for the eternal to break into our lives.
Don’t get me wrong – meals are great ways to feed people – spiritually, emotionally, and physically. But so much of the time we are content to feed the body but not the soul. We feed them for a day, but we don’t offer the bread of life that could sustain them through out this life and the next. We go through the trouble of preparing a meal, but without a clear strategy about how it will lead others into deeper relationships with each other or with God. I don’t want to be a food pantry for college students. I want to set a table where all are welcome, where conversations and relationships change hearts, and where Jesus is present.
