Is there anything unique or special to your or your context about the words "teaching" , "fellowship", "breaking bread", and "prayer"?
What great non-church community activity did you experience that used either teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, or prayer?
What great church community activity did you experience that used either teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, or prayer?
What do you think is so important about these 4 things that they were worthy of mention?
In my context I am a middle school teacher... so teaching is kind of a big deal. I spend 7 hours a day doing education teaching things 5 days a week. I love when the church has food related events! my internship site has a chilli cook off and two of my friends and I entered that contest! I won so it was awesome. I feel like these things are the things which create and increase cohesion within a group. so by doing these things you create camaraderie and support continued connection between people.
We have a Wednesday night worship service that is my absolute favorite. We gather to eat a meal and share in fellowship. We also have a 30-minute, very casual worship service with hymns and prayer that folks pick out. We also have a discussion onsage, sort of in the a scripture pas form of a conversational sermon. it is a wonderful set up, and I hope I can bring it to other contexts, always a highlight in my week.
I had a friend who had folks over for dinner via the Art of the Gathering book. Each month, he invited a specific group of people who had a theme and a topic of conversation. It was absolutely lovely.
I think these are central to forming community and to being a spiritual community!
Rachel
Any time I think about community around eating together I always think about going to temple with my friend in elementary school - she was Jewish and sometimes I got to go with her to temple. Many of the times that i went I remember eating food around a table, and it was always new and exciting foods. (As an adult I am now wondering if maybe I've attended a passover seder but didn't realize it.)
I also find myself thinking about social justice community and how activism often includes these 4 things in some way, shape, or form.
I think what's important about these 4 things is that they all involve connection to each other and connection to God. The one piece that's missing (or that CAN be missing, not always) is connection to those outside the community. What if our church model included all of these things but the sharing food part always included sharing food with others outside of the community... especially those who can't afford their own food?