Food Fosters Fellowship and Community

Meals help people grow closer to one another through conversation, laughter, and fellowship

This is part nine of the series 10 Ways Food Impacts History, Life, and the World in the Bible.

Pot Providence

Christians don't believe in luck, but rather in God's providence. Yet many churches have employed the term "luck" in their common meal. That meal of course is the "pot luck" dinner.

To be consistent (and somewhat playful), my husband and I have renamed the "pot luck" to a "pot providence" because God ordains everything that comes to pass. Some churches prefer to call it a "fellowship meal" — which is an even better name.

But whatever you call it, church members love to spread out a buffet of carefully prepared dishes from savory to sweet to enjoy together as a family of believers. And while those meals are being enjoyed, people grow closer to one another through conversation, laughter, and fellowship.

But food and fellowship is not reserved for Sundays.

Food and Family

In daily life, it is well known that sitting around the table at mealtime fosters a strong and cohesive family with children who are confident of the love of their parents.

And can you imagine a family reunion or holiday that did not involve food? When planning for such events, food is one of the first considerations.

The big questions at Christmas might be whether to serve turkey or prime rib, pumpkin or pecan pie, or all of the above. And the next big question might be who is going to bring what. And once all the preparations are made, the table is set with fine china, the green beans are placed on the table with all the other Christmas trimmings, we sit down to eat. But the food is not the highlight of the meal. It is a necessary part of course, but the beauty happens in the fellowship and community we share with those we love.

Family fellowship is nothing new.

Fellowship and Feasting

Before the first Christmas, the Israelites celebrated the Passover meal and all the sacrifices and feasts that looked forward to Christ coming into the world to save sinners. But these gatherings did more than just provide pictures and promises of the coming One. These feasts, which included the partaking of food, were great times of fellowship and rejoicing, bringing people together at least 3 times a year to celebrate before the Lord with their families and friends.

In these gatherings were great joy and fellowship and feasting. But there is an even greater and older fellowship that occurs around food.

Food and the Gospel

Fellowship and community has been fostered in an environment of food from the very beginning.

When God first made mankind, He used to walk with them in the garden. Man enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God in a setting of trees which provided nourishment for sustaining life. It was the Tree of Life which promised eternal fellowship, but instead our first parents chose fellowship with darkness by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Man could no longer have unhindered fellowship with God. But God had a plan to restore fellowship with His special creatures.

God gave a way for man to break away from the fellowship of darkness by trusting in His Son. When we sup on Christ through faith, our fellowship with God is restored. This is pictured in another fellowship meal, Communion.

This is the gospel. Fellowship, fall, and redemption can be taught around the context of food.

Food Matters

The next time you are sitting together as a family to eat your breakfast, lunch, or dinner; joining with your church family to have a common meal; or gathered with distant relatives and friends for a wedding, holiday, or other special event -- when you sit down to dine and eat the special food that you and others have prepared -- be sure to give thanks to God. Remember that it is He who has ordained food as a great means to fellowship, friendship, and community. He has even used food as a means of fellowship with Him.

Food is important to God because people are important to God. He created us with kind intentions. He made wonderful foods to nourish and sustain our bodies -- and as a means to enhance our souls through fellowship.  What a good and gracious God we serve. He blesses us with bounty and gives good gifts to men.

This was part nine in our 10 part series: 10 Ways Food Impacts History, Life, and the World.

Next: Food: A Stumbling Block to Believers and Unbelievers

Return to: Biblical Health Study

Did you enjoy this post?