Five Lessons from Launching a New Dinner Church

Our small and traditional congregation recently held our first Dinner Church gathering. Although I have been a part of this before, I’m learning a lot from this experience.

Lesson 1: Churches Have Not Adapted

In working with Fresh Expressions and Dinner Church, I have become convinced that the Dinner Church model is one way forward for the mission of the Church in the challenging days in which we live.

My denomination has been in decline since 1967. We’ve lost two-thirds of our membership in the same time that the United States has doubled in population. A friend once commented, "We’re celebrating that our decline this year was less than last year!"

In a similar vein, I serve a small congregation. Our average Sunday attendance is about 50 people, slightly below the national average of 65. I believe that this decline comes down to one foundational issue: the church has not adapted to the Post-Christendom, and now post-pandemic, world.

I grew up in a Christendom world. There was one gas station that was open on Sundays in our small town in Georgia. On Wednesdays, businesses around the court square closed at noon so people could go to Wednesday night church services and prayer meetings. Everyone was assumed to be Christian, at least culturally. I remember the scandal when a small chain department store came to our community and was open on Sundays from 1 pm to 5 pm.

Our model for church, with our steepled buildings, religious language, and particular rituals, will inevitably have limited success in a Post-Christendom world. We need “fresh expressions” of church that are designed for our new world, and Dinner Church is a prime example. Dinner Church is easy for many churches to understand. We are well-versed in potlucks; we simply need to bring some Gospel intentionality to the tables we set.

Lesson 2: A Few Preparations Go a Long Way

The successful launch of our new Dinner Church came as a surprise to many in the congregation. About 30% of the people who came were unaffiliated with our church. Getting to this point took about six months of preparation.

We began with some simple training and introduction of the concept. I led sessions on understanding God’s mission and the opportunities for our congregation in our context. We also spent dedicated time in prayer and listening. We did prayer walks and took notice of what immediately surrounded us. We paid attention to the Spirit’s leading and got the impression we should throw the net at those who lived within walking distance of the church’s property in a historic neighborhood in our community. So, we prayed for open doors and open hearts. On our prayer walks, we had conversations with our neighbors who were out and about. We handed out invitations and hung them on mailboxes. We simply got to know our neighbors by being in the community among them. In Fresh Expressions, we talk about the importance of starting any initiative with listening and building relationships, and that’s exactly what we did. It was through these conversations that we learned that a shared meal and a different form of spiritual community could be exactly the thing that would draw disconnected neighbors together.

Lesson 3: Keep It Simple and Fun—but Good, Too

From there, we prepped for the event we ended up calling "The Neighborhood, a Community Dinner." We had a great menu, a lot of help in the kitchen, and people willing to sit at tables to have conversations with our guests.

The fresh expressions approach invites us to love, serve, and build friendships with those God is placing in our path, and we sensed that radical hospitality was one important way to love and serve these neighbors. So, we prepared a lavish dinner of homemade rice bowls with every imaginable topping, to the rave reviews of our guests. We gave out door prizes of gift cards from local establishments and fostered many playful moments of laughter and fun. The conversation flowed around tables, and there was a very real sense that something special was happening as we broke bread together.

Lesson 4: Be Clear About Why You Are Doing What You Are Doing

The Fresh Expression journey always invites us to consider how God might be seeking ways to deepen a sense of community and explore discipleship with people. Sometimes exploring discipleship is something that emerges over time through deepening relationships, and sometimes it is embedded from the start of a fresh expression initiative. Our Dinner Church had a “from the start” mentality—we wanted to demonstrate from the start that this was more than just a fun community meal; it was also a form of spiritual community gathered around Jesus. We had sensed that even in this very first gathering, there was an opportunity to dig into the loneliness of our own community. So as people were coming to the end of their dinner, we shared this 2-minute video that depicted what the Neighborhood dinner was about—building community. Then, I stood and shared a Jesus Story from John 1:14 (the Message): "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside & out, true from start to finish."

I spoke about the epidemic of isolation and loneliness in our culture and society. At the core, Christianity is about relationships, with God and our neighbors. Jesus loved everybody: Roman Soldiers, Tax Collectors, Prostitutes, Foreigners, the Infirmed, Religious Folks, the Lost, the Lonely, and the Least. We are to love God and love our neighbors. To quote an old Andraé Crouch song: "Jesus still is the answer for the world today!" (listen if you like)

We finished by inviting people to write any prayer requests they had on post-its and stick them to the cross that hangs on the wall—we collected 20 or so prayer requests that were given to our women’s prayer group. I said a final blessing, and we were done—but people stayed around for another 30-45 minutes. It was a joy-filled evening. I sensed deeply the Holy Spirit’s presence in all we did.

Lesson 5: Know Your Next Step

We are on our way to the final step in a Fresh Expression in that a real authentic form of church begins to emerge around dinner tables, as rhythms of spiritual community begin to form and people come into the life of the gospel. That may take a while, but that is where we are headed, and then, as we often say, "Go and do it again." That is our plan as we hope for a dozen new neighborhood/community dinners to be planted in our community and beyond.

Our next "The Neighborhood / Community Dinner" is planned for later this month, and the hope is that by autumn it will be a weekly event.

This is the story of a specific church’s journey into a Fresh Expression of church, this one happens to be around a Dinner Table. I believe as people see what can happen around a table, they will begin to see it can happen at a gym, a restaurant, a pub, a park, a cul-de-sac; wherever people gather.

You can learn about Fresh Expressions or Dinner Church. There is training available on many levels, support, resources, and encouragement in a new missional journey.

God’s Promise

In a recent sermon, I shared with the congregation: if we would be faithful, to listening and obeying The Lord, there are three promises we would experience:

We would see miracles. Things will happen beyond our explanations. People would be healed, there will be unexpected supernatural provision, lives will be changed, prodigals will come home, broken hearts mended, captives set free.

God would use us in surprising ways. People will find themselves saying things they didn’t even know they knew. God will work in us, for us, and through us, and we will be astonished.

We will not contain the growth. There is a plentiful harvest. The lost, lonely, and isolated will find meaning and purpose, connection, and community. For us, it is starting around a table where they are truly loved.

Pentecost Sunday happens in the coming days in the church calendar, where we remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower the church to proclaim the good news of salvation, redemption, and reconciliation that is given to those who believe in Jesus. We had a Pentecost moment at our first Dinner Church—there were miracles of kindness and love, God used us and each other, we grew in our Neighborhood and with our neighbors! We saw, touched, heard, and felt the Holy Spirit around our tables. If you want these things, then: pray; set a table; prepare a meal; invite your neighbors and see what happens!