At our church we have a fellowship meal twice a month (1st and 3rd Sundays), following our corporate worship gathering. Many churches do the same, to varying degrees. I would highly advise all Christian churches to do the same. I mainly write this post for Christians who have a regular fellowship meal with their church, to encourage them in their commitment to the Christian fellowship meal.
There is something unique to having fellowship over a meal that cannot be had otherwise. There have been times and seasons where it has been great, and others where it has been more difficult to remain committed to. Even when you are in a more difficult season, persistence is necessary. As a principle, when we keep at the plow, we will reap wonderful blessings. It is often true that how we think fellowship meal will be, is how it will go. Just as we ought to prepare ourselves for formal corporate worship in order to be most blessed by it, let us prepare ourselves for Lord’s Day fellowship meal.
Our fellowship meal on Sunday is to be a joyful time of celebration together under the common bond of the redeeming blood of Christ. Christ is risen, so we rise to feast with true gladness and good food, raising our glasses to the resurrection. So we eat and drink together with a view of Christ, what He has done, and what is to come, seeking to edify one another not only in conversation but with food for the body; and not only with food for the body, but with food for the soul.
We eat and drink together testifying to the physical reality and enjoyment of the new heaven and earth that is to come, knowing we will be with the embodied Christ, who is our true bread, feasting together forever on real food and the best wine.
The Christian fellowship meal ought to involve each one committed to bringing his or her best, and bringing plenty, both in fellowship and food, that all might complete each other’s joy. The Lord’s Day is to be a gospel feast (through the ordinary means of grace: Word, prayer, and sacrament). The Christian fellowship meal signifies that by feasting together. As the gospel matters, so the food matters! (Amen!) As the word of a God is sweeter than honey to the lips of a believer (Psalm 110:103), so sweets are an important element to a fellowship meal! There is a time for strict healthy eating to honor God with our bodies, and there is a time for feasting – and that is the Lord’s Day for Christians.
The Lord’s Day is a prime opportunity to teach and train our children, not only in the things of God and how to act and worship in corporate worship, but it is also a prime opportunity for us to teach our children what Christian fellowship looks like, and how to do it. Though it is not without difficulty, let us not leave our child training at the door, but bring it into the fellowship. Let us not think that kids are just to be partitioned to a corner to play, but they may be welcomed in to the conversation so that they are ever hearing gospel conversations and learning how to interact well. So as well, they must learn how to feast like a Christian! Just as Christmas is not just any other day, so the Lord’s Day is not just any other day. Do our children know that, see it, and understand why? Let us labor to teach it to them; but they will first see it in our joyful feasting that rises above any other day. Christ is risen, reigning, and victorious, so we shall eat in the spoils of victory!
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