Close your eyes and picture a family dinner. What do you remember from these meals? Is it what you ate, a favorite dish that your mother used to make? A funny mishap on a holiday with one of your siblings or children? Words of wisdom from your dad?

Each of us probably has a memory that we could recount from a family meal together. What an important ritual family meals and table fellowship have on the growth and development of each one of us.

I believe that it's a practice that God calls us to take part in as a church family as well. The disciples and other believers that gathered together in the early church knew the importance of fellowship together around a meal. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  -Acts 2:46-47a

As we grow in our faith together, spending time in fellowship and conversation around a meal is a valuable experience for each of us to learn from one another. In a culture that whizzes through a fast food drive thru to get a quick bite on the way to the next thing, taking time to stop and sit down around the dinner table can be challenging.

I would invite you to take some time on a Wednesday evening to join us for dinner in Friendship Hall or choose a time in the next week when your family can enjoy some table fellowship. I believe that our souls are longing for some time to slow down for a few moments, enjoy some nourishment for our body and engage in some meaningful conversations.