Ode to the Potluck

from Gentleman's Purpose - January 2022 Edition

Ringing in the New Year

Written by Justin Gaynor

I love food. Cooking food allows me to express creativity and the opportunity to enjoy all sorts of delicious cuisine. Eating good food gives my body strength and nourishment. Talking and writing about good food connects me with others on common ground (everybody’s gotta eat!). It gives me reason and purpose in my travels and activities. Food is good.

In Gentleman’s Purpose, we usually review a restaurant here in the dining section. As we are starting a new year though, I wanted to re-direct your attention to the value of community. Whether it’s sitting down to the dining room table consistently with your family or enjoying a “love feast” or “potluck” amongst your local faith community, sharing meals together regularly strengthens relationships.

With COVID, a lot of gatherings around food came to a screeching halt and are just recently getting started again. In my own faith community, we recently re-launched a mid-week service where we enjoy apostolic teaching and conversation, real connection, we share a meal, and we spend time in prayer. We’ve been going strong for about 7 weeks now and it has been a great time.

If you aren’t part of the Church where you get together regularly like that, I want to encourage you to make some phone calls in the new year: friends, family, co-workers, and just schedule a night each week to commit to getting together and having a potluck. Perhaps offer to host it at your home the first week and as part of the conversation, talk about what it might look like to get together weekly.

You could go from house to house in a nice rhythm so it’s never too much of a burden on any one person. You could also visit a local restaurant as a group occasionally. Keep things simple but keep them consistent so that each week your group has something to really look forward to. It will add value to your lives.