Our Pastor Joe has been leading a church service in New Meadows every Sunday evening at 5:30. There has been a need for local people to be part of the church community and to hear God’s Word spoken here. Although Dan and I also go to Mountain Life service in McCall on Sunday mornings, we’ve enjoyed these Sunday night times. On first appearance, it is very casual. There is a pot luck dinner ahead of time and then Pastor Joe brings a message. So far there’s been no formal music, but hopefully that will come, even if it is singing some familiar songs together. Personally, I like the format which recalls the way the early Christians met.
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. Acts 2:46

It seems that church pot luck dinners are not a modern concept! People enjoy getting together for food and prayer.

Usually, Pastor Joe proposes a short topic for conversation at our tables which is a segue way to his message. If I were teaching writing, I’d call it a “story starter.” It is a great way to have people engage with one another, with those we know well and those we’re getting to know. The church as Christ’s Body begins through relationship which starts in the willingness to open hearts and minds and share thoughts. Real and honest conversation knits us together as members of the same Body, whether it is a church in McCall or a small one seeded 20 miles away.

Sunday’s story starter was to recall one time when we were accepted by someone else when we did not think we would be accepted. It was definitely a personal question inviting intimacy and vulnerability. Four of us at our table shared but it was my husband Dan whose simple story was the most touching. He shared that my mother’s acceptance of him when we first met almost 60 years ago really affected him. My European family was not open to outsiders, especially those who came from Chicago and were not full blooded Germans. But, my mother welcomed him whole heartedly into the family and embraced him as her son, not just her son-in-law. I used to jokingly say she liked him more than me. (That wasn’t true, but she definitely came to his defense whenever I had a complaint.)

Being welcomed into a family or church or community when you are a stranger is at the heart Jesus’ teaching . The first great commandment is to love God. Jesus says the second is like it.
The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37–40).

We cannot practice one without the other. We cannot welcome one another without first loving God. My mother was a welcoming person because she understood what Jesus meant. So does our pastor and his family. His shepherding the flock in New Meadows shows Christian action demonstrating the Lord’s call.

Thank you Pastor Joe, Heidi and Samuel for your examples of walking in love, in the Spirit of God into our little community. We appreciate you very much!