There Is Nothing For You To Do, But You Can Come Eat With Us

Regular readers know that on Wednesday nights I'm a Freedom Fellowship, eating a meal and worshiping with our friends and neighbors in a poor part of our town.

When I share stories about Freedom people often approach me saying they'd like to come over and help out. And my response is, "Well, there is nothing for you to do, but you can come eat with us."

When people hear about Freedom they envision something like a soup kitchen, where volunteers stand behind tables serving a line of needy people. There are people serving behind tables and there are people in a line to get food. But the people cooking, serving and cleaning up after the meals aren't outside volunteers. The Freedom community does all that.

So there's nothing for a volunteer to do. But you can come, get in line, get a plate of food and sit down and eat with us.

And yet, that prospect seems to throw a lot of people. They don't want relationships, they want a service project. It's profoundly disorienting to many Christians to be told that they are not needed. We'd much rather serve than be asked to share a table with others. It's fascinating to watch how new people wanting to help at Freedom will stand around looking for a job to do, something to make them feel useful, when all they need to do is grab a plate and sit down.

Stop trying to serve, I want to say.

Just sit down and eat with us.