pat loughery

Let the feast begin

Originally uploaded by PatL

This is my church’s (Ohana Project) biggest party – the Luau. Once a month, usually the first Sunday, we gather together and as an act of worship, we serve our community as a church. Sometimes we help a local food bank stock shelves; sometimes we weed and landscape at the local Boys and Girls club, sometimes we throw a Sock Hop for the senior citizens at the Senior Center that we rent for our worship gatherings.

Once a year, early in the summer, we throw a luau. It’s our biggest party – (and we throw a lot). Because much of the church’s cultural heritage is Hawaiian, we know how to cook, to dance and to play music in that style – and who doesn’t love a good luau? So, we throw open the doors for a free feast, inviting the seniors at our local Senior Center, our friends, families, neighbors, coffeeshop baristas, the waiters at our favorite restaurants – everybody we can think of. We are careful to tell people that the event is free, and that they can bring their friends as well. They do.

This year we cooked 70 pounds of pork, plus a few tables’ worth of other goodies. We had – I’m only guessing here – 120 people or more come to the feast.

We also had music donated by a fantastic band – Da Oddah Guys. They were a ton of fun. They’re not part of our church community, and not “a Christian band”, but they understood what we were trying to do, and they played for free.

For the second year, we welcomed the Hokulani’s Hula Studio, whose leader Kathy danced and brought several groups of students to dance as well. For the second year, they donated their talents to serve their community. They also do not attend church with us, and are not “a Christian dance studio”, but they understood what we were trying to do.

Today – a week after the Luau – during our worship gathering, we talked about what we had experienced last week, and what we had heard from our guests. All of us were powerfully moved by a representative of the Greenwood Senior Center, who thanked us for serving them and for being part of their community year-round with all the parties we throw with them. Some of us had heard individually from guests young and old, thanking us for the excellent food and entertainment. One elderly woman had told one of our ladies that she felt a lot of love in the room, which meant a lot to us also. One of our community members said that what he likes the most about these parties is that there truly no strings attached, and that it’s fun to serve without expectation, which battles the cynacism with religion that we all often feel. Another said that it was important to him that we continue to serve without expectation of response.

Not a single person that we served food to last week came to our church this week as a result. In the days of our last church plant, we often found this frustrating. As a small church who loved to serve, we also wanted to grow and to see people realizing that there was a community of believers who wanted to put feet to our words. But I think Ohana Project has this right – we serve without expectation that it’s linked to attracting people to us. We serve with the expectation that people sense the love of Christ, and that it attracts people to Him.

Evangelism can continue to happen relationally, but service is done that we might serve our community, without expectations or requirements.