Friday, August 7, 2009

Sort-of Church Dinner

Sigh!

We've got another of those bring-your-own-food church dinner things tonight. I'm always tempted to just stay home, and I usually give in to the temptation. Yes, they solve a lot of problems:
  • Our church potlucks never had enough food. If a family of four brought a side dish, they would bring exactly four servings, then load their plates liberally from all the serving dishes. And there were always freeloaders who brought nothing.
  • Conservative churches are very big on food-fad people. One cannot eat any sugar. Another only can live on mangosteen juice. Yet another is convinced that the chiropractor's list of forbidden foods is gospel. So the BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) approach works for them.
  • And since this church cannot possibly organize anything complex, the BYOF approach means that (at most) someone is going to have to organize paper plates, weak coffee, weak lemonade mix, and a clean-up crew.
It's sad, though. Any sharing of food is strictly ruled out. If someone shows up and has misunderstood the BYOF rule, he is welcome to drive to Taco Bell and get something to bring back. That's incredibly dreary. Incredibly unwelcoming. And it all makes me wonder why I don't just have my own food at home, then show up for the program.

No comments:

Post a Comment