Real Dinner + Conversations = Win

Right before spring break, we had a bunch of college students from Johnson University come over to our church (New Life Christian Church) and do some work over their spring break.  It was sort of like a mission trip for them.  So, one of their projects was to “take over” our youth program on Sunday night in order to put into practice some of the things they are learning from school.

Normally, our “youth group” nights consist of fun, food, fellowship, teaching and small groups. Not a bad combination, but a lot to cram in.  With that in mind, the Johnson students wanted to simplify and really engage the students.  So, their plan was to have some fun (we played a variety of dodgeball games), share the gospel and then have discussions with the students.  But here was the catch.  In order to facilitate good conversation, the group’s leader (Josh) and I decided that we should do a “real” dinner together.

See, we don’t do “real” dinner at group.  We do junk food and juice/soda with students.  Talk about a well balanced meal, eh?  Well this week we decided to enlist parents to make “real” food such as lasagna.  And real food it was!  These were NOT just some put the frozen lasagna in the oven for 1 hour type of meals.  Every single one of these lasagnas were handmade and they were amazing!

But what made the night the most memorable was hearing the conversations going around the room during dinner time.  See, not only did we give time for students to eat, but we strategically placed leaders around the room to engage in conversations with students at the dinner table.  The students were clueless to this but it worked perfectly.  We broke the students up according to age range and then when they all came back with their food, the leaders gradually directed the conversation to life and the message they just heard.  It turned out great and I’m convinced that if we didn’t have to end the time because our time was over, we could have talked for 30-45 more minutes in that setting.

This change where we included real dinner, coupled it with intentional conversation led to a great win for our students, leaders and program.  That has led us to make some exciting changes in the fall where we include this time together more often. I am really excited to see what God does with our students this coming year because of our intentionality of having purposeful conversations around the dinner table.

Have you had experiences like this before where dinner and conversations have helped your ministry?  Share your thoughts and experiences below so that we can all benefit.