Words of Hope

Are we a thriving community?

Exploring an intergenerational future of the church.

Adapted from a sermon at First United Methodist Church of Orlando.

I love a good meal. My favorite thing to do is find new places to eat. Food is a conduit to connecting people. There’s something that happens when you share a good meal with people you care about that allows relationships to flourish.

A few years back my wife and I began eating breakfast weekly with a group of friends. We get together at a local restaurant every Thursday morning to share a meal and life together. For 7am on a Thursday, we can often be noisy as we converse and build our shared relationship.

As the early church began living into Jesus’s commandment, they developed a thriving community built upon shared relationships (Acts 2:42–47 CEB):

42The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers. 43A sense of awe came over everyone. God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles. 44All the believers were united and shared everything. 45They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them. 46Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity. 47They praised God and demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone. The Lord added daily to the community those who were…