Anne Fishel is a co-founder of The Family Dinner Project, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of "Home for Dinner." On The Family Dinner Project website, she offers a detailed apologetic for the family meal time:
Most American families are starved for time to spend together, and dinner may be the only time of the day when we can reconnect, leaving behind our individual pursuits like playing video games, emailing and doing homework. Dinner is a time to relax, recharge, laugh, tell stories and catch up on the day’s ups and downs, while developing a sense of who we are as a family.…researchers have confirmed what parents have known for a long time: sharing a family meal is good for the spirit, the brain and the health of all family members...What else can families do that takes only about an hour a day and packs such a punch?
Family meals aren’t just essential for our biological families; they are a key instrument for cultivating true spirituality in Christ’s church family. A survey of all the great redemptive events in scripture makes clear that each of these high water marks in the story of redemption is accompanied by God’s people sharing in a feast. There’s a real sense in which the benefits listed above for the biological family meal time have analogies in the life of the church family when her people sit down to enjoy food and drink together. Food and drink are central in human formation. In the act of meal sharing there’s way more going on than what meets the eye.
Over the course of the next 8 Wednesday nights from September 14th to November 2nd, Redeemer Church will be sharing a weekly family meal celebration and fellowship time from 6:00-7:30 pm. We want to cultivate community together around Jesus Christ. We want the environment to be such that visitors can come and join us as we consider knowing the God who reveals himself in and through the feasting and fellowship of his people. We are family. We long to be a deeper and more profound family. We long to grow our family. We long to take our familial love, centered around Jesus Christ, into our great city of Memphis, helping to make our society more neighborly. We long to acquaint people with a Savior whose heart is to restore all people back into the worldwide-feasting-family-of-God.
Each week we will meet in groups at assigned tables and share a meal for 30 minutes (tables will have space available to assimilate guests). A group facilitator will lead the table in an icebreaker discussion during the meal. After the 30-minute meal and icebreaker, the children will be dismissed to their respective age group classes. Adults will remain in the sanctuary for a time of true fellowship around Jesus Christ. There will be a brief group worship moment, a 20-minute teaching time followed by a group table talk discussion and prayer time led by the group’s facilitator.
Please join us and invite friends and neighbors. Our weekly meal will be a catered supper costing $5 per person or $20 for a family of 5 or more. Please note: If money is a problem, you have no problem. Speak to Jeffrey Lancaster or Ben Winkler and they will confidentially work through the matter with you. We don’t want anyone kept away due to money concerns!!!