• not just another church potluck

  Holly Pinkham on July 21 2010

  One thing that continually reassures me about God’s movement in and through Basileia in Hollywood is that our community lives out its values. Basileia is full of people who have been burned out on church. Tired of buzz words like “community” and values of faith, equality and sharing the love of Christ that sound great but don’t actually get lived out.

  This past week, we had a BBQ in the parking lot next to the church. We intentionally held it in a nearby, easily accessible area so that we could invite anyone to join. Because while “community-building” is good and necessary, if we only do it with our friends and people like us, we can easily become inward-focused... and forget about the people around us in need. We’re here to make Christ known, so all that we do should make it easy for “outsiders” to feel welcome.

  Which is exactly what happened. The many people who helped put up signs, set up, organize, bring food, playing music, etc, were not specifically instructed to invite everyone to the BBQ. But they did anyway, because they have open eyes and hearts for those around us. Several neighbors and passerbys came to join us after being invited by someone while we were setting up – from scientologists  to "cultural Christians", homeless, friends of the church we rent from, etc. At the end of the night, a girl who was homeless and hungry found us, and people were able to give her leftovers, hear some of her story, and befriend her.

  This wasn’t your old-school church potluck. From the entertaining tunes of Ryan Keith, a musician in our midst, to the deeper conversations with non-Christians about Jesus, we tried to do things a bit differently. The event we’d planned to get the focus off of ourselves, engage with the people around us and share Christ accomplished just that.  We may not call ourselves a “missional community”, but it’s good to know that’s what we are…with or without the buzz words.

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