Flourishing

Power, resources, flourishing. Two days ago, my roommate and I successfully hosted a dinner that brought together a couple different circles of church friends as well as two new friends who moved to Sacramento within the past six months. In the 48 hours since that successful hamburger night and while I try to finish Crouch's Playing God (yes, another reference), I've been mulling over those three words and how they played out in our evening of cheeseburgers and dessert.

Crouch defines power as "the ability to make something of the world" - to transform your environment, and the ability to interpret and make meaning from the world. And as I think about why Ro and I threw together this dinner party, we wanted to make community happen. I saw new friends in positions where I was not too long ago: showing up at group-hosted events but otherwise having little to do on weekends. Slowly finding their life in this new city but still a-ways from having a home. These two years in Sacramento have made me incredibly sympathetic to newcomers, re-locators, and transplants. I remember being there. And I hope they will find a home here sooner than later. In that sense, we had the power and used it to create connections, relationships, and communities among our newer friends and our church regulars.

Our other undercover, personal mission has been to bridge gaps between our young adult and career adult groups. Both of us have dabbled in both and have recently been churning thoughts about their similarities and differences, for better or for worse, as they both reflect God and also our broken human selves. While there is no need for the groups to merge, this summer I've found myself wanted to erase the lines that unnecessarily separate the groups. So here I am -- about a year and a half into knowing these church friends and already mixing up social groups and guests lists. Transforming the environment indeed.

But what a dinner party it was. The word resources is included above because prior to moving into this home, I wouldn't have the space to host a dinner where 11 of us could sit around a table. I think of the power we used to create a space for people to flourish through our hospitality: as resident and host of this home, I made the choice to put two tables together so all of us could sit around and face each other. Even that choice versus the paired-off seating of group parties was meant to communicate come, join our family. Tablecloths and set placements said, We're ready for you. And in really cheesy, practical ways (no pun intended), we allowed for creation. We had gaps in our planning that made it so Joe and David were at the stove during all of prep time. We picked a menu so that everyone could contribute and together we created our dinner.

There is no perfect community on this side of heaven, but as I play my part in a kingdom-like community here, maybe this is a new start: using my power and resources to have mealtimes where people sit around a table with a whole group, where old friends meet new people, where people are invited to participate and contribute something to the table, where I create space for joy, laughter, communion, and fellowship. And may it be a place where people and communities may flourish.