More on the Buffet...

i received some interesting comments in response to my posting re: a church's attempt to set a world record for the world's largest potluck buffet. i also received an email from one of the organizers of this event, which sheds some light as to the focus and direction of the potluck. the potluck serves as a mission/outreach event for the church and local community organizations like the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Club, local missions and night shelters, and other local churches and civic organizations were invited to attend. the church decided not to pay extra fees to ensure its "World Record" status and a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records will not be on hand (which apparently is an additional cost) to verify. the burden of proof will be upon the church to prove its claim to "World's Largest Potluck Buffet" with pictures and other verifiable data. the email also stated that the record was not the focus but a benefit of organizing the event; its main purpose is that of outreach to the community as a "one mile mission" endeavor to reach out to those who live in the roughly one-mile radius around the church building itself and offer fellowship and community over a common meal.

i appreciate the comments regarding this event and earnestly pray that it is a success in reaching its intended goal to combat hunger and reach out with the love of God through Christ to the surrounding community. i also applaud this effort as a means of outreach to the community by a mobilized laity within the local congregation.

i am still left wondering if there was some other way to reach out that did not rely upon traditional stereotypes regarding southern, USAmerican Protestant Christianity as well as the excess, gluttony, and affluenza of USAmerican culture? those outside of the church are looking on (especially in a time when the news and media inform us that the US is in "crisis") to see what the church holds as important and necessary issues to address. hunger is certainly an issue worth addressing but i am still left feeling that the means through which hunger is addressed in this instance reflects an absence of a "flat" worldview, one that is keenly aware that what we say and do no longer exists in a vacuum of geographic and/or social location but is being watched and critiqued by a world that is connected like never before. with the world watching, then, what is it that we are offering?