A three-day experience of in-depth training and observation to help you develop a city-wide or region-wide Dinner Church strategies. Enjoy meals, training sessions, fireside chats and observations of Dinner Churches in action. Only 18 spots available.
Dinner Church is an effective and approach to starting new churches and evangelizing that makes sense in the cities of 21st century America. Large portions of our population—singles, the financially-challenged, ethnic minorities and others—live in isolation. Many struggle to find healthy meals. Sadly, many of these people will never find their way into weekend church gatherings.
Discover
The historic Dinner Church still thrives in today’s world. Passages like Luke 5 show how Jesus built his band of disciples by eating meals with outcasts. John 13-17 demonstrates how he used the dinner table to teach about the Holy Spirit. The early church followed Jesus’ process, creating Agape’ feasts where the poor and outcast could gather at an abundant table, eat a meal together, and share stories about Jesus.
Dinner table theology still works today! Lives are transformed when lonely people are invited to a table full of food paid for by Christ. Jesus is waiting… He just needs His followers to set the table.
Immerse
The training sessions offered at Immersions are both dialogue-based and observation-based. The dialogue sessions begin with a theological review of the historic dinner church, and work progressively toward practical issues and large-scale strategies such as an overseer who is tasked with planting city or regional areas might need. Of course, due to the fact that everyone will have already read the handbook and have undoubtedly gathered some questions, we let the attenders steer much of the discussion.
The Dinner Church Collective owns a training house in Seattle, WA to host church leaders for a 3-day training and observation event. These visits include accommodations, breakfasts, training sessions, opportunities to observe a couple Dinner Churches in action, and fireside dialogues with experienced leaders during the evenings. it is assumed that each one attending a Dinner Church Immersion has read the Dinner Church Handbook or the Overseers Handbook, both of which can be ordered from this site.
Learn
The observation opportunities will include attending two dinner churches in session, and engaging in those evenings in several different ways. One way is to actually work at the buffet table and see the encouragement that is offered by the servers; in serving food they are serving the Gospel. Another way is to sit back and observe the way non-churched people worship and listen, as well as seeing the prayer and one-on-one conversations taking place across the room. Still another way is to sit at a table, and eat with people who start off as strangers but turn into friends by the end of the night. Many of the visiting leaders will have the opportunity to talk with these new friends about Christ and some will even get to pray a prayer of healing for them. Sitting at a table and turning strangers into friends is the most meaningful role in the room. A final way to engage in the evening is to interview the worship leader, artist, security personnel, pastor, buffet table leader, and those who showed up that evening to be a part of the “lift” team. All of these conversations prove to offer rich practical insights.
If you are at all curious about how God may be leading you to start a Fresh Expression of church to reach those who are beyond the reach of current church models, check out the Dinner Church Collective and attend one of the events below!
Here are the event details:
Dinner Church Immersion- February 2019
Dinner Church Immersion- May 2019
