Week 33: Pancakes in the Park, 17 August 2008

When I start my cult, this is totally going to be my tag line:
“We don’t want to make war; we want to make pancakes.”

http://www.pancakesinthepark.org/
The local newspaper wrote about them:
Pancake Mix: Every other weekend, new friends gather on the South Hill for breakfast, conversation

When I start my cult, the pancakes will be warm.
And the people will be welcoming.

You’re probably thinking, “Hey! Um, Jen — Pancakes in the Park is not a church service.”

Which is true; I’ll grant that.

I think we’ve hit a point in the project where we now turn toward some new questions:  What is the purpose of church?  What is being church?  What is the role of community?  How does one build community? Both Pancakes in the Park and Resurrection at the Rainbow speak to these latter questions, though Pancakes in the Park has no religious component.  I think at this juncture, we’re thinking about what we’ll bring [back? forward? — not sure which way we’re headed in January] from the project — and so instead of going places we know are probably not a good fit (mega churches, for example), we’re working on the “why” and “how” of what it means to be church.

Crap. The Pancakes in the Park was last week. (Many thanks to my lovely and gentle friend Emalee for pointing this out). So . . . we won’t be at Tom and Pam’s tomorrow morning. (Which will probably be a relief to them).

Nonetheless . . .

The Kingdom of God is like strangers meeting for pancakes in the park . . . .