A Humble Meal At A Humble Church

Whether you are thinking of participating for the month of March or for Lent, we are all sharing a common meal together. “Together” is a key concept for Rice & Beans Month, which is why Oak Hills Church in Milwaukie, Oregon, decided to make it a church-wide experience for Lent last year. Thank you to Sarah Sanderson for sharing a bit of their experience, and for helping to prepare our hearts for this year’s journey.


 

Ours is a humble church. We skew more blue-collar than white, closer to the poverty line than the top one percent. Humble, hard-working folk. That’s why I knew our church would take to the idea of doing Rice & Beans for Lent right away.

My husband (who is the pastor) and I have served larger, richer congregations in the past. Those churches gave generously—very generously—to lots of different mission needs. But somehow, the church we serve now understands generosity on a heart level. We give because many of us know how it feels to go without. Many know what it’s like to run out of money before you run out of month. Give us this day our daily bread is a vital, daily prayer. And that’s why the Rice & Beans event was a perfect fit. Rice & Beans is all about giving, not out of excess, but out of sacrifice and solidarity. 

Pastor Jeremy Sanderson introduces Oak Hills Church to the idea of eating Rice & Beans for Lent

For our first year, we started slowly. Just commit to one rice and beans meal a week, we told the congregation. We formed weekly small groups that would meet both at the church and in homes, so that the rice and beans meal could be shared. We kicked off the experience with an all-church rice and beans potluck on Ash Wednesday. And people came. The Fellowship Hall was so crowded that extra tables and chairs had to be set up. It was as if the congregation was saying, People are hungry? We’ve been there. We will gladly share what we have.

Oak Hills held an Ash Wednesday gathering to begin the Rice & Beans journey together

Our family hosted a weekly Friday night dinner in our house. On average, ten kids and ten adults came to our house each week. The kids crammed their mouths full of rice and beans before sprinting away from the table to run wildly up and down the stairs, while the adults tried to have more serious conversations in the living room, balancing bowls of rice and beans in our laps. It was chaos. It was fun. It was church.

Soon, our family decided that we could eat rice and beans at other times in the week, as well. We thought about the hungry African children, and we all agreed, we can do this for them. Rice and beans crept into our menu, first at one other meal during the week, then two, or three. Our participation increased over time. It became a fun challenge, a way of honoring our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world.

Children in Tanzania whose families have greatly benefited from a garden project funded by Rice & Beans Month

Meanwhile, the money jar in the church Fellowship Hall grew more full every week. It wasn’t the kind of money our previous, wealthy church might have donated. It was ones and fives, the actual amount people had saved by eating rice and beans, one meal at a time.

When Jesus watched people giving to the temple, he declared that the poor widow who gave two small coins had actually given more than all the others. Jesus sees whether our giving comes out of our excess or out of our sacrifice, and that difference makes a difference to him.

Jesus loves humble, sacrificial giving. Jesus loves our humble church. By Easter, the congregation had put close to five hundred dollars in the jar. Maybe it’s not a lot of money, or maybe it is, depending on your perspective.


 

Sarah Sanderson is a writer, speaker, and a busy mom of four children. She partners in pastoral ministry with her husband, Jeremy, at Oak Hills Church. You can find more of her work featured at sarahlsanderson.com.