The Thanksgiving Ministry

​The assignment was to write about our model for ministry—a metaphor, a story, or a role. Some wrote about seeing the minister as a teacher, a resident theologian, or orchestra conductor.
 
For me, it was my family’s thanksgiving host. Woven together by the host, our thanksgiving table invites family members to offer together their old, familiar favorite dishes or their brand-new experiments, to make an amazing meal of giving thanks. She makes sure that all are included, and, if someone doesn’t have a place to go for the meal, she adds more room at the table for a widower neighbor, a cousin’s boyfriend, or a single friend from town.
 
Ministry can offer us all the opportunity to bring what we have to offer—our gifts, talents, wonderings, our doubts, and questions--and weave it all together into something greater than the sum of the parts. Our ministry together can expand our definition of “family” and make room at the Lord’s Table. 
 
And when there are leftovers at the end of the day, we are left asking, “Who else is hungry? Would anyone like a plate of leftovers to take to someone?”