Taste and See

Feb. 5th, 2021 | By Shi Wen Yeo MC ‘23

Pictured: people around a table sharing a meal.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

  – Matthew 11:28.

Food has a cult following. Consider the Yale College Facebook page named “Free Food at Yale.” Before COVID-19, everyday there were announcements upon announcements asking people to come to claim free food all around campus—leftover pizzas, chicken nuggets and all things of the sort. Having gone to a few of these gatherings myself, I was surprised at the number of people who showed up—often more than the number of people who showed up at my weekly Bible study. Even now, to get people to show up to mixers, Zoom conferences or take their surveys, many student organisations promise food as an incentive. 

These food-based advertising campaigns tend to be exceptionally effective when the food is a hard-to-make or hard-to-find cultural staple. Rather than the generic pizza, consider the Korean-American Students at Yale’s recent offerings. Their virtual movie screening of the Korean film The Host was paired with free Shin Ramen and Choco Pies, which could be picked up from a Cross Campus booth. Anyone who grew up in a remotely Korean environment immediately associates these foods with comfort and love. Needless to say, the movie night  was incredibly successful.

Many churches, too, have been using these sorts of food-based advertising campaigns. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in immigrant churches. So the question arises—why has the church harnessed the power of physical sustenance as a channel of evangelism?

“Stay for lunch!” some church members would say to a first-time tentative church-goer. Back home in Singapore, I once saw a church waving mammoth banner that read something like, “Bring your lunch! Join us here!” For context, it was directly opposite a sweltering hot hawker centre and sought to offer reprieve for lunchtime diners within the church compounds. 

It is undeniable that food is a primary means through which many first encounter Christ. Food is often used to entice non-Christians into a Sunday service. And evidently, food is effective. 

I like to think about it from the perspective of a dear friend I met at the Korean United Methodist Church here in New Haven. Attending graduate school outside of Korea, without friends or family in a cold, lonely foreign land, she comes to church every Sunday. To her, the familiar strains of the Korean language in church are lovely to hear lovely to hear; but, it is really the lingering smell of kimchi wafting towards the sanctuary from the basement of the church, the steady bubble of the stew, and the hiss of the rice cooker that remind her that she is welcome. It speaks to a primal side of her, surpassing the mental boundaries that she might have and speaking to her inner self who knows the love infused in her mother’s cooking. While initially skeptical, the food provides a clear message of love—“You are safe here. You are welcome here. You belong.” That is the same message spoken over by the sermons she hears on Sundays. There are many others like her.

And the effectiveness of food in increasing church attendance makes sense. It is far easier to say, “Come to church with me for some kimchi and rice!” than it is to simply say “come to church with me.” Food lowers inhibitions, increasing the instances of non-Christians accepting the invitation. This model seems to work particularly well in immigrant churches, where the very identity of church is defined in contrast to an outgroup. In the case of this Korean church in New Haven, the appeal was finding Korean food and Korean community in an otherwise American, English-speaking society. In this way, immigrant communities seem to align themselves with that particular aspect of Christianity—the outcast group defined against external forces.

Not only does food welcome the lonely and the foreign. It also, I think, parallels the ubiquitous love proclaimed in many Sunday sermons. Just as it is written in Psalm 139, “Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.” At the point at which one bites into the food offered by a church, there may be an instant link to the food they ate back in their home country, the food that their mother prepared growing up, the food of familiarity and belonging. Experiencing this warm, primal love again in a church links those experiences of love with the church itself, reminding them that God is omnipresent in time and in space, giving us familiar comforts even in a foreign land.

But this power of food comes with its associated dangers and risks. In the Korean church I attended as a child, food was often a source of a lot of tension and politics. My earliest memories of church involve adults stampeding from the  400-person service down to the canteen, where women would dole out food from large pots and men would sit and eat. I remember my mother stressing out about weekly small group fellowship—while she wanted to prepare food that evaded criticism from other women, the food had to be modest enough  to not cause a burdensome expectation on the woman in charge of preparing food the next week. The kind of food people would bring to fellowship also drew many comments about their socioeconomic status and the extent of their commitment to church, which drew the church into human politics and divisiveness.

The biggest risk is if, in the end, food is the thing that is holding everyone together and keeping everyone coming to church, then it has distracted from the gathering’s main purpose, which is to learn about and worship God. And the danger is always present and very strong, simply because in a community where people share most things in common—language, attire, food—there could end up being no room for Jesus to bind everyone together. A church must always be conscious of this risk and not let food become the idol.

The next time someone offers you food at church, stay. Though their lips might say “stay for lunch!” what they really are saying is this: “taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” Food can be the way in which many people from all nations and tongues apprehend the Lord, making His kingdom come over all the earth, that more people might come to know and love Him.

---