One London church now runs 3-4 evangelistic dinners for 60 people each year at a local pub. Organiser Ben explains how it started: "We tried an event for a mission at a local pub which had a separate restaurant that we could hire. It went so well that we decided to try and repeat it on a regular basis."
An invitation card is produced to promote it. Men are encouraged to personally invite friends to a dinner where they will hear an engaging talk about the Christian faith, or the meaning of life. There are usually more guests than church members at the events, as men will often invite two or three guests to make up a table.
"We mostly get outside speakers and encourage them to speak from a passage of the Bible for about 25 minutes, but try to give the evenings a provocative title. The Bible passages are printed out on cards with the menu. People arrive from 7.30pm and have a drink at the bar first. Dinner starts at 8pm with an introduction and grace.
‘We always try to tie in the meetings in with the start of an evangelistic course. The main response that we are looking for from people is a commitment to come onto Christianity Explored to investigate the claims of Christ further,’ says Ben. One recent innovation has been to shorten the talk slightly and add a question time. This has been a great help in opening up the meeting and stimulating conversation at the tables.
Tim Thornborough is the founder and Publishing Director of The Good Book Company. He is series editor of Explore Bible-reading notes, the author of The Very Best Bible Stories series, and has contributed to many books published by The Good Book Company and others. Tim is married to Kathy, and they have three adult daughters.
