{"id":10690,"date":"2007-12-19T13:19:56","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T18:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=10690"},"modified":"2011-08-09T13:20:38","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T18:20:38","slug":"6012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/12\/19\/6012\/","title":{"rendered":"No Free Lunch? Not True in Sweden, Maine!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW SWEDEN, ME (December 19, 2007) &#8211; The saying goes that there is  no such thing as a free lunch, but the Evangelical Covenant Church here  proves the exception to the rule. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Every second, fourth and fifth  Tuesday of the month, members of the congregation in this town of 620  residents serve a free lunch to the community. The church regularly  provides meals to 65 people &#8211; or roughly 185 percent of the 35 people it  averages in attendance during Sunday worship, says pastor Shelly  Timber. Attendance at the meal has reached as high as 93.<\/p>\n<p>The  church started the ministry in 2001, when the congregation added a  fellowship hall and wanted to minister to the community. \u201cWe need a  watering hole in this area where people can get together,\u201d Timber says.<\/p>\n<p>Many  of the diners are community members who use the occasion to visit with  friends, invite neighbors and catch up on the latest news from all the  surrounding small towns. Timber says the meal is especially meaningful  to some of the area\u2019s senior adults. \u201cSome seniors don\u2019t see another  soul all week,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey really depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Snow  regularly piles high in this region, but the church has cancelled the  lunch only once. Earlier this month, winds were blowing and creating  whiteout conditions that made driving too dangerous, Timber says. To  read a previous story on the challenges of ministry in the region, see &#8220;Prepare Yourself! &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Spearheaded  by member Sharon Bither, the five or six regular cooks and servers have  the meal down to a science, Timber says. She adds, \u201cThe women in our  church who run it have a ball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A menu is provided at the  beginning of each season, which runs September through May, and includes  a variety of entrees such as lasagna, Maine\u2019s red hotdogs, fish chowder  or a full roast dinner. \u201cAfter seven seasons of service, it seems the  favorite on the year\u2019s menu is a simple baked potato &#8211; the county\u2019s  chief crop &#8211; served buffet style with toppings galore to choose from,\u201d  Timber says.<\/p>\n<p>There is no charge for the lunch, although a bucket  is set out for donations, which generally cover the cost of the food and  utilities, Timber says.<\/p>\n<p>For each event, the work starts on  Monday when food preparations are done, tables are set with silverware,  glasses and mugs, and table centerpieces are decorated to an appropriate  theme. \u201cAt 6 a.m. the next morning, the cooking and camaraderie begin,  and by 11 a.m. the early-bird diners start arriving,\u201d Timber says.<\/p>\n<p>Diners  are served at their seat. Any who attend are also invited to make use  of a prayer request box, emphasizing this church\u2019s strong prayer  ministry. When lunch is finished, people rarely rush out the door.  Conversations continue around the tables while people sip their last cup  of coffee or work on a large jigsaw puzzle in the center of the room.<\/p>\n<p>Most  of the people who come to the lunch already are members at other  churches, so the congregation doesn\u2019t provide the lunch as a way of  attaining numerical growth, Timber says. In addition to evangelism, \u201cA  church\u2019s presence ought to function to bring unity and nurture to its  community,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the church and its ministries, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/newswedencovenantchurch.homestead.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">New Sweden Covenant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=10690&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW SWEDEN, ME (December 19, 2007) &#8211; The saying goes that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but the Evangelical Covenant Church here proves the exception to the rule. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>No Free Lunch? Not True in Sweden, Maine! - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2007\/12\/19\/6012\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No Free Lunch? 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