We Will Feast - Print

We Will Feast
Rethinking Dinner, Worship, and the Community of God

By Kendall Vanderslice
Foreword by D.L. Mayfield

[1 copy only available at this reduced price 1 July 2026
We will not be re-ordering this title when this copy has sold]

A compelling exploration of dinner church and shared meals as a powerful form of Christian worship, community, welcome and embodied faith.

This book will help you:

• Rediscover the biblical importance of meals, hospitality and feasting in the life of faith.
• Understand how eating together can become a meaningful expression of Christian worship.
• Explore the contemporary dinner-church movement through real stories and examples.
• Imagine new ways for churches to build community beyond traditional worship structures.
• Reflect on how food can unite people across differences of denomination, age, race, class and background.
• Create more welcoming spaces for people who may feel hesitant about entering a church building.
• Reclaim the table as a place of prayer, belonging, justice, nourishment and encounter with God.

Features

• Explores the practice of eating together as Christian worship.
• Includes stories of churches and communities worshipping around dinner tables.
• Introduces readers to the contemporary dinner-church movement.
• Features a foreword by D.L. Mayfield.
• Named one of Englewood Review of Books’ most anticipated Christian books of 2019.

Paperback, 176pp
5 x 0.6 x 7.9 inches
ISBN 9780802876300
Eerdmans (2019)

Description

The gospel story is full of meals.

It begins in a garden, moves through tables of welcome, challenge and transformation, and ends in a feast. Yet many churches have gradually separated worship from the shared table, treating food as fellowship after the “real” service rather than as a central expression of Christian life. This book invites readers to reconsider that separation and rediscover the deeply spiritual power of eating together.

Through stories from churches and communities practising dinner church, the author introduces a growing movement that gathers people around meals as an act of worship. These communities are not simply adding food to church programmes; they are recovering an ancient pattern in which prayer, Scripture, conversation, hospitality and nourishment belong together. Around the table, people who might never step confidently through church doors are finding space to belong, listen, share, eat and encounter God.

This is a book for pastors, church leaders, small-group facilitators, ministry teams and anyone longing for Christian community that feels more embodied, generous and real. It explores how meals can break down barriers, draw together people across difference, and offer a tangible expression of God’s welcome. It also challenges churches to think more creatively about worship, mission and belonging in a time when many traditional forms of gathering no longer connect with those outside church walls.

Warm, practical and theologically rich, this book offers both vision and invitation. It asks readers to imagine what might happen if the table became central again: if worship was tasted as well as spoken, if strangers became neighbours over dinner, and if the community of God was formed not only in pews but around shared bread, open conversation and the promise of a coming feast.

About the Author

Kendall Vanderslice is a baker, writer, speaker and theologian whose work explores the connections between food, faith, worship and Christian community. She is the founder of the Edible Theology Project, a ministry that helps churches and individuals connect the table with spiritual formation, Scripture and embodied discipleship. Her writing and teaching focus on the theology of food, the practice of eating together and the ways shared meals can shape Christian imagination and community life.

D.L. Mayfield, who contributes the foreword, is a writer and neighbour whose work often explores faith, justice, hospitality, community and life alongside people at the margins. She is known for reflective Christian writing that challenges readers to consider how love of neighbour is lived out in ordinary, concrete practices.

Contents

Foreword by D.L. Mayfield
Introduction to dinner, worship and the community of God
The biblical story of meals, gardens and feasts
The early church and worship around the table
The loss of food’s central place in church life
Stories from contemporary dinner churches
Hospitality, welcome and belonging
Eating together across difference
Dinner church as worship, mission and community formation
Practical vision for churches and faith communities
Reflections on feasting as a sign of God’s kingdom

SEO-Friendly Description (160 Characters)
Explore dinner church, shared meals and Christian worship with stories and theology for building community around the table.

Keywords
dinner church,Christian worship,Kendall Vanderslice,shared meals,hospitality,Christian community,Eerdmans,food theology,church renewal,table fellowship