Resources and Mentoring for Church Planters

Community Dinners in Seattle are not a feeding program or an outreach; they are Dinner Churches modeled after the Agape Feasts of the first century. In fact, Dinner Churches were the way the followers of Christ functioned for the first 200 years of Christian history, especially in the large cities of the Pax Romana. We have found that this age-old approach is still a great way of doing church, 2000 years later.

This is particularly important to urbanizing areas because the ratio of churches in the largest cities of the US is four-times less than the rest of the country. The church in America has an urban problem.
We believe that the dinner-table approach to church that is working so well from neighborhood to neighborhood in Seattle will work in the other urban settings too, and for the same reasons. This training house exists to spread the Dinner Church vision to pastors, church planters, and the other cities of the US.

In 2011, we purchased a 1925 Craftsman home located across the street from the city zoo, a few blocks North of downtown, to gather pastors and church planters to observe what we have learned about reviving the ancient Dinner Church plan for lifting urban neighborhoods in the name of Christ. We are now set up to provide for individuals and small plant-teams for 3-day visits that include:

• Accommodations at the training house.
• A light continental breakfast each morning.
• Free time during the late mornings & afternoons to enjoy Seattle.
• Opportunities to engage in five Dinner Church sites in progress.
• Conversations with our staff regarding their growth in this model.
• A fireside dialogue each evening led by Verlon Fosner, complete with coffee & dessert.
• Q & A regarding handbook & articles that research theology, funding, menus, and many other aspects of the dinner church approach that are available at wwwDinnerChurchCollective.net

Regarding Cost: the suggested donation is $50 per night per person to help us shoulder the costs of the training house. This includes breakfast, dinner, and the fireside discussions/desserts. Other than airfare, only some spending money for your selected daytime activities is needed. Also, public transportation is available between SeaTac airport and throughout the city if you’d rather not rent a vehicle.