That Time They Served Indian Food

This is the first post of a series called, “Reflecting on Advance 2017.”  You can read the second one, That Time There Were So Many Indians and the third one, That Time We Sang in Hindi. 

“People will only remember the food anyway.”

That’s what my wife and I were told as we (she) labored to plan our wedding. It was supposed to be encouraging, but we knew what it really meant. All the time that we spent planning, preparing and purchasing would ultimately be evaluated by a single cocktail hour.

Most people who have organized an event don’t want to hear that the food was the most memorable part of it all. Nevertheless, at Advance 2017, I ventured to let the organizers of the conference know that the most memorable part of the entire weekend was the food.

But it may not be for the reasons you think.

We didn’t just have any food. We had Indian food.

I have been to several church planting conferences in my life. But none of them have ever served Indian food. And rightfully so. Indian food is not for the faint of heart, nor stomach. But Advance 2017 was different, not because of how the food tasted, but because of what the food represented. I sat at a table with people, most but not all of whom were brown, and had conversations about planting Gospel-centered churches among the smell of curry. We ate rice and naan with our hands. It wasn’t unusual to do so. It wasn’t labeled by people around me as ethnic, exotic, or foreign. It was normal, accepted, and almost unnoticeable to everyone there.

But why is this significant?

There aren’t many voices calling for South Asians to plant Gospel-centered multiethnic churches. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have an imagination for it. We see it as something for the majority culture to consider and catalyze. Therefore, when attending church planting conferences, it feels like we are stepping into someone else’s conversation. Their concerns, burdens, experiences, perspectives, metaphors, illustrations, breakouts, and of course, food. But at Advance 2017, it was not just a majority culture conversation anymore. It was clear that God was calling South Asians to join the conversation too. We were asking how to reach our cities, how to fight for justice, how to contend for racial reconciliation, how racism affects/infects us, how to cultivate a prophetic voice in this generation, and how to plant churches in our cities. And the fact that we had these conversations over Indian food signified that we, in no way, need to apologize nor concede being Indian in order to do so.

God has given us a seat at the table of the Kingdom. And the food is served spicy.