West Africans are probably right. Mealtimes are not meant for talking, but for eating. If something needs to be said, it can wait until the meal is over. Had I followed such advice and talked less at the table, I would likely not have gotten myself in trouble. Let me explain.
It all began over lunch at an Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference ministers’ and elders’ meeting when someone asked me to summarize what I was discovering in my many church visits about the status of mission and outreach in the congregations of our district conference. That is when, instead of continuing to eat like I should have, I opened my mouth and commented that “it doesn’t take long when I visit a church to determine how important mission is to the life of the congregation.”
Some churches just “smell like missions,” I said, “and some don’t.”