When I started my ministry at BMPC more than five years ago, I wondered about what motivated church members to gather for pancakes on Thanksgiving morning. I found myself asking, “pancakes on Thanksgiving?” However, it didn’t take me long to see what makes this morning so special.
Each year, extended family is invited to the church, college students reconnect, and people even walk in off Montgomery Avenue. It is a festive, friendly, and faith-filled atmosphere. As one church member tells me every year, “This breakfast is my favorite intergenerational event.”
On a personal level, the power of pancakes is so strong that for five years now my whole family has traveled from Florida and Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with us. The Pancake Breakfast has become a Smith family tradition. Having become regular fixtures at the breakfast, my family has experienced the joy and hospitality of our great church.
While it’s a busy season, I do my best to invite friends and other people I know to join us. In fact, the Pancake Breakfast is the perfect opportunity to extend an invitation to someone to take part in a joyful church activity. The power of pancakes is really the power of an invitation. Would you consider inviting a friend or neighbor to join us this year on Thanksgiving?
Ultimately, the real reason for our gathering on Thanksgiving is to give thanks for our shared faith and unity in Christ. In the midst of the polarizing climate in our nation, on Thanksgiving we will gather and invite all to join us as a symbol of hope for the future. As God proclaimed through the prophet Jeremiah, “For surely I know the plans I have for you… to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).
