It’s a Southern thing

Preaching is done. The invitation has been given. Souls are fed. It’s time to eat.

Women slip out early to prepare rickety picnic tables under tall oak trees. Tablecloths cover the splinters. From one end to the other Pyrex dishes and Tubberware containers with names taped to the bottom are piled high with fried chicken, butter beans, turnip greens and squash. Casseroles have not yet been invented.

One section is reserved for potato salad, for every cook has her own special recipe. Some are made with mayo. Some with mustard. Some are good. Some should be left untouched.

At the end of the table are homemade pies and cakes. Store-bought desserts are not acceptable.

The preacher says the blessing — and it’s always long. Then the rush begins. Even as a kid, I learned to get in line early and often.

Childhood memories at a country church are almost as good as deviled eggs consumed by the dozen. Even now there’s something spiritual about dinner-on-the-ground. I always thought it was a Baptist thing, but Dr. Mike Stevens tells me it’s a southern thing.

Dr. Mike is an expert on such Biblical matters. He likes to preach and likes to eat, so when the First Baptist Church of Columbus invited folks to Sunday dinner today I called on Dr. Mike to explain the tradition.

“It’s the idea that if you feed them they will come,” he said. “We used to call them Homecoming Services. It was a way of getting folks who had gotten mad to come back. You also had people who didn’t go to church. They watched the paper for Homecoming ads and came to eat. I had folks tell me this was the fourth Homecoming meal they’ve had this month.”

Pastors eat first and Dr. Mike said they have to be careful about their sermons. “You’ve never heard a sermon against gluttony on a Sunday when there’s dinner-on-the-ground, have you?”

In small churches preachers get caught in congregational conflicts. “Women come up and say, you got to try my pound cake. It’s better than hers.”

These sacred Sunday moments must be preserved. For dinner-on-the-grounds isn’t about cold chicken or lumpy mashed potatoes. It’s about the love found in every helping.

And the cream corn ain’t bad either.

This story was originally published April 23, 2016 at 9:31 PM with the headline "It’s a Southern thing."