The Work of the People: May 2009

The 100 Mile Challenge
We came across this wacky show called The 100 Mile Challenge. (www.100milediet.org). It's a show about 6 families trying to follow The 100 Mile Diet for 3 months. The 100 Mile Diet is pretty simple, you only eat food that's available within a 100 mile radius of where you live. Turns out eating locally grown food is healthy, economically sustainable and supporting local producers and sellers is socially beneficial. It seemed like a wonderfully rich metaphor for some things the church might be thinking about. Let us explain....

It Was Really Hard.
The first thing you notice is the families are living very counter culturally.

It was a completely different value system. The culture at large, "the world," was living by one value system: convenience, efficiency, variety so as much choice as possible is a good thing. The six families, their own little "kingdom," lived by a different value system: local is important, so a self imposed limit on choice is a good thing.

They were doing it for themselves, but in a way they were doing it for everyone. They believed their counter cultural choice would, if even in a small way, move everyone toward economic sustainability and social benefits. At the same time they were modelling this way of doing things they believed would move everyone toward economic sustainability and social benefits.

They Had To Be Creative To Do It.
Here's the thing that I really noticed. In the end, the show's organizers were amazed at the level of creativity of "ordinary" people. The families didn't just get by with crappy stuff. They made really good stuff. They came up with amazing recipes with what was at hand. They created amazing ways to live counter culturally. All of the amazing creative stuff only made sense locally. None of their recipes would work in Boise, or Winnipeg because the same stuff isn't available in Boise or Winnipeg.

The Church And Local.
-If church is people, church is local. We live counter culturally in place and time. So, what churches do only makes sense locally.

-The idea behind the diet is simple enough for children to understand.

-Living it out is hard and complicated.

-The idea behind the diet, and stories coming from living the diet are great for digital dissemination.

-How to actually live the diet has to start local, and then be inspired by the global.

-Local recipes for "how to do church" are going to be different all across the country because what's available for cooking is different all across the country

-Superstar, speaking circuit pundits who claim to know THE recipe can't. They don't know my local ingredients or your local ingredients. They can talk about local eating in a general way, but they can't talk about specific local eating.

-Talking about the recipe isn't the same as actually cooking.

-Cooking isn't the same as eating.

-Sharing local recipes is important for people living counter culturally. It helps them eat, and it is encouraging.

-Church seems like a lot of predetermined recipes coming from "professionals."

-Church doesn't seem interested in finding or developing new recipes.

-Church seems to think if avocados from California are available, then we might as well use them.

-Church doesn't seem willing or able to critically assess whether a particular diet is sustainable and good for everyone, including the people not following the diet.

-Church seems to ignore local produce.

-Church seems very interested in talking about recipes, or why our recipe is a good one, or why people should try our recipe.

-It is difficult to share vulnerable stories around the difficulty of home cooking, stories around actually making stuff. Particular stories around the particular act of cooking and eating here and now, in this place.

-Church doesn't seem very interested in everyday cooking and eating. It seems inordinately preoccupied with One Big Meal, which means it's inordinately preoccupied with the logistics of the One Big Meal, paying for the One Big Meal, finding professional recipes for the One Big Meal.

-It's difficult to share counter cultural recipes in church.

-It seems like maybe a lot of people in church aren't really living counter culturally, because if they were they'd be desperate to find ways to share recipes.

-Maybe they are living counter culturally, just not in church.

-Church only seems interested in eating from a very limited menu, in clearly prescribed ways. Meat and potatoes.

-What about Chinese food? and Cambodian food? and cooking over a fire? and eating with your fingers?

-Church seems to prefer using "successful" recipes from somewhere far away, from "important" or "successful" makers of recipes, even though we might not have the same produce available, or we might incur all kinds of invisible costs by using imported recipes and produce.

-A recipe that a lot of people have tried, i.e. it's "successful," doesn't mean it's healthy, or even good.

-It seems like the diet—as a concept, an entity, a thing—is more important than eating; rather than eating being the point of the diet.

-It seems like church has constant meetings about The Diet; rather than helping each other eat counter culturally.

The Church Within Culture At Large.
-Church shouldn't be a battle of recipes. "Our recipe (Christianity) is better than your recipe (agnosticism) It should be about eating with our neighbours.

-Neighbors usually prefer being invited to home cooked meals rather than tag along to a fast food outlet.

-Neighbors might be willing to try your wacky local produce diet, if it tastes good, like you say it does.