This week, before our Wednesday Lenten service, I had the privilege of enjoying dinner with my congregation, family style in our basement fellowship hall, just as it was prescribed somewhere in the book of Leviticus, or one of those, that Lutherans shall do every Wednesday during Lent for eternity.

As I finished dishing up my plate — you know, because serving buffet-style from your kitchen window is also commanded! — my three confirmation students who were already seated, asked me to join them, an invitation I considered high praise from three young teenagers. How many times as an adult do you get invited to hang out with middle schoolers!

While we devoured delicious homemade scalloped potatoes and meatballs, we discussed the kids’ weeks at school, the upcoming tests they dreaded, and the changing of their after school activities seasons (basketball to softball, for instance), when two moms and a husband and wife also joined our table.

All three sets of parents’ children are grown and we don’t see them at the church very much nowadays, and so I was moved that they would join the table in the interest of conversing with these youngsters.

And let me tell you, when the other adults started asking the students questions about their lives, I saw the kids’ faces light up at the attention. So, it seems, I wasn’t the only one pleased with the development!

Several hours later, my imagination is still captured by the moment.

You could argue that the pastor is obligated to join youth for dinner when they ask him to.

But to have four other adults who have no direct relationship with the youths join us and eagerly engage in the conversation … well, that feels like the Holy Spirit at work to me!

Amidst the larger debate about the relevance of church, defined as both what takes place in a physical, four-walled gathering place and also the act of experiencing spiritually inspired, human-to-human fellowship, I think it’s small moments like this dinner conversation that are lost on those who never have attended church, or those who no longer see a need to.

Oh, yes, there are plenty of other “third spaces,” public spaces where you don’t necessarily control who you’re surrounded by, that aren’t religious facilities. But I can’t quite put a finger on another public gathering that is as uniquely centered on a gathering of people who are personally investing their time and attention in their neighbor in celebration of their shared place in the fabric of creation.

The constant drumbeat of news that reminds us of the dangers of our social isolation, and the many various data sets that demonstrate just how disconnected from each other we are, should convince us that small holy moments such as the time spent with our church’s teenagers this week, just might be the best argument to someone finding a faith community to call home. … Amen.

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of Churches United in Moorhead, Minn., and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.