Volunteers go from station to station to pack emergency food boxes at Silver Spring Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsburg, PA, as part of the congregation’s Meal with a Mission.
Like many congregations, Silver Spring Presbyterian Church in Mechanicsburg enjoys gathering around the table. The fellowship that comes from that time together sharing a meal is vital to the relationships within the congregation. Outreach ministries to serve those outside the congregation is also an important part of the congregation’s DNA.
Knowing how important these ministries are to the church’s mission, the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig and his session are always looking for new ways to expand them. And when church elder Scott Pepperman heard of a “dinner church” idea that combined food and a teaching moment into one event, the church’s leaders had to try to find a way to create something that included those two elements.
“We were looking for ways to reach outside of the church with our programs,” Don recalled. “Our Membership Committee decided that we would adapt that. We would make it more of a combined hospitality and mission effort for folks to try to engage the people in the community who may or may not be interested in a worship service here.”
What spawned from the idea is a new outreach ministry called a “Meal with a Mission.” This gathering, which is open to church attendees as well as anyone in the community, consists of a free dinner followed by a hands-on service project that involves coming together to assemble items that will help local non-profit organizations serve their clients. Things like packing school activity kits for at-risk children and filling clothing boxes for those experiencing homelessness are some of the ways that the Meal with a Mission outreach ministry fulfills the congregation’s mission to love and serve others in the name of Jesus Christ.
“Our congregation loves to eat together,” Don said. “I’ve never been a part of a congregation that enjoys each other’s company and fellowship over a home-cooked meal – like a potluck supper, if you will – more than this one. They’re also very good at mission.
“To get to merge those two things, it’s the holistic connection of faith and fellowship overflowing into mission. And you’re doing it all together, and that to me is a really powerful way of not just engaging the congregation but inviting the community to become part of it, as well.”
Silver Spring Church pastor Don Wahlig chats with local high school Key Club members at the church’s Meal with a Mission outreach in November of 2025.
Silver Spring Church’s first Meal with a Mission occurred in 2024 following a successful Trunk or Treat Halloween event that brought 200 people from the community to the church’s campus. Following that October gathering, Don and other church leaders wondered how they could keep the momentum going from that outreach. They went back to the “dinner church” concept and held a dinner that was followed by a meal-packing event benefiting a local food bank that was experiencing overwhelming demand.
“We didn’t really know what to expect,” Don said, referring to that initial gathering. “There were so many logistics that were brand new for us to figure out – how much food, how many people would come?
“We set the date of the event just before Thanksgiving with the hope that whatever was donated and however many of those meal kits we assembled, that we would then be able to take them over to New Hope Ministries the very next day.”
Around 100 people turned out, 10 percent of whom were from outside Silver Spring Church, and Don and the session knew they had something they could build on.
“From the beginning, it’s been an intentional outreach beyond the church walls to try to engage folks in the community in the mission work that we do,” Don said. “It was a success.”
The church collected about a thousand pounds of food for that initial Meal with a Mission, which was packed into roughly 100 emergency meal boxes for New Hope Ministries. When the kits were delivered the following day, it coincided with New Hope’s weekly distribution day, and cars were lined up around the block waiting to receive these meal boxes.
“It was amazing,” Don recalled. “So many people are food insecure, and I was stunned. We all were. They were really grateful, and we were really happy that it had gone as well as it did.
“Then we decided we should do more of these. This seems like something that works. It’s certainly in line with our core values of hospitality and mission.”
Three more Meals with a Mission were held in 2025, and the fifth edition is scheduled for Feb. 25, 2026. All have had different beneficiaries and have increased in their impact from the previous one.
Emergency cleanup kits for Mission Central, clothing boxes for homeless men and women that went to the Downtown Daily Bread shelter in Harrisburg and another food collection for New Hope that more than doubled the previous year’s output were prepared last year following meals at Silver Spring Church. The third outreach included participation from the local school district’s Key Club, who sent students to the church to assist with the packing of the food.
“We believe that as you live out the command to love those whom Jesus called least and the lost, that you will inevitably attract folks from around who are not necessarily familiar with you to become part of it,” Don said.
Those who attend Silver Spring Church are the ones being asked to donate the items for these outreaches, something that is very intentional on the part of the Meal with a Mission organizers.
“We really wanted to make sure that our folks, our members, were actively engaged in this this,” he said. “We asked them to donate all of the items for all of these. People are donating. Our congregation is so generous. They’re wonderful. We put bins out, we put a list of items that are needed and they fill them. That’s how they’re engaged.
A large number of volunteers helped pack 91 food boxes at Silver Spring Church at its November Meal with a Mission outreach ministry.
“They enjoy the fellowship and then they all line up to assemble the kits. There’s a real buzz in the room. I think that’s the Holy Spirit at work. It’s a wonderful way of expressing faith through fellowship and hands-on outreach.”
Mission Central will again be the focus of the Meal with a Mission in February 2026, but it will have a twist from what was done last year. This time, school activity kits will be assembled, with as many as 25,000 students locally, regionally and as far away as Africa receiving the boxes.
Like in 2025, the goal is to do three Meals with a Mission this year. With the way the congregation at Silver Spring Church has stepped up, Don feels continuing this annual pattern won’t be a problem.
“This congregation is as faithful a congregation and as friendly and mission-oriented a congregation as any that I have served, maybe more,” said Don, who’s in his fourth call. “It’s in their DNA. It is in their collective cultural memory that goes back generations. We’ve always been active with regard to mission, and we’ve always been strong with fellowship.
“This seems so natural to them, and they respond. That is just so great to see. I’m very proud of them.”
These positive feelings extend beyond the congregation as well.
“We prayed that this would be something that would be faithful in God’s eyes and that God would multiply our efforts, and sure enough that is exactly what has happened,” Don said. “God has for sure blessed us as a congregation, blessed those who are a part of these efforts from outside the congregation and blessed those folks who are on the receiving end of the effort of generous love and an outpouring of faithfulness on behalf of the congregation.
“We’ve just been floored by the way God has responded to our faithfulness by multiplying the joy that we feel in conducting this ministry.”