The Deconstruction of Hospitality

I've been reading Eugene Peterson while I'm in Holland, and in the section of the book that's currently provoking me is regarding the spiritual life...and how sitting down to a meal with other believers is a "lost art" of sorts.

From Peterson:

"It's striking how much of Jesus life is told in settings defined by meals...

Daily meals with family, friends, and guests, acts of hospitality every one, are the most natural and frequent settings for working out the personal and social implications of salvation.

But there is a problem. The practice of hospitality has fallen on bad times. Fewer and fewer families sit down to a meal together...

...meals take time, meals are inefficient, meals are not 'productive.' And so meals are streamlined, made efficient, individualized--the presonal and relational and communal are abbreviated as much as possible. The fast and encompassing 'culture of the table'(Borgmann's phrase) is pushed to the sidelines."

So, without sounding like a high school quiz: Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? Is this a bad thing? Can community take place in other meaningful ways? How would meals enhance the spiritual walk? Did you sit with your family for meals? What were the benefits or drawbacks to that? Ready...

...and begin.