Could a Plant Sale Count as Worship?

After church on Sunday, we had several people show up looking for our plant sale that had been rescheduled.  I started thinking about what we mean when we say "church," when we say "worship."  My Lutheran tradition (ELCA) would say that worship needs to include word and sacrament--but wait, does it?  I think of the churches that only do communion on the first Sunday of the month or even less.  I don't want to discuss sacraments in this post.  But I do want to think about expanding our view of worship and what the church does.

I know that I might first talk about worship and the purpose of worship.  When I say worship here, I'm talking about how we show appreciation to God.  I'm also thinking of how worship forms and shapes the worshipper--how we become the people of God.

The people who showed up to buy plants at the church may have just been looking for a good deal on milkweed or looking to buy milkweed from a closer location than the nurseries further west.  So perhaps they weren't looking to show appreciation for God or to be shaped as people of God.  Some of that might happen non-verbally, even if they aren't aware.  Creating a plant sale, on the other hand, does show appreciation of God's creation and does shape us as people of God.

Similarly, people who come to our food and clothing pantry aren't necessarily there to show appreciation for God or to be formed as people of God.  But offering this food and clothing pantry does shape us as people of God and caring for God's people in this way does shape us.

I could go on and on this way.  I know that larger church bodies tend not to count these numbers when parishes report attendance at worship.  I know that these numbers might be counted elsewhere.  I do wonder what happens when there's more participation in these other activities than the Sunday services.

We may be in a world where we are about to find out.

And as we do, I will be on the lookout for whether or not we can infuse those other activities with some of the more traditional worship elements.  If the plant sale included brunch, could we call that a sacrament?  If we did a brunch and plant sale at regular times each month, would that count as worship?