WHY “THE TABLE?”

Things are just not the way they’re supposed to be. No matter what we believe or how we express it, we are all intuitively aware of this reality. We seek meaning, purpose and life in a thousand different places, in a thousand different ways…  We hunger for more. The Denver-Boulder corridor has exploded in growth with people moving here in search of exactly that meaning. While we may get a taste of what we crave, it is a brief and fleeting one that often only serves to increase our hunger rather than satisfy it. 

Hoping for the entrée, we barely get a free sample.

But what if our cravings and our deepest hungers aren’t the same thing? What if our cravings pointed to an even deeper longing than we thought?

Growing up, I (Brad) used to swing on a tire from a massive American Pin-oak in my mom’s backyard. When it started to die from a fungus, we cut it down, kiln-dried it over several months, and then cut the wood into planks to build the mother-of-all dining tables. The fungus left black lines (or “spalting”) that trace the curve of the wood grain, separating deep red hues from pale gold fields where the fungus caused discoloration. There’s a subtle but powerful irony that the same thing that caused this tree’s death also brought out a hidden beauty. Over the last several years, that table has been the constant host of quiet dinners and crazy parties. It has witnessed tears of celebration and sorrow, sighs of contentment and helplessness. It has been the setting of severe grief and loss, but also remarkable personal breakthroughs and reconciled marriages. 

In short, it has been the single greatest catalyst of flourishing in our home. 

The Table is a community where invitation is not contingent on our common beliefs, but on our common humanity. It is a place where the cost of admission has already been paid on your behalf by the Divine Host, Jesus. It is a broken-but-beloved family where we are not only free to ask hard questions, we are encouraged to do so because there are very real and satisfying answers. We don’t claim to be the solution to every problem or the hope of every longing, we claim only to know and follow the One who is. We are fellow guests at His Table, savoring and sharing the Life we’ve all longed for. It is our conviction and passion that a community shaped by that kind of Grace will unavoidably be “the flourishing presence of Jesus in every sphere of life.”