As one of 15 church plants supported by Acts 29 West for 2018, they put together a pretty incredible video that tells a bit of our story, who we are, and how God is working in/through our young church plant to be "the flourishing presence of Jesus in every sphere of life!"
As a church plant, we've come a very long way in our first year. Seemingly overnight, we've gone from a fledgling community of 20 families to a church of over 150 people who consider this community their home. Through countless conversations and opportunities to live out our vision to "savor and share the Life of Jesus in every person, place, and thing," we've realized that this vision is... lacking. Sure, it sounds decent and accurately describes much of what we're about, but it isn't quite connecting to the ethos or heart of the passion we have for our broader community (or our church community, specifically).
As many of you have experienced, hospitality is a bedrock value at The Table. This is far more than just inviting people into our home for a meal. It is a lifestyle of relational generosity and self-giving love for those who are most different from us… To adapt Community Groups to cooperate with what God is doing in/through The Table, this fall Community Groups will be growing into Table Neighborhoods.
On July 17th, 2016 we tried something risky and unheard of: we hosted and facilitated a robust conversation between two people with wildly divergent ways of seeing the world. Part of the vision for The Table is to be a community where "you don't have to believe in order to belong," and our good friend Chris Eastment joined us to talk about how he (as an atheist) shares that same vision... for a church.
