WHY A CHURCH NAMED, “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 significance, meaning, and purpose in a thousand different places and a thousand different ways… The Denver-Boulder corridor has exploded in growth with people moving here in search of exactly that meaning but, all too often, we get only a brief and fleeting taste that only increases our hunger rather than satisfies it. 

But what if we’re never satisfied for long because our hunger points to an even deeper longing?

Growing up, I (Brad) used to swing on a tire from a massive oak tree in my mom’s backyard. When it got infected by a fungus and started dying, we cut it down, dried it in a kiln, and then cut the wood into planks to build the mother-of-all dining tables. The fungus left black lines (called “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 massive 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. 

Similarly, The Table is a community where invitation is not contingent on our deservedness, but on the unmerited grace of Jesus Christ. It is a place where he paid the cost of admission on your behalf. He is our Divine Host. Because of his sacrificial generosity and hospitality, he makes The Table into a broken-but-beloved family where we are not only free to ask hard questions, we are encouraged to do so. 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. In Christ, there are very real and satisfying answers to our longings, and his invitation is open to all. 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 “become the embodied hospitality of Jesus, for God’s glory and our neighbor’s good.”