Ranges Community Church

I regularly read Jonny Baker’s blog, mostly concerned with “alternative worship”. Today in my RSS reader I found a link from his blog to Melbourne based blogger “Cheryl” who has posted an interesting discussion held over fruit toast concerning tables. The post ponders the often awkward relationship between what happens in church and alternative communities in, er… the community. As in, outside church walls. What follows is a rather thought-provoking consideration of Jesus at the table - we see clear examples in the gospels where Jesus is at the table with his disciples. But we also see many examples where Jesus is again at ‘the table’, but with a range of people other than his disciples. It would seem that the disciples are not there, perhaps not even invited, writes Cheryl. Cheryl poses that there is no ‘one table’ around which all should be gathered.

from her post:

Interestingly, there’s not a lot of evidence in the gospels that the people around those tables wanted a seat at the disciples’ table - the main event, as such. Which makes it interesting, then, that most conversation about inclusion [and about new forms of Christian community] involves making sure there’s space for everyone at the disciples’ table - the presupposition being that there is only the one table around which everyone should sit.

I do think our attempts to be inclusive as Christians tend to be centred on making people feel welcome at the one table, the ‘disciples table’ as Cheryl calls it. This is because we see it as the main event. Dropping the metaphor for a bit, Sunday is mostly seen as the main event, whether we like to think so or not. Sunday is often where we “serve”, and for those in leadership, preparing for it takes up most of our “ministry time”. If someone asks us how church is going, how do we answer? We usually think about “Sunday”. I am challenged by the language of other tables. Tables in our friend’s homes. Picnic tables. The grotty little table in the pub. The tea room at work. The possibilities are endless.