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Real God, Messy People, Changed lives.
New expression of church
Imagine, church around a table.
Every community needs a time and place to come together. This is especially true during these challenging times. What better way to do this than with warm food around tables in friendship, laughter and connectedness? Imagine, church around a table!
Red Door wants to invite our neighbors – of all ages, ethnicities, and lifestyles – to our table. This is a chance to gather in community with the rich mosaic-like diversity that Sioux Falls is known for. The table gathering is a unique way to use a meal to engage those in our community who are unreached, exiled and disconnected.
At the table gathering we share a bountiful meal together. Everyone is welcome. No one is excluded. We will take time to know and hear from one another. The meal will lead us into a time to hear a bible story. The story allows for conversations and discussion around the table. This gives space for doubts, questions and revelations. We end our time with prayer and ministry for anyone in need.
We have two designs for the table gathering. First, we want to build friendships around a table with warm food and laughter. Second, we take time to encourage and equip the soul by retelling a story of Jesus and offering prayer and ministry for those who need it.
Jesus did a lot of his ministry around a table. Jesus often used meals to engage with people and teach important lessons.
For example:
Dining with an enemy — Luke 5:27-32
The uninvited guest — Luke 7:36-50
Feeding the crowds — Luke 9:10-17
A meal with friends — Luke 10:38-42
Dining with a sinner — Luke 19:1-10
A new way to gather - Luke 22:14-38
Discipleship over a meal — Luke 24:28-32
The table throughout history has been an instrumental tool in bringing people together. It has far more history and significance than most of us think. In the scriptures we see this demonstrated through a practice called the Agape Feast or the Love feast.
The Agape Feast - a simple, ritual meal in the context of which hymns are sung, Scripture is read, and testimonies and stories of faith are shared. These early church meals symbolized the unity of fellowship in the love of Christ which the saints at rest will share.
The Agape feast was a meal shared around a table that united and joined one another.
Acts 20:7 “On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.”
Romans 16:3-4 “Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home.”
“The early Christians did their best to live as an extended family, caring for each other in the way in which (in that world) extended families did. They called each other “brother” and “sister” and really meant it. They lived and prayed and thought like that: children of the same father, following the same older brother, sharing goods and resources where need arose. When they talked about “love,” that’s the main thing they meant: living as a single family, a mutually supporting community.” - N.T. Wright
The table is a visual representation of a Christ’s invitation to belong. We see the church as the family of God. A family we belong to. Despite our differences, background or past when we belong to Christ we are now family. Red Door wants to become a church family that reaches and connects with the churchless, providing a place of refuge and opportunities to know, belong, grow and love Jesus.
Matthew 9:35-38 “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Jesus entered our world, not as a spectator or an advisor, but he fully immersed himself. He became one of us, he walked our streets, ate at our tables, entered our homes, enjoyed parties and suffered pain and loss. He set an example. He saw the crowds, and his heart broke and he had compassion because they were sheep without a shepherd.
Studies have revealed that there are 43%- 51% of people in the USA who are not connected to a church family. The number of churchless adults in the United States has increased by more than 30% in the past decade. Sioux Falls is ranked 33rd in the nation with a 47% post christian culture.
The categories of “nones” and “dones” (Pew Research Center, US) and “unchurched” and “dechurched” make it clear that the renewal of the church won’t occur as we add new and different worship services or develop clever advertising campaigns to attract outsiders. The church must re-adjust and adapt to the current culture. In the past 30 years the church has had “Home Field Advantage” however we no longer live in Christendom. We can’t expect those outside the church to come inside the church.
We see the church engaged in a rescue mission.
The Bible tells us Jesus’ mission was to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus has now commissioned us to join Him on this rescue mission. With the current state of culture and the increase of those disconnected from church we feel it's time for a new expression of the church. We see the Red Door table gathering as a way to take the church Jesus loves closer to where people Jesus loves actually are.
In 2020 we will launch 2 Table Gatherings in Sioux Falls. This Red Door Table gathering will gather weekly around the table, enjoy a meal, conversation and opportunities to minister to those in need. We see this expression as a new way to gather struggling families, individuals, and those exiled within our city.
Taking this past year of experience through our missional LifeGroups and monthly meals at Minnesota apartments and Compassion House we see this table gathering as the progression and next steps for Red Door in reaching messy people. God is calling us to connect with increasingly large numbers of persons outside the church. Will you join us? No one should do life alone.