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  Mark 9:33 am on May 12, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Table Questions 

  One of my favorite habits we have in our house church is “Table Questions.”

  It isn’t anything super formal.  We gather in the evening time each week, and begin by sharing a meal.  We share, laugh, pass the potatoes, and catch up on each other’s lives and missions.  It feels like a family reunion of sorts.

  And then, before finishing up our meal and moving on to a time of prayer and worship, someone shares a specific question at the table that helps guide the conversation into a time of discovery, worship and common reflection.

  Table Questions are something you can do in your missional communities, house churches, small groups, or simply your family’s dinner each evening.  It is reminiscent of Jewish practices, where a question is asked at table and there is dialogue and learning – both for the children and adults.  This is where family learning happens!

  The table is a place of safety, a place of unity, a place for partaking in food and each other.

  To be honest, Table Questions, not carefully thought through before asking them, can lead to disaster.  Allow the potentially divisive question to wait for another time - Table Questions draws people out, it doesn’t recoil them into hiding.  It offers a simple starting place for each person to contribute no matter their faith maturity or intelligence, which will help them find their voice later in the evening as you all share in a “worship potluck” (1 Cor 14:26).

  Pass around the responsibility of Table Questions to new leaders in your community.  Give lots of people the chance of fascilitating meaningful conversation.  Even non-believers in your gatherings can lead this!  It gives all a sense of ownership, and helps the group cultivate new leaders for new churches not-yet-planted around other kitchen tables!

  How to ask a Table Question that leads to life:

  • Understandable. Think about the specific words to use.  Say the question once, and say it succinctly.  Make it easy to understand, and folks will be happy to answer.
  • Perspectives. Ask questions that point not to hard truths, but to one’s experience.  For example, don’t ask a question starting with, “Is it right to…” but instead, try, “When have you ever experienced…”
  • Value-Driven. Draw on questions that might lead to values your community holds.  For instance, ask, “What does love look like in your life?”
  • Collaborative Questions. Avoid trial matters.  Avoid doctrinal matters.  Avoid political positions.  Again, these things can wait for another time, perhaps later in the evening, or at another gathering all-together.  The aim here is to cultivate collaboration, not competition.
  • Have Fun. Give people opportunities to tell their own story.  Ask them to share favorite memories, challenging circumstances, and more from their own life.  Keep a playful spirit about you.  And always give people the chance to ‘pass.’

  Great ways to start a Table Question:

  • “When have you ever…”
  • “How might we…”
  • “In your experience, what does ______ look like?”
  • “If you could say one thing to someone else in the room that would build them up, what would you say?”

  The table is a sacred space for humans.  It is where our LORD waits for us – a great banquet table.  I am sure there will be many questions asked at that table (mostly, us asking God all those BIG questions we have for him…), imagine your Table Questions as an echo to that banquet feast coming soon in Heaven!

  

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    Sean Durbin 4:05 pm on May 12, 2011 Permalink

    I LOVE table questions!

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  Mark 7:24 am on April 21, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Not Complex, Just Difficult 

  A friend of mine recently mentioned,

  “The solutions to the biggest problems in life will not be complex, only difficult.”

  This is SO true.

  When we look at the brokenness of our world, from the savage violence in Libya to a father abandoning his family to cling to his drink, you get the sense that things are very, very wicked – and turning this burning ship around will require more than well-crafted policies or enticing tax incentives.

  There is no law that will make me love my neighbor as myself.  There is no external motivation that brings me to my knees in prayer.

  We have been trying to end poverty, war, hunger, homelessness, spousal abuse, gang-violence…well, the list goes on and on.  The evening news shows begins each night with “Good evening…” then tells you all the reasons in the world why it isn’t!

  But that’s not the end of the story –

  The solutions to the world’s biggest problems…to the biggest problems in your own life… are not complex rules or well-managed institutions…no, they are quite simple…they are just difficult.

  It is not a matter of the head figuring out the solutions – it is now down to a matter of the heart.

  Can we trust our neighbor?

  Can we love them?

  Can we forgive them…and ourselves?

  Can we love our family as God loves them?

  Can we offer troubled youth a place in our family before they are sucked into the vortex of a gang?

  Can we rend ourselves of our wealth so that urban food deserts disappear?

  When Jesus quoted, “There will always be poor among you,”  he was hoping that his disciples would be convicted by what was obviously an ironic and tragic reference to Deuteronomy 15:4-11, The text begins: “There should be no poor among you…” Is Jesus misquoting Scripture?  Is he confused?  No – he’s making a point; that the end of poverty comes not with well-crafted laws of tithing, but by overcoming one’s self-centered selfishness.  ”There will always be poor among you,” was a rebuke of the disciples.

  “Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” (Deut. 15:11)

  Did a command do the job? Did that verse end poverty at the stroke of a pen (or chisel as it were)?  No – there were plenty of people in Jesus’ day that were poor – thousands of years after the Law of Moses was written.

  Jesus knew this problem, like so many others in his world, and in our world today – can only come from overcoming the most difficult hurdle in the world — the human heart.

  

  Jay is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Jay 5:14 am on April 22, 2011 Permalink

    Life would be easier if I could disagree with you.
    The comfortable interpretation that says — since they will always be there what’s the rush, why bother, nothing can really be done about it, Jesus said so — just doesn’t cut it. If he was rebuking his poor disciples, what would he say to us with our opulence?

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  Mark 11:12 am on April 3, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Things We all Know 

  Babies are amazing.  They teach us so much about our relationship with God.

  Take for instance, the bonding between a new-born infant and her mother.  A new born’s eyes are not fully developed when they’re first born; they can only see clearly about 12 inches away – everything else is blurry.  Interestingly, that is the distance an infant is away from her mother during breastfeeding.  There is an eye-to-eye connection - a deep love with the one person she can see clearly. This, combined with rooting, an instinct that connects the baby with the one person who can provide for her. Sounds a lot like prayer! Sounds a lot like what God wants for us in our intimate relationship with him, yes?

  It gets even more interesting.

  Babies, within just an hour from birth, already have latent in them the ability to walk. YES – walk.  Hold them up and lightly brush their feet across a flat surface, and they’ll begin to stride forward.  (Funny, they lose the ability to make this movement at about 6 months because of weight and muscle development, but if you half-submerge them in water, they’ll walk just the same.)  We are born as the only bi-pedal mammals; making us much more efficient for long journeys.  God created our bodies for a journey. Our movements are always moving us forward (our knees don’t bend sideways or backwards).

  Mission…journey…intimacy…these things are built right into the fabric of what it means to be human.

  God created us to find him.  We are specifically designed from Day 1 to give us as many chances to connect as possible.  ”Seek the Lord while he can be found.” Isaiah 55:6

  And for those of us who are no longer able to claim the “new born” restaurant discount let this be a lesson for us.  May the instincts and impulses integrated into the fabric of a baby be our instincts with God. An infant, who know nothing of this strange new world he finds himself in – still knows the sound of his mother’s voice, knows who to trust, knows when to cry and who alone can silence his fears.  May this be a moment when we remember that “our feet were made for walking…” – and like a sheep after our shepherd, “…that’s just what they’ll do!”