About Us

The Open Table

This is the table, not of the church, but of our Lord Jesus. He invites any who would come – to fellowship with Him and with one another in the bond of unity and peace. Therefore we will love one another as God has first loved us. Together we will bear witness that the kingdom of God is among us and it’s only law is Love.

Some things we believe …

We may believe many things, but these are a few that are central to our identity and how we seek to live our lives in the here and now:

We see glimpses of God everywhere, but we believe that we have seen God most clearly and personally in Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, we seek to know and follow him. (He lived a real life, died an actual death, but was somehow raised up to live again forever. We don’t understand how it all works, but we believe he is both the embodiment of the true God and also a human being like us.)

God is like Jesus.

God has always been like Jesus.

There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.

We have not always known what God is like—

But now we do.

Brian Zahnd

We believe that anyone can come to Jesus as they are – right here, right now, as-is. He turns no one away. (His table is always open and available to any who would come. We don’t get to decide who that is and so we will turn no one away who comes honestly seeking him.)

We believe that there is no difference that can separate us from either God or from each other. (We may walk out on God and walk out on each other, but God will never walk out on us. Therefore, we work hard at laying our opinions and other issues aside because we believe that which we have in common is greater than anything else. We are all the children of God. Issues of politics, ethnicity, gender or anything that would make a person “other” has no place before our Lord’s open table.)

We believe that everything that is truly spiritual is also inherently relational. (We don’t know how it all works, but what many call “sin” we see as a kind of relational disease that tears apart the connections between our self, God, and other people. We can see the full consequences of this in the myriad of problems in the world all around us. Therefore, we seek to avoid fruitless discussions about theoretical issues and abstract morality that is separated from the real people that are right around us at the Lord’s open table as it uncenters us from our shared fellowship and communion in Christ. We also seek to better understand how to let God show us where we need healing in all of our relational connections and focus on mending these.)

We believe that God is perfect Love. Thus, we have only one rule for gathering together at an open table with Jesus – love God and one another whole-heartedly. (We know that this will always be harder than we think, but that we are called to have the same attitude in us that was in our Lord Jesus who laid down everything to restore our identity as the children of God. We commit to working hard at believing this about ourselves and about other people.)

We believe that the greatest example of perfect Love was shown by God, through the Lord Jesus, on the Cross. (Again, we don’t understand how everything works, but somehow by putting our trust in this counterintuitive pattern of surrender, death and resurrection by God we are being perfected in divine Love and share in the same perfect union of Love that the Triune God has enjoyed for eternity. It’s meant to change our lives now and also begin preparing us for an eternity together.)

Therefore, we believe that true and perfect Love is cruciform – a self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love for all. (We will seek to overcome all things with a cross-shaped, Christ-like love and through a simple trust in the God that will bring dead things back to life. This is our hope in both a power that can set individuals free from the destructive patterns of this world, and also transform the space around us into a little pocket of God’s beautiful kingdom. We will only overcome Evil with Good, Fear with Peace, Hate with Love.)

We agree with the Apostle’s Creed …

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.