From the Table: News from The Good Table Community
Hello Friends,
We hope this winter season has been kind to you, your churches, your families, and your friends. Whether the ground outside your window is covered in snow or mud, or signs of new life are beginning to bud, we're showing up in your inbox with a handful of updates and hopefully a little sunshine.
As always, your names, churches, and communities are carried in our prayers. What the Spirit is weaving among us is slow, beautiful, and beyond what any of us imagined. We are honoured to walk this road together and create a new home together.
Celebrating the beautiful diversity of our growing map!
As of this month, 18 churches have now chosen to make a home at The Good Table, with 2 more in discernment. We are so grateful for the communities who have said yes! Each one carries its own story, its own hopes for something different and together we are walking a road none of us could walk alone. It is a deep joy to co-create together.
November Gathering Update
On November 3rd and 4th, 2025, those who could travel or who already called the area home gathered at Clarkson Community Church in Mississauga for two days of connection, storytelling, and dreaming. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their schedules to be present.
On November 3rd, 50 pastors and church leaders from different backgrounds and traditions sat together in a circle and shared their personal stories that brought them here, what they've grieved, what they've gained, and what they're hoping for. Building relationships where everyone truly belongs and where we nourish and are nourished by one another is the reason we gather, the heart of this community, and the work we are committed to.
On November 4th, we welcomed a room of 100 people, so many new faces, all curious, hopeful, and asking the same questions we are. We shared updates, heard from the Governance and Theology working groups, and did what we always hope to do when we're together: we prayed, we sang, and we broke bread. We kept dreaming about what The Good Table already is and where we sense we're being called to go, with a continued desire to move at the speed of trust and to heed the call from Canadian Indigenous theologians in this community to not rush ahead of the Spirit. This is the good way we want to continue to follow.
If you're in another province and longing for a gathering like this, know that it's on our hearts and in our plans. As churches join and interest grows, we want to come alongside what is already stirring in your local context and help cultivate space for it.
Governance Update: Shaping Our Future Together.
We are so grateful to Aaron Gerrard and the entire Governance Working Group for the care and wisdom they're bringing to this work, the fruit of over three years of deep listening to the Spirit, to pastors, lay leaders, and churches across Canada.
The image that has been especially helpful to the Governance Working Group has been the Tomato plant and the trellis.
The trellis doesn't create life, it supports it. A framework and foundation where life can grow, rather than a rigid cage that confines it. That's the spirit behind the structures and foundations being proposed: simple, minimal, adaptable, designed not to control but to serve the flourishing of churches, ministries, and Jesus followers already growing and bearing fruit in their local places within the Canadian context.
The Draft Policies they’ve created reflect this spirit, including a Code of Conduct rooted in our shared values and identity along with a Consensus Decision-Making Model that emphasizes prayer and discernment over majority voting. These are not meant to be bureaucratic documents. They are an attempt to put our values and identity into practice in the way we organize ourselves for mutual support.
Work is also underway on what local church and pastoral partnership/membership will look like, and what ordination and holy orders might mean in our Canadian context in 2026. These are theological, relational, and legal questions we are taking seriously and taking our time with, not wanting to get ahead of the national conversations still to come, or ahead of the Spirit in this moment of reimagining.
If you haven't yet filled out the Pastoral and Church Membership Survey, we'd warmly invite you to do so. Your experience, your story, and your voice are exactly what this process needs.
Theology Committee: Our Theological Starting Points
We are so grateful to Heather Morgan and Jon Coutts for leading this iteration of the Theology Working Group, a gifted, theologically diverse group from across Canada who has been engaged in the beautiful task of unearthing the gifts each tradition brings to The Good Table since the very beginning. If you have resonated with the language of our shared values or theological postures, it is because of the work of this incredible committee for the past four years! How fortunate we are to have minds and hearts of this calibre here in Canada gathered into this conversation.
The Theology Working Group presented something we're genuinely excited about: a set of Theological Starting Points for The Good Table and our work together here in Canada. Rooted in the Nicene Creed and the global, historical church, these postures capture the theological heartbeat of our community as we understand it today. They are not a rigid doctrinal statement; they are an open-handed, Spirit-led expression of who we are and what we hold together. We'd love for you to read them and let us know if they resonate with you! Download the PDF here!
Zoom Drop-Ins for Pastors and Leaders
Leadership, especially pastoral, can sometimes be an isolating path and we want to ensure that leaders across Canada feel held and cared for. We're launching a regular Zoom drop-in space specifically for pastors and ministry leaders who are part of The Good Table. This is an attempt to answer the request that many of you have made for new spaces for connections and relationships, that support the in-person local, regional and national connection points. Our collective hope is that these times are informal, unhurried spaces to check in, pray together, share what's alive in your community, ask questions, and simply be with others who get it. Dates and times are coming soon so keep an eye on your inbox.
Youth Camp in Southwestern Ontario
Something new and exciting is stirring, and so many of you have communicated this is a great need for you and your community. We're in the early stages of planning a youth camp opportunity in Southwestern Ontario, a space where young people can encounter the Jesus Way in an inclusive, life-giving, and joyful environment. We believe the next generation deserves experiences of faith marked by belonging, curiosity, love, and the sheer joy of a camp experience.
Our hope is to start in Southwestern Ontario and build a template that could serve as a model for other Good Table Hubs across Canada, partnering with existing camps wherever possible and only creating fresh where we have to. More details are taking shape and we can't wait to share them. If you're a pastor, leader, or parent who would love to see this happen, we'd love to hear from you.
A Youth Pastor/Leader Network is Forming
Youth pastors and youth leaders carry some of the most important and most invisible work in our faith communities. You show up week after week for young people, often without much fanfare, and we want you to know: we see you, and we are grateful.
Starting in April, we're launching a youth pastor and leader network rooted in The Good Table's values. A space to for youth pastors and leaders to connect across traditions and provinces, to be nourished in your own faith, to strengthen your leadership, and to simply know you are not alone in this work. This is early days and we want to build it with you, not for you.
If you are a youth pastor or leader who is part of The Good Table, or wondering if there's a place for you here, we want to hear from you. This table has room, and the work you are doing matters more than you may know.
Is There a Place for You Here?
Are you or your church wondering if The Good Table might be where you belong? Please don't hesitate to reach out. It is our honour to connect, answer questions, and share the journey so far. We would love to support you, your board, church council, or congregation. You are more than a name to us.
Nearly all of this work has been carried by volunteers who believe in what we're building. If you have something to offer, or something you need that you haven't found here yet, please don't hold back. This community belongs to all of us.
We are making this road by walking it together, and there is no Good Table without the people gathered around it. It is a genuine honour to do this kin-dom work with you, and we can't wait to see where God's grace and love takes us this year.
With love, grace, and peace,
Elle and the Board of The Good Table
An Additional Financial Update from the Board:
Giving Campaign: We Hit Our Goal Because of You!
As many of you know, we launched a matching gift campaign with the goal of raising up to $6,000 in matched donations by December 31st. We're so thrilled to share: we reached it! Every gift made before the deadline was matched in full, doubling the generosity of everyone who gave. If you gave, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
How are these funds being spent?
Your financial gifts make it possible to keep the lights on and the table set. These funds cover:
our website and email,
bookkeeping
contract admin staff (one day a week)
insurance
We're also so grateful that the donations that have been coming in have allowed us to consistently compensate Elle with a quarter-time salary over the last while. We all know she is pouring way more hours into The Good Table than quarter-time, and we would love to compensate her more appropriately as soon as we are able. Once we see our monthly donations increase consistently, we'd hope to bump her salary up to at least half-time as soon as possible. Your generous gifts will help us reach this goal!
Also, for anyone who made a donation in the 2025 tax year, you should have received your tax receipts this weekend. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and thank you for your generosity and support.
If you or your churches would like to support the ongoing work, you can donate any time at thegoodtable.ca/support-the-work via credit card, or by e-transfer to giving@thegoodtable.ca. As a registered Canadian charity, we can issue tax receipts.