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 friends. Whether the ground outside your window is covered in snow or mud, 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. What a gift it was to be together. 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 and creating opportunities where everyone can belong and we can be nourished and nourish others matters deeply for the journey ahead.
On November 4th, we welcomed a room of 100 people with so many new faces, so many young faces, all curious, hopeful, and asking the same questions we are. We shared official updates and heard from the Governance and Theology working groups. We did what we always hope to do when we're together: we prayed, we sang, and we broke bread together. And we kept dreaming together about what The Good Table already is and where we as a collective sense we should go. Woven through all of it is a continued desire to move at the speed of trust, and to heed the call from Canadian Indigenous theologians who have been present in this community to not rush ahead of the Spirit. This is the good way we want to continue to follow.
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, as best we can today, 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 and 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 three 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 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 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.
Online information sessions
Not everyone can make it to an in-person gathering, and we don't want distance to be a barrier. We're planning a series of Zoom evenings and daytime sessions across Canada where you can hear from the team, ask your questions, and discern whether this is something you'd like to be part of. Dates and details are coming soon, stay tuned.
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 exploring youth camp opportunities 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 something 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. Reach out to elle@thegoodtable.ca.
A Youth Pastor/Leader Network is Forming
Youth pastors and youth leaders so often do some of the most important work in our faith communities, and some of the most invisible. You show up week after week for young people and we want you to know how grateful we are! Alongside the camps, we're dreaming of a youth pastor and leader network rooted in The Good Table's values, one that connects youth leaders across traditions and provinces, nurtures your faith, strengthens your leadership, and gives you a genuine sense of belonging. This is early days, and we want to build it together with you, not for you.
If you are a youth pastor or leader who is part of The Good Table or is 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 know. Reach out to elle@thegoodtable.ca.
How Can We Help? How Can You Help?
As we continue to carry your stories, your communities, and your ministries with us, we always want to ask: is there something we could be doing that would serve you better?
The majority of this work has been all volunteer, built slowly and carefully by people who believe in what we're making together. If something is missing for you, if there's a need unmet or a gift you'd like to offer, whether that's your time, your voice, your expertise, or your financial support, we want to hear from you! This good table community is only as good as what we build together as we follow Jesus, and your input genuinely shapes what comes next.
If something stirs in you as you read this, don't let it pass quietly. Reach out. We want to hear from you!
We are making this road by walking together. There is no Good Table without the people gathered around it, and we do not take that lightly. It is a genuine honour to do this kin-dom work together 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.