ABOUT THE GOOD TABLE
Our Story
More like a holy accident: a seemingly unlikely cast of Jesus followers from disparate nooks and crannies of the Canadian landscape who said a broken and nervous “yes.”
Movements always have their origin stories. Usually the tale begins with one charismatic leader who saw a vision, or a hero who overcame an insurmountable feat, and as a result, a broader community caught the vision and coalesced around it.
The Good Table’s origin story is more like a holy accident, a seemingly unlikely cast of Jesus followers from disparate nooks and crannies of the Canadian landscape who said a broken and nervous “yes” and started setting a table no one else seemed willing to set.
2022
NOVEMBER
Holy Accidents
In November of 2022, an online Zoom meeting took place with pastors and friends, all facing disaffiliation from their denominations for their stance on the full inclusion of sexual minorities in their churches. The goal of that initial meeting was for folks to know one another, to know they weren’t alone, to pray for one another, to lament at all that was unfolding in their beloved denominations and traditions and to create mutual support for these pastors and their faith communities.
With such an overwhelming response, with both sadness and wonder, our Conveners began to ask if there were others having their own denominational wilderness experience and began to collect the names of pastors, churches and ministry leaders across the country.
Over four months, our Conveners hosted focus groups with dozens of pastors and ministry leaders. They also met with denominational leaders here in Canada and with similar groups forming in the United States, and had many more private conversations with camp directors, seminary professors, chaplains and others in ministry.
For every story shared, several others were nearly identical. It became evident that, regardless of theological tradition or denominational affiliation, there were commonalities in what the Spirit was doing in different Canadian contexts. A common theme emerged: pastors and church communities, given a choice, would have stayed in their denominations and associations, but that was no longer an option. These long-time faithful leaders were not disgruntled or angry but deeply grieved.
From rural to urban, east to west, the experience was almost repeatable. The “tip of the iceberg” for disaffiliation was the theological and practical inclusion of sexual minorities. However, the focus group data surfaced additional, widely held theological and discipleship tensions, including how we understand scripture, the person of Jesus, the role of women in ministry, love of neighbour, Christian nationalism, missional theology and even the gradual creep of fundamentalism.
For many Canadian evangelical denominations, a radical commitment to the centrality of Christ and the ability to differ on other matters was no longer sufficient for affiliation, licensing or credentials.
Something was changing.
Our Conveners heard many similarities in denominational processes and the outcomes of people’s experiences when attempting to raise these concerns within their denominations. By March 2023, this gathering community had heard from people in 15 evangelical or evangelical-adjacent denominations across Canada. They came from Baptist, Reformed, Wesleyan, Methodist, Holiness, Anabaptist, Pentecostal and Charismatic, and Brethren churches, along with several independent evangelical traditions.
A great curiosity began to emerge. Was something asking to be formed out of these communities and pastors? Were we just now waking up to the reality that the Spirit had already been at work, knitting together a community committed to following the Jesus path that would require a new home, a new table for fellowship and formation?
15
different denominational and theological traditions participated in our focus groups
150+
people invited into the Working Groups
500+
conversations with leaders across Canada
2023
SPRING · CRIEFF HILLS
Discernment
March 27-28, 2023, our Conveners scheduled two days of on-site discussion and collective discernment at Crieff Hills in Southern Ontario for anyone willing to pray and discern. Those gathered represented different provinces, settings, traditions, sexualities and ethnicities.
The discernment retreat gathering featured rich times of prayer and lament, where pastors and leaders held space for one another and for the ways the beloved Church in Canada has fallen short of its calling to bring blessing and flourishing to our cities and towns. There was a consensus that the Spirit was asking this group to step out in faith, trust and humility to continue listening, gathering and connecting. A rich and dynamic fellowship quickly emerged among the attendees, despite many only meeting for the first time.
It was an actual “It Has Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us” moment.
FROM THE FOCUS GROUPS
These are your words, hopes and dreams for the church in Canada.
Over two days, the group discussed the major themes from the Focus Groups and other conversations. These are the words and longings of fellow Jesus followers from across Canada. There is an urgent need for a new Canadian association/movement for those who are already or soon to be denominationally homeless, including:
Belonging and support
Belonging, community and care for individuals, pastors, leaders and church communities estranged from their previous denominations, movements or associations.
Spiritual commissioning, a reimagined ordination process and credentialing.
Administrative support for pensions, benefits, payroll, policy, etc.
Minimal and flexible structures that allow for shared power, mutual accountability, and space for God to disrupt and transform for the sake of his kindom among us.
A posture of radical grace and non-aggression towards previous traditions and organizations while pursuing Spirit-led justice and inclusion.
Opportunities for relevant co-learning, formation, discipleship, resilience building, and contextual resource sharing for pastors and leaders in 21st-century post-Christian Canada.
Encouragement and collegial support for churches that desire to be centred on Jesus and nurture the virtues of worship, discipleship, love of neighbour and radical hospitality.
New funding and governance models that can support existing communities and begin dreaming of starting new churches formed with the posture of the Good Table.
An emerging Canadian theological expression
A thick and integrated Jesus-centered, justice-minded, fully inclusive, egalitarian, and diverse (LGBTQ+ and BIPOC) theology.
Deep roots in scripture and the historic ‘Jesus Way’ gospel tradition of God’s self-giving love.
Ecumenical unity, respect and curiosity for the best in each theological tradition.
A value for Indigenous voices, a lament for how the church has harmed Indigenous peoples and a desire to have reconciliation and repentance at the foundation.
The desire to keep the mystery and presence of the Holy Spirit front and centre as God is an active agent and avoid calcification.
Mutuality and shared power
The need to learn from one another and create collaboratively across theological tradition.
The welcoming of diverse voices, which have typically been silenced in the church in Canada and the importance of meaningful roles for women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ leaders in the creation of new structures.
The importance of Indigenous reconciliation, taking seriously the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action for the church and decolonizing work in how leaders and pastors approach collaboration and the creation of new initiatives.
Acknowledgement of past and future mistakes. This collective will make mistakes and, therefore, will embody a humble posture to receive correction, repent, change course, and be forgiven.
2023
LATE SPRING TO FALL
Working Groups
After two more weeks of prayer and discernment, it was agreed to form working groups from across Canada to begin wrestling with the following topics:
Community Care
How can we care for those who are hurting and foster safety in the emerging network?
Theology
How can we articulate these values we sense God is bringing forward?
Governance
What structures and approaches could work to safeguard what the Spirit is birthing?
Over 150 individuals from the earlier rounds of conversations and Focus Groups, plus new conversation partners, were all invited to join any of these three Working Groups. The groups met online over Zoom multiple times beginning in the late spring of 2023 to share their research and findings in October. In many cases, these groups resulted in new local connections being made organically, with like-minded folks beginning to meet one another for meals, prayer, and fellowship.
2023
OCTOBER 14 · 22 WILLOW, WATERLOO
First Public Gathering
On October 14, 2023, the Good Table gathered for its first national gathering in-person and online, for anyone who had expressed interest so far, from the earliest Focus Groups to the current Working Groups, and anyone else, a list nearing 300. Approximately 80 people were in attendance, whether on-site at 22 Willow in Waterloo, Ontario, or online via Zoom. Once again, people were present from across the country and across many denominations and traditions, with individuals having flown in from as far as Vancouver and Halifax.
Throughout the day, the three Working Groups each presented their current progress to the assembly, who then broke into groups to discuss and provide feedback. People described a strong sense of the Spirit’s presence along with visible emotional outpouring. There was a powerful sense of wonder and awe at the goodness of what was being shared, and how much had come together in just under a year.
Towards the end of the day, communion (the eucharist) was shared. Then any individual who had been disaffiliated, or rejected from ordination, or not offered a path toward ordination, was invited to come forward for public blessing and prayer. Again, this was a powerful time with many tears shed and a rich sense of “being seen by God” and community. Numerous impactful stories emerged of what the Spirit was doing in people.
At the closing of the day, all those individuals who represented churches or faith communities currently in urgent need of support were invited to come and make themselves known.
Now
2024 TO TODAY
Where We Are Now
We continue to co-create and work together to reimagine how churches looking for a new home connect, with flexible, minimal structures built on relationship and mutual accountability, and with practical support and resources shared among us. We became federally incorporated and received charitable status in 2024.
We continue to hold a shared hope that we can become a container the Spirit can use to midwife new pastors, ministry leaders, worshipping communities, missional expressions and ministries that will never know the pain of exclusion or de-credentialing for fully including any of the beloved in God’s kin-dom. Ultimately, it is our dream to be a community that works at practices that allow God’s vision for the Church to flourish here in Canada as an ever-growing circle of belonging, love and kinship.
What we’re co-creating together
Here’s what’s underway:
A credentialing and ordination pathway rooted in character, practice and lateral accountability, including recognition for leaders who lost credentials elsewhere.
Applying for the ability to perform marriages, starting with Ontario and moving province to province as we see need.
Partnerships that give pastors and church staff access to group benefits and pension options.
Our second summer camp for Good Table youth, in partnership with Camp Hermosa.
A youth leaders network for prayer and connection.
An ongoing, structured partnership with Indigenous theologians, including a standing advisory role, and a share of network revenue directed to Indigenous-led theological work.
Partnerships with theological schools and safe-church organizations, beginning with a new agreement that offers pastors and anyone in a Covenant church community free course audits at a Canadian theological school.
Membership and connection for individuals who would like to join the community.
We have come to these commitments and understandings after four years of careful listening, discernment and consensus building. We confess that we will make mistakes and we will have blind spots, and when we do, we will repent, apologize and strive to do better. We feel less like architects and more like a movement of people, churches and ministries following sacred breadcrumbs. We will continue walking, listening, wondering, repenting and reforming together as a community gathered around this good table.
LEARN MORE
Pull up a chair
If you are wondering whether The Good Table could be home, here are two places to start.
Membership
Membership begins with relationship, not paperwork. If your church or community is wondering whether The Good Table could be home, reach out for a conversation. Afterward, we’ll send you our Membership Framework, with our two circles of belonging and sliding-scale giving.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Good Table a denomination? Can our church belong to another association too? What does full inclusion mean for us? We answer the questions we hear most often.
Christ is the good table, and everyone is welcome to this feast.
WHY SO MANY WORDS?
Radical transparency
Those currently leading the Good Table are committed to the value of radical transparency with open and honest dialogue. This means we want to honestly represent all that has happened and keep sharing the broader story of this movement’s beginning.
This work has been carried mostly by volunteers and has moved at the pace of life. This grassroots network exists because of the generosity and time investment of those who need a place to call home in Canada.
This is the story of The Good Table thus far.