PASTORAL REFLECTIONS By James Lamkin
Able Table
Tables are holy furniture. Christians know that. On them the Bread of Heaven is broken. Around them the Body of Christ is gathered.
The table that sits in our sanctuary is no more holy than any other table. It just reminds us that all tables are holy. God is not far from the board room's table, the classroom's desk, the surgeon's operating table, the judge's bench, the workroom, or the kitchen table. Holy, all.
A funny thing happened on the way home from worship last Sunday. While escorting a guest to her car, I walked by the hallway conference room. The door opened---and life and love and laughter boiled out!
It was your everyday, ordinary meeting of the Membership Development Committee. On that day, it was a pile of 20/30 Somethings (Mike Gregg, Megan Hendrix, Brian Hendrix, Josh Davis, Mallory Davis, LeAnna Anantaraman, and Lora Hawk that I recall).
Food was on the table. Folk were around the table. One was reaching over the table pointing, saying, "I'd love to do that. Count me in!" One was at the white board brainstorming. Somebody was eating. I thought, "Wow. What an able table! Spirit + ability."
On Sunday, August 16, we will dedicate a book. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this book is a library. In it are photos taken by Myrtie Cope of our sanctuary windows. The uppers illustrate God's movement toward humankind. The lowers picture human responses to God. Beautiful beatitudes compose the Narthex screen. And the sanctuary side doors remind all that they walk into and out of a world that is hungry, thirsty, and in need of healing.
One of the most beautiful windows is one that tells of our church's beginnings. In the center is a table.
Wesley Tignor, one of our charter members, was a teenager at the time. He always said that the table in the "origins window" was their kitchen table in 1950. There and then the original eleven gathered and birthed a Baptist church in their neighborhood.
I can imagine the energy around the Tignor table. Food scattered about. Notepads bulging with ideas. Folk reaching, eating, pointing, laughing, praying, loving, hoping, enjoying, risking. Communing. It occurs to me: all of those "charters who charted" our church in the 1950's were all 20/30 Somethings.
You see where I'm headed.
Last Sunday, walking by the Membership Development Committee meeting room, I entered a Time Machine. I was allowed to eavesdrop on that kitchen table conversation fifty-nine years ago and watch the double-helix of our DNA come together: 1) a bunch of Baptist-like Christians, 2) building church by being neighbors.
It was an able table. It still is.
Join us for a weekly workshop focusing on bringing love and joy back into the chaotic Christmas season. The workshop will be on Thursday nights, October 1-22, from 6-8 PM, with dinner from 6-6:30 PM and small group discussion following. The text, Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Joy Back into the Season will be provided at no cost to participants. Please register by either calling the church office: 404-237-8621 or by emailing Renee Gamache at 
