COFFEE & DESSERT – TABLE TALK

Isn’t it uncanny how often significant conversations begin while seated around a table? Be they first coffee dates, university discussion groups, Sunday family lunches, funny stories shared around a campfire, or the significance of the wedding banquet across cultures worldwide, conversation grows relational connection, often facilitated by the sharing of food and drink. How can you begin a weekly practice of curated, intentional conversations, seated around a table of your choosing?
 
Here are a few questions to kickstart your conversation:

• What insight has stuck with you this past month from reading the essay introducing Ordinary Time, “Conscious Partial Attention?”
• How has your growing awareness of technological creep influenced your life and relationships?
• Read through the article “We’ve Seen Megachurch. But How About Micro-Church?” by Rev. Emily M.D. Scott, discussing the powerful, central practice of St. Lydia’s, her congregation – a “Dinner Church on a micro-scale.” How can this spiritual practice deepen your ability to follow Jesus?
• Scott states,“Theologically, we've discovered that building big community happens on a small scale: 30 people around dinner tables, sharing a meal they've made together.” To what degree have you found this to be true in your own life?
• Scott concludes, “To know the other always takes place on the smallest level possible: one human sitting down with another. But in doing so, we encounter something huge: the limitless presence of God.” How can the table facilitate the encounter of the limitless presence of God?

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