‘The Table’ is perfect setting for conversation
When Rev. Chad Mattingly delivers his first sermon on Sundays in the Kingwood Christian Church sanctuary, he wears a robe.
Before walking over to the church’s fellowship hall to deliver his second one, however, he takes the robe off.
“It’s a little bit of a switch,” Mattingly said. “As I walk out the side door, I take the robe off. It’s the ultimate symbol of a formal relationship with a congregation, so when I’m done in the sanctuary, and I’m walking over to the fellowship hall, I loosen my tie a little.”
That’s because Mattingly is walking over to “The Table,” a new program the church started a few months ago that aims to do away with the formalities and hierarchy of a traditional church service. The general message is the same, Mattingly said, but how it’s delivered has been updated to accommodate
a more casual group of modern churchgoers.
Most everything about the new program is different than what happens in the sanctuary, Mattingly said. There’s the music, for example, that has done away with the orchestra and choir of Kingwood Christian Church’s traditional service and replaced it with a band that leads modern worship songs from the floor instead of a stage. This is also where Mattingly delivers his sermons from, which he describes as more conversational and interactive, as well as where guest speakers that service leaders invite will share their own stories with a congregation sitting a few feet away.
“We’re on the same level as the congregation now,” Mattingly said. “It’s much less formal at The Table. In the coming weeks, we’ll be inviting people into our conversations, to lead and to participate. We’ll have parts of our service that will be much more conversationbased. It’s a service that’s about relationship building and getting to know each other’s stories.”
The floor of the fellowship hall is also where the table, the program’s namesake, is located. It’s a round table, 4 feet in diameter, that’s been constructed out of 12 different kinds of colored wood, including a few reclaimed pieces left over from Hurricane Harvey destruction as well as reconstruction projects. At the end of each service, the table serves as the altar where various types of communion bread, including a gluten-free option, are laid out. Before communion happens, the table is the centerpiece around which the entire service happens.
“For the wood, I wanted a variety,” said Bill Cowsar, the church member who built the table. “I wanted to show off the kind of diversity that we hope to serve here, so I used different species of wood. Some are rough and burned, some are damaged, some don’t look damaged at all. Everyone is welcome here, so I wanted the table to show that.”
On a Sunday in early October, the service started off confirming as much.
“No matter your gender identity, you are welcome here at the table,” said a church member, standing in front of the congregation as the service began. “No matter your citizenship, or immigration status, you are welcome here at the table. No matter your emotional state, you are welcome here at the table. No matter your ZIP code, level of education, affluence, or power, you are welcome here at the table. If you believe some of the time, none of the time, or all of the time, you are welcome at the table.”
Beyond the informalities, the inclusivity of The Table is perhaps the main reason the church started the new program. While the church’s traditional service isn’t against diversity and inclusion, those values aren’t necessarily front and center at all times, Mattingly said. At The Table, acceptance is key.
“I feel like there’s a message that’s about inclusion, that’s about a God who loves and welcomes and accepts everyone, that’s not always being told,” he said. “We felt that Kingwood Christian church needed to be a place that offered that message.”
For two years, the church had been discussing plans to start a program like The Table, Mattingly said. The church’s mission and outreach programs had revealed a local void that a more informal service could fill by highlighting ideas of inclusivity in an inviting way. But it was Hurricane Harvey, and the service work the rebuilding process led to, that ultimately caused the church to act.
Kingwood Christian Church was one of the only churches in the area that opened its doors to anyone who needed a place to stay and recuperate, Mattingly said. The experience opened the eyes of the church’s leaders.
“We opened up our building and had a fullservice shelter happening for seven days,” he said. “Other churches brought in resources, and it was a good symbolic measure of responding to people’s needs, whatever it takes. We developed a lot of relationships through that. It helped us turn a corner and channel that effort into The Table.”