By meeting in restaurants and focusing on service, people who worship with Servant’s Table, a dinner church in Tulsa, Okla., say they are reconnecting with the basic foundations of their faith.


location—that’s stuff laypeople can get together to do. That’s what excites me—that we can do this and that anyone can do this. This model can be replicated across the ELCA.” Rob Martin, who serves First Lutheran


Church in Tulsa and as a rotating pastor with Servant’s Table, hopes people do follow the new ministry’s model. “People don’t seem to be seeking out church


in traditional ways, so to come into a place like a restaurant where people are just living their lives seems to be a very good way to get out into the community and let people experience what a church community can look like,” he said. “As many congregations like this as there can be, we’ve got room for them. I hope this model will continue to grow and spread.” In this next year of ministry, Servant’s Table


wants to take more steps to connect with the community. “I don’t like the phrase ‘going to church.’ I


hope when people think of the ELCA they don’t think of a building because, of course, we are the church,” Laura Bunch said. “We want to make sure more people know there is an alternative place where they can come together to hear about God’s radical love for all of us and the abundant grace we have.”


Megan Brandsrud is a content editor for Living Lutheran.


“ We meet at a table, just like Jesus and his followers.”


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