Wednesday, October 25, 2017

A Bigger Table: an attempt to bring all Christians to the same table

A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic and Hopeful Spiritual Community by John Pavlovitz is one man’s journey to Christianity and envisions a table where everyone is welcome. He focuses on homosexuality and the LGBT community. He opens with the feelings of the morning after the election of Donald Trump and sees the already deep divides among the American people becoming “cavernous.” He discusses his belief that the only sin in the world is exclusion. We need to love each other and leave us that way as that’s how we were made. He doesn’t really offer any ideas to bring all Christians to the table, only that we need to gather together. It seems to be a lot of talk without much thought to the action needed.


I really wanted to like A Bigger Table and gladly accepted an invitation to read it. However, I was turned off by his self-righteousness and self-congratulatory tones. I feel as a pastor, he questions the authority of the Bible and what it says about homosexuality. You cannot hand pick which verse to believe and follow and which ones to ignore. While I admit that these verses have been used as the basis for horrible and horrific treatment of the LGBT community and it is wrong. However, to ignore the clear language of the verses is equally wrong especially in the New Testament. I am highly disappointed in this book. I can see Mr. Pavlovitz’s goal to open the conversation and I can appreciate this goal. However, I feel he further pushes others away instead of trying to pull everyone in together at the same table. I do not recommend A Bigger Table.

A Bigger Table

is available in paperback and eBook

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