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Reclaiming the Table: How Jesus' Meal-Based Ministry Challenges Modern Church Growth Models

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ ministry is often described as being centered around meals. As Robert Karris famously put it, "In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal." This simple observation uncovers a profound truth: Jesus chose the table as a primary context for kingdom ministry. His mission strategy wasn’t built around events, buildings, or platforms. It was built around meals.

Jesus spent a lot of his time eating and drinking with people. His evangelism and discipleship were built around long conversations over grilled fish, loaves of bread, and wine. The rhythm of his ministry was deeply relational, immersive, and hospitable.  It was a strategy of presence, not performance.

Consider the stories in Luke alone:

  • Luke 5: Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners at the home of Levi.
  • Luke 7: Jesus is anointed at the home of Simon the Pharisee during a meal.
  • Luke 9: Jesus feeds the five thousand.
  • Luke 10: Jesus eats in the home of Martha and Mary.
  • Luke 11: Jesus challenges the Pharisees at a meal.
  • Luke 14: Jesus urges people to invite the poor to their meals.
  • Luke 19: Jesus invites himself to dinner with Zacchaeus.
  • Luke 22: The Last Supper.
  • Luke 24: The risen Christ eats with disciples in Emmaus and later in Jerusalem.

This pattern was no accident. Jesus used meals because they slow people down, level the playing field, and open space for authentic connection. Around a table, there are no pulpits or stages—just people. There, Jesus could speak into lives, model the kingdom, and form disciples in a deeply human way.

The Contrast with Modern-Day Methods

Many modern Western churches have adopted a ministry model that contrasts sharply with Jesus' approach. These models tend to be:

  • Attractional: Designed to draw people to a building or an event rather than engaging with people in the normal stuff of everyday life out in the world.

  • Programmatic: Focused primarily on running activities, events, and classes, often at the expense of relationships and life-shaping discipleship.

  • Platform-Centered: Teaching and ministry flow primarily from a stage to an audience rather than sharing life and engaging in conversation. 

  • Professionalized: To achieve all of the above means relying primarily on trained clergy and polished presentations rather than equipping the saints to minister in the flow of everyday life and honouring the priesthood of all believers.

While these approaches are often effective in drawing crowds and may produce some quick, short-term results, they fall short in forming and multiplying lasting communities of disciples characterized by faith, hope, and love.

A Table-Shaped Vision

Jesus' meal-based ministry reflects the values of God’s kingdom:

  • Humility: He sat with the lowly, not the elite.
  • Grace: He welcomed the unworthy and the outsider.
  • Equality: All were invited to the same table.
  • Presence: He shared life, not just information.

In contrast to growth-driven strategies that often mirror the corporate world, Jesus offers a slow, relational, and reproducible way of making disciples and forming communities of faith.  His methods matched his message.  If we want kingdom outcomes, we must embrace kingdom methods.

To follow Jesus' model, churches today need to reclaim the table as sacred space.  Some steps towards doing this would be to: 

  • Host regular household meals that include and welcome people of all ages, cultures, and the marginalized. 
  • Build discipleship around shared meals and life in the ways of Jesus and his Apostles, not just shared information.
  • Equip every believer to minister in the ordinary rhythms of daily life, including their own family meals.
  • Prioritize biblical hospitality over excellence, and relationships over reputation.

Jesus didn’t grow the kingdom through entertainment or marketing.  He grew it through meals.  What if our churches were described the same way?

There is a great need in our world today for the church to return to the table, where the kingdom is tasted, shared, and multiplied.

"The Son of Man came eating and drinking..." (Luke 7:34). 

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