Pastor’s eNote: Weekly Update

“The Table” is a community dinner church gathering at FFMC. During lent, we offered The Table for five weeks to test its sustainability and learn as much as we could about offering a weekly community dinner. For those who attended during those five weeks and were part of the Lead Team, we named some of the following learnings:

The gym was a better space for the meal and seemed to foster more fellowship. It also is close to the space used by our youth ministry on the same night.

Our food offering for night would fit better if we prepared the food ourselves rather than having it delivered by the Community Dinner group in Seattle.

Activities at the table for all ages helped those who did not feel comfortable in large groups.

New people wanted to help, not just be served.

The Bible story shared each week was helpful but needed more focus on people who know little about the Bible. “Churchy people” like me often see the Bible very differently than the people we are trying to connect with each week.

Our youth and their families, who attend The Table, would be helped by some transportation assistance since many take public transportation as their only option.

Like all efforts in a church, or in life, making adaptions along the way will lead toward a more effective result. Our efforts as a Lead Team for The Table are now focused on offering a dinner each week on Wednesday evening. Our vision is fixed on becoming known in our community with the hope of growing a new fellowship for Jesus on Wednesday evenings.

The Table resumes this Wednesday after a short hiatus. We plan to continue indefinitely and integrate our learnings as we go. We trust that God will lead us to new people and new life in Jesus. To be clear, this is not a church fellowship dinner. This is a gathering for and with new people in our community.

You in the FFMC family can partner with the Lead Team and the ministry of The Table by…

1. Praying for The Table as part of your daily prayer life.
2. Consider posting one of the flyers for The Table at a local coffee shop or bulletin board.
3. Financially supporting The Table through your giving to the ONE Ministry Fund at FFMC.

May we all be praying together as we reach out in love to our neighborhood and world.

Grace to You All,

Pastor Craig Brown

(June 2nd, 2026)