As someone who has often felt like an outsider even as an ordained pastor, I found myself drawn to the image of creating a bigger table with space for all to have a place. Too often religiosity has us playing the role of gatekeeper creating an exclusionary table. In my opinion, it's past time for a bigger table, and this book has the tools for building it. I think all clergy would benefit from reading this book, and highly recommend it for small group, church-wide, and interfaith study.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an early reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is another one of those books I wish I had been able to read several years ago when I was really anxious about how deep the rabbit hole would go for me... I love this quote from the book:

"I hadn't yet summoned the courage to face the most terrifying questions Christians can ever ask themselves: "if this small part of my faith that I always believed to be true no longer is, what else might not be true?" and "If the Bible doesn't say what I'd grown up believing it says in these handful of verses, where else have I gotten it wrong?" It begins to feel as though those questions themselves will destroy your faith for good, when in reality they should be welcome intrusions. Doubt isn't the sign of a dead faith, not necessarily even of a sickly one. It's often the sign of a faith that is allowing itself to be tested, one that is brave enough to see if it can hold up under stress. The worst thing you can do in those seasons of uncertainty is to pile upon your already burdened shoulders guilt for the mere fact that the wavering exists. God is more than big enough to withstand the weight of your vacillating belief, your part-time skepticism, and even your full-blown faith crises. We've been taught that such things are the antithesis of belief, usually by those who are afraid to be transparent about their own instability. God can handle your wavering, friend, even if those around you can't." (John Pavlovitz, 44)

I love the message of the book, but there's not enough meat to it or content to warrant a repeat reading.

Here are some other quotes I liked:

“The heart of the bigger table is the realization that we don't have to share someone's experience to respect their road. As we move beyond the lazy theology and easy caricatures that seek to remove any gray from people's lives, we can meet them in that grayness, right where they are, without demanding they become something else in order to earn proximity to us or to a God who loves them dearly. Just as was true in the life and ministry of Jesus. Real love is not contingent upon alteration; it simply is. There is no earning of fellowship or deserving of closeness; there is only the invitation itself and the joy that comes when you are fully seen and heard.” (18-19)


“The truth is real spirituality is usually costly. Many followers of Jesus end up learning this not from the world outside the Church but from our faith tradition itself. We end up choosing Jesus and losing our religion; finding proximity to him creates distance from others. If you seek to expand the table you're going to find yourself in a tough spot. The truth may not get you fired. (Although it might).” (52).


“This is what it means to be the people of the bigger table: to look for the threads that might tie us together and to believe that these are more powerful than we imagine. This is the only future the Church really has. Disparate people will not be brought together through a denomination or a pastor or by anything the institutional church can offer. We know that now. These were useful for a time, but they are an exercise in diminishing returns. The Church will thrive only to the degree it is willing to be out making space for a greater swath of humanity and by recognizing the redemptive power of relationships. (62-63)


This sounds all too familiar:

“Frame the spiritual journey as a stark good-vs.-evil battle of warring sides long enough and you’ll eventually see the Church and those around you in the same way too. You’ll begin to filter the world through the lens of conflict. Everything becomes a threat to the family; everyone becomes a potential enemy. Fear becomes the engine that drives the whole thing. When this happens, your default response to people who are different or who challenge you can turn from compassion to contempt. You become less like God and more like the Godfather. In those times, instead of being a tool to fit your heart for invitation, faith can become a weapon to defend yourself against the encroaching sinners threatening God’s people—whom we conveniently always consider ourselves among. Religion becomes a cold, cruel distance maker, pushing from the table people who aren’t part of the brotherhood and don’t march in lockstep with the others.” (28)

“I knew without blinking that I didn't have to choose between loving God and loving my brother - and he didn't have to choose between being gay and being adored by God.” (17)

I adore John Pavlovitz, but I don’t know how to feel about A Bigger Table, Expanded Edition with Study Guide: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community. On the one hand, Pavlovitz directs us to the REAL Christ, the Jesus that ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, who preached to Samaritans and touched lepers — all in violation of the norms of His day. That Jesus didn’t have a huge hierarchy nor honed liturgy nor millions of volumes of exegesis; He was literally creating it as He went. That’s the Jesus — the Jesus of the Bigger Table, which includes the least, the lost, the despairing, those we agree with, those we don’t — I want to follow. What a fabulous read!

But in his epilogue, Pavlovitz explains, then 2016 happened. How do we square the circle? How do we make community with those who call themselves Christians but want to cage babies, mock the oppressed, murder the stranger in our midst, celebrate injustice and racism, despise democracy? Pavlovitz has decided that you just can’t. I can’t argue with him, but it feels deflating. Especially as I have struggled with the same thing. I feel I have more in common with my kind Jewish, Buddhist, Baha’i and atheist friends than I do with megachurch pastors who worship Donald Trump and tax breaks for billionaires and ignore everything in the Bible.

This book challenged my thinking about what it means to be a Church. For years, I've wanted to worship at a bigger table but felt very alone in that venture. John Pavolvitz gave me the words for my desires and a tool I can share with others.
Two things I would change are how often the author mentions his age and the end - he's very harsh against Republicans, which goes against the theme of setting a bigger table.
Some of my favorite takeaways:
The four nonnegotiable “legs” of the table are hospitality, authenticity, diversity, relationship.
See people as human, not numbers.
The bigger table requires us to stay.
Labels create a divide.
It's okay to change. Metamorphosis and transition are normal parts of life!
Redemptive community requires that we extend the invitation to everyone and endeavor to build relationships, or at the very least understanding.

John Pavlovitz has put into words what I have felt for years; that many organized Christian churches (main stream and Evangelical alike) have added to the divisiveness, wide-spread discrimination, and social injustice that plagues our country and world today. This is done, subtly and not-so-subtly, by propagating the idea that it is best to be part of a community where everyone and the views they hold are similar, and that "others" are not living according to God's laws and should be avoided lest they influence members to endanger their souls. Many churches have become very judgmental when time and again the Bible implores us to "Judge not, lest you be judged."

This "small table" view is diametrically opposed to the teachings of the new covenant given to us through Christ, who welcomed saint and sinner alike; spent time with people of all races, religions, and stations, holding none higher or lower than another; and taught that we should love with the unconditional agape love - seeing each other as through God's eyes and loving each other as God loves us.

Pavlovitz has written an interesting read which compels us to question where we as individuals stand on a number of social issues, and how welcoming and open we are to those different than ourselves. Very thought provoking and timely!

My thanks to NetGalley and Westminster John Knox Press for providing me with an e-copy of this book. All opinions (and any errors) in this review are my own.

The author's account of his experience of moving from a conservative to progressive and inclusive faith will resonate with readers who have travelled a similar journey. This book would be ideal for a church book club that isn't afraid to challenge the beliefs of their childhood with deeper adult introspection.

Such a timely read! Despite pandemic protocol there are so many ways we can encourage and welcome people into our (messy) lives! A must read for every Christian!

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC of A Bigger Table, which I was excited to ready. Unfortunatel, the new foreword by Jacqui Lewis turned me off so badly I couldn't even get to the book. Jacqui basically turned the forward into a Political attack of the Republican Party, President Trump and conservative individuals. Touting how great the Democrats are. That isn't Christian behavior, neither party is fully correct nor fully in the wrong. My Religious Beliefs are way. more than my political affiliation or lack their of. I am highly disappointed in this book and will not be suggesting anyone read it.

I was really excited about this book. "Building messing, authentic and hopeful spiritual community" immediately drew me in. A Bigger Table reminded me of The Turquoise Table by Kristin Schell - which is a book I truly enjoyed.

But things went downhill quickly in the foreword by Jacqueline J. Lewis. Her foreword touts the wonders of Obama and downright disparages Trump. I'm a super fan of Obama, and I'm happy with the economy under Trump. But regardless of my political views - I'm interested in expanding my spiritual community. Politics do not drive my personal ability to engage with my neighbor - but my love of Jesus Christ does. Jesus calls me to love all - and I'm eager to do so, and do so well. I'm open to new ideas - and those are the reasons why I was drawn to this book.

I tried to tell myself that Pavlovitz has valid ideas to share - but the more I thought about the Lewis foreword - and the fact that it is listed on the book cover as a badge of honor - I realized that Pavlovitz isn't writing for me ... he's only writing for people who already think exactly as he does - which is to attack conservatives and support liberals. Not a very Christian approach .... so I will spend my time reading people who are guided by Christ.

An excellent book for anyone examining their faith or questioning it, or creating it. It’s also an excellent book for anyone who sees disconnects in what we are taught regarding how we are called to treat the people in our world versus how we see them being treated, both by religious and non-religious people.
This book struck a number of chords with me. As a life-long Methodist, with our family’s membership in the Methodist church going back at least 5 generations, I always took comfort from their “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” approach to humanity. When they decided to close those hearts, minds, and doors to specific segments of the population, it caused me great concern. I left the church, even though that left me feeling adrift without a rudder.
This book gives hope to me, and others who may be seeking to reconcile what they have been taught is the proper way to treat others as in “Love Thy Neighbor”, etc. and what is being said by people who have been held up as examples of religious purity and ideal Christians. In today’s world, with all the anger and strife, the medical insecurity, the questionable economics, this book is a breath of fresh air. While it isn’t designed to be a daily devotional, it is written with such positivity that I choose to read a portion of it every morning to remind myself there are some people in this world who really do embody the Christian principles I have been taught all my life.
My thanks to Westminster John Knox Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book for review. It deserves a permanent place on my shelf.