A Couple years ago I interviewed about twenty-five friends and asked them each five questions.
1. What did you think of God/Christians before you became a Christian?
2. When did you realize there was a dark or hard side to life?
3. When did you realize there was a dark or hard side to yourself?
4. What did it look like when God broke into your world?
5. What does your life look like now?
I wasn’t sure exactly what we’d get when I did the interviews. I had a film crew in from South Africa, but only a week before they arrived, all our film options vanished. When they got to Portland, I had nothing for them to shoot. We sat around in my breakfast nook trying to figure out what we were going to do. And we came up with the interview idea. After that, we put together a little book that takes a similar journey, just processing the idea of Jesus from an outsiders perspective. The book is called “The Open Table” and so is the DVD. They are available separately, but I hope they end up being used to hand to folks who have questions about faith and specifically Christianity.
The project evolved into this non-threatening way to talk about God, by giving them a book that just has five weeks of daily readings that more or less answer a questions about God (ie. Does God like us, Is God judgmental, Does God get angry, Is God causing all the problems in the world, and so on).
Here is a clip from the first section of the DVD, answering the question “What did you think of God/Christians before you became a Christian?”
I talk more about the project at www.jointheopentable.com
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FANTASTIC idea, BUT the first link in the post has a typo so it goes to some shady domain name squatter site.
I’ve signed up. Sounds like an awesome deal. I know a lot of people in my community would like a place to share ideas like that.
Thanks much, Don!
God pursued me for so long…but I remember having thoughts a lot like these before I came to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I thought it was all kind of creepy on the one hand and goofy on the other…but I feel different now. I don’t know how having a conversation like this would have helped me find out who Jesus is…but I don’t think it would have hurt.
EXACTLY ! This is exactly what the gospel is and what Jesus tells us to do. Man, you have so nailed this one. These are the things that people who are hungry for God want to talk about. I really am praying for literally thousands of open tables. Great job, Don !!
I am so excited about this project! Especially lately, I’ve heard a lot of hate speak directed toward our new President – from “Christians.” I guess this comes with the territory, but it breaks my heart because I know that non-Christians are thinking, “oh, here they go again, judging anyone who doesn’t agree with them.” To me, that is our biggest fault – our judgmental nature. Yes, we are human, and yes, I do it, too. But I believe this is where we turn everyone off from Christianity. I can’t wait to view this film.
Thank you.
I’m just jealous that you’ve got 25 friends.
RICK SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN
This sounds like an amazing idea! I have been writing a lot, and I’d love to incorporate answers to these questions in my writings. I am actually working on a blog right now about me going homeless and traveling the world to find myself, and repair my broken relationship with God. (A not so obvious plug to my site.. lol)
A few years ago I had a small group that used to meet up at starbucks for a “Bible Study”. The guy who lead it was a youth pastor and was really interested in my faith and knowledge, because I happened to interrupt there discussion once with my point of view, and they liked it. Nonetheless, we ended up turning these bible studies into an “Open Table” discussion. The kids were younger than me, and much younger than the youth pasture, but we both gave them some sort of mentorship to follow. His wisdom and experience helped them see what is true and just, and my youth and insight to the current times helped them see how to apply these things in their lives.
It was great, we would ask them who God was to them, and we told them to answer honestly, and not how WE wanted to hear it. It took time, but eventually they let go of the “People Pleasing” answers and just let it all out. It was good, because everyone was different. God works differently in everyone’s lives, and they discovered that the God they believed in wasn’t the same among the rest of the group. But a pattern emerged and we began to see who God really was and we as a group discovered God, rather than letting our flawed perception of the world corrupt our vision of God.
Its amazing these kind of discussions, because the rhetoric changes from biblical wordiness to a modern syntax and the semantics becomes clear. In church you have someone saying “I rejoice in my faith with the beloved Lord, our God Almighty!” and everyone nodding and clapping… a few “Amens” ring out… But at an “open table” someone says “I think I am happy about following God, I don’t know… its not really clear but I feel important now, and I feel this presence of a god pushing me and guiding me to something better, at least I hope so”… and with this no one nods, or claps… they sit with there eyes wide open, listening… and understanding…
Again, this is a really good idea, and Don, its amazing your influence on the world. You have a gift that I admire… Thanks.
Projects like this are what the world needs. I think honest discussion about God and spirituality are lacking, but so refreshing when someone actually opens up and does it.
(I KNEW that had to be Rick. Great to put a face to the voice.
Anyway…
This just might be the COOLEST thing in the history of cool. It’s something I’ve been wishing for, without knowing exactly what I was wishing for (if that makes any sense). I think people sitting around telling their story is the most relevant, non-threatening, potentially life-changing thing there is to those that are looking for answers. Can’t wait for spring!
O.K., I don’t like you any more Donald Miller. I’ve been working on this idea for 2 years now, calling it “The Friendship Experiment”, and you come out with this. The worst part is that it looks like your version totally kicks the butt of my idea…
Do you mind if I tell people you totally copied off of me? Not like a lawyer or judge, just my friends here. Cool?
I keep trying to communicate this reality to people in leadership at my church without offending them and saying “what you sucks, and what we want to do is cool” and it’s really difficult. Often my words come out wrong, people’s emotions get involved and it ends up going south real quick. Thanks for a tool that helps communicate what I want to say from an “objective” third party. well done.
micah
ammend comment #14 to say “what you DO sucks, and what we want to do is cool.”
Ditto on the praise. This validates a desire in me to shift from “seeker-sensitive” to simply “approachable”. I wonder how others responses to the quesitons, from varying economic/ethnic/social/cultural backgrounds, would compare.
I wonder if there is an Open Table community in my city, Nashville TN.