It is our desire to meet with God and others in simple spaces...
Why Central Ohio?
If you live in Ohio, you know that Ohio is the heart of it all.
This is more true than you may imagine. Almost ½ of the United States’ population lives within 500 miles of Columbus. Ohio is a key logistics center for the United States. Columbus has become a major population center and cultural center in America, and is still growing in influence.
As it grows, it is outpacing the availability of church gatherings. If you include Columbus and surrounding central Ohio population hubs, there are upwards of 1.5 million unchurched individuals.
The harvest is plentiful!
What Sets Us Apart
Missional Finances
The harsh truth is that much of what is donated in the modern American church goes to building expenses and salaries. This often comes at the expense of the greater mission of God.
House and micro churches limit these expenses and instead prioritize the building up of the body, mission over maintenance, and the Spirit in all believers.
Authentic and Intimate Relationships
When you attend a modern American church, a few professional ministers sing, pray, and lead a message from a stage.
The Table allows for all people to speak and be heard, to write a living sermon together, and prioritize the breaking of bread and fellowship with one another. The goal is to be a unique place of unity, where people of all kinds are able to gather together and be led by the same Spirit.
More Presence and Less Performance
Perhaps unintentionally, much of current American church culture celebrates performance. Sunday morning has become an “experience” rather than a “service”. An experience concerns itself with pleasing the consumer, more than what is being consumed.
The Table strips away the performance and allows for spaces of authentic life-on-life moments, wrapped and filled up with the presence of God.
What is Sunday Morning Like?
The early Church broke bread with one another, meaning that they took the time to eat with one another. It is a light meal with quality foods. This is meant to increase the amount of time spent getting to know the people in the room.
Eating together
The Bible time is one of both depth and breadth. We want our interpretation to remain true to the meaning the writers of the Scripture intended. The Bible time gets at the true meaning of the passage. But in conversing with one another, we watch the Word come to life as it interacts with the lives and experiences of those around the table.
Bible conversation
The children in our gathering are free to roam. They are welcome to sit amongst the gathering and hear the adults pray and discuss. We have fun spaces set up for them to deepen their friendships with one another. We also have dedicated kids moments so that they may be connected to the teaching of the day.
What happens to the kids?
Meet Jacob
A dream has been born to see a movement of house and micro churches spreading across central Ohio and into the world. Not because there are a lack of good churches, but because there are still so many who are not being reached!
Jacob Hayward has been a pastor for nearly a decade in the Friends denomination within traditional churches before taking on this new venture of church planting. He is a husband and father, an author, and an avid endurance athlete.
Jacob holds a B.A. in Pastoral Ministry from Malone University and a M.Div. from Portland Seminary.
He currently hosts Prospect House with his wife, Olga, and three children.