Faithful Innovation A Place at the Table

A Place at The Table has been the main outreach focus at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Kasson since 2010. In that year a vision vocalized by two members, and community efforts put forth by the Rev. Colin Maltbie, were supported by the entire congregation. Every week the people of St. Peter’s would offer a safe, sober dinner to their community, including men and women in recovery from drug addiction. The ministry became an integral part of who St. Peter’s was and wanted to be moving forward.  By simple description, it is a free weekly community meal, but in reality it is so much more.

From the beginning, A Place at The Table has been about giving people a safe, welcoming, nonjudgmental place to be in community.  It is also about making connections and forming relationships.  As the number of people attending on Wednesday continued to increase, and the number of people in the pews remained the same (@15), the congregation had to grapple with the following question: “Is this a reflection of our future? Are we failing to further the work of the Episcopal Church and its ministry in Minnesota? What is God up to on Wednesday nights, and who is God calling us to be?” After much discernment, the overwhelming consensus was that the congregation needed to stop worrying about Sunday morning attendance, and to replace that anxiety with community engagement.  

Led by the Holy Spirit to trust God and take risks, St. Peter’s used their resources to remodel the church gathering space to better accommodate the ever-increasing numbers of attendees at what some refer to as “Wednesday Night Church”.   Among those coming were children who, in some cases, were rekindling positive relationships with their parents.  A generous grant from The Sheltering Arms Foundation allowed us to begin a “Play and Learn” program for the children.  Now the children blessing us by their presence can play together, work together, and reap the benefits of being part of this community.  

The future at St. Peter’s is fluid and unknown. It is not, however, a future filled with
anxiety or fear. It is a future of “serving others by being a loving community
reaching up, reaching in, and reaching out”.