In homes all around the world, people settle down together at the end of a day to share a meal. Frustrations of the day are put aside and good food is enjoyed. Laughter and secrets are shared. The same ideas can be implemented at church. All it takes is a decision to host “family meals” and discovering the best way to bring people to the dinner table. A starting point should be to consider building a custom table that is large enough for everyone in the congregation to eat comfortably, together.

Dining with the Group

Jesus, prayers, God, or other deities that you embrace all feature stories or place some value on family coming together in the church. As you read the bible, you will see terms like the “Lord’s Supper” or read verses such as:
“Matthew 26:26-29
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing, it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

There is even a very famous painting called the “Last Supper”, which pays tribute to the Gospel of John 13:21. It features Jesus sitting with the twelve apostles and Jesus announcing that one of them would ultimately betray him. It was created by Leonardo Davinci and still hangs at the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy.

Bringing Everyone Closer Together

The challenge for most churches is finding a table that is big enough to accommodate a “Last Supper” or a family meal for some special holiday. The best way to get the size of the table that you need is to build one. Luckily, Live Edge Tables can be customized to be very long. The process is relatively simple, once you figure out how large you need it to be.

Each person at the table needs at least 1.5-2 feet of space. This means that the “Last Supper” table could easily have been 12-feet long. If you need to seat 20 people, you should build a table that is 18-20 ft long to ensure everyone has elbow room. Live edge tables allow you to lengthen the table and make it as wide as you need to accommodate everyone. However, many often wonder, is epoxy food safe? The short answer to this is, epoxy is possible to be food safe or food grade, but it is ultimately up to each individual to properly mix and pour the epoxy resin.

How to Create a Live Edge Table

Choose your wood. Ideally, you will have two slabs of wood that are similar. You want a natural edge that isn’t going to be sharp, but one that does not require you to sand away the natural shape of the wood. The longer the table, the more you have to pay attention to all your slabs. If available you can take down your own tree and have someone prepare it, then you will get very long slabs. Put them together, supporting the tabletop every few feet. If you want, you can finish it off by putting an epoxy coating over it.

The end result: It will be a beautiful table that everyone is happy to sit around.