The next
Turning the Gem Gathering:
Sacred Spaces, Unspeakable Harm:
How Church Culture Can Hide, Enable, and Perpetuate Sexual Violence
With Tatiana Schmidt
October 17, 2026 | 6:00pm
@Evanswood Church
2601 E Square Lake Rd, Troy, MI 48085
Tatiana will be opening up a dialogue around Tamar’s story in 2 Samuel 13, an ancient account of sexual violence that connects to current events, including the Cornell Seven case. The session will explore what it means to protect, believe, and care for survivors, and will hold space for those processing difficult news.
Content note: This session addresses sexual violence.
Previous Gatherings & Topics
Job Journey of Disentangling Faith
Danny Cox
October 3, 2026
At our October gathering, Danny led us through Part II of our series on David Gushee’s Job in Exile, digging deeper into why the Open Table uses the language of “disentangling” rather than “deconstructing.”
We traced the concept back to its roots in Derrida’s philosophy and explored how Jesus himself disentangled and expanded the Jewish faith of his day — reshaping teachings on the Sabbath, enemies, women, children, and more.
Danny named three ways communities can unintentionally harm those who are disentangling their faith: toxic positivity, spiritual bypassing, and terror management, each drawn from Gushee’s own reading of Job.
We closed by naming that the goal of disentangling isn’t to burn everything down, but to move toward deeper mystery, wider understanding, and a faith that can hold the complexity of this moment.
Job in Exile: A Guide for Spiritual Refugees
Dr. David Gushee
September 19, 2026
Our friend, Dr. David Gushee joined us at Genesis: the Church to share a little about his book, Job in Exile: A Guide for Spiritual Refugees.
Over the last few years, Gushee has studied the book of Job through two different perspectives: the first as an ethicist & moral scholar, and the second as a pastor in the post-evangelical church movement. He was drawn to the character of Job as an example of someone who questions God, asks earnest and honest questions, and refuses to be silenced by his community.
Disability, Embodiment, and Life Together
Hilary Yancey
August 29, 2026
Philosopher, writer, and Seminarian Hilary Yancey challenged our Open Table community to question where our idea of a "normal" body comes from — and why we so often assume disability means someone is worse off. Drawing on her decade of work in philosophy and her experience raising her son Jack, Hilary invited us to truly listen to the testimony of people whose bodies and minds work differently, rather than assuming their lives would be better if they were "fixed." She pushed us to examine our churches — our tables, parking lots, websites, language, worship, and leadership — asking whether they reflect a genuinely wide welcome. Her core conviction: if all people are made in the image of God, we miss the fullness of Jesus whenever we exclude those who move, speak, and think differently.
The Power of Reception
Danny Cox
August 15, 2026
Could it be possible that the Church's primary power lies not in its ability to shape the world through influence, but in its ability to receive—receive Christ, receive one another, receive the stranger, receive the world.
In this session, Danny walked us through what it looks like to be people who receive like Jesus:
People who are in proximity with one another, make meaningful connections, stay curious, and lean in with vulnerability and courage, staying present in the moment.
The Jesus Life, Kingdom, and Community
Cory Hendrickson
August 1, 2026
We spent our time reflecting on the past year with the Open Table Collective, noticing the threads that have connected our conversations — from faith formation, curiosity, and gratitude to lament, creation care, decolonizing faith, and the common good.
From that review, we shared a simple framework for understanding the movement of our gatherings: The Jesus Life, The Jesus Community, and the Jesus Kingdom. The main idea was that faithful formation needs all three working together — personal transformation into the character of Christ, communal life shaped by shared discipleship, and outward participation in justice, love, and the healing of the world. We talked about how each one supports the others, and how losing any one of them can distort the whole, while the Spirit meets us in all three and keeps drawing us deeper into a life with Jesus, with one another, and for the sake of the world.
The Open Table Visits St. Peter's Episcopal Church
Danny & Beatrice Cox
June 20, 2026
The Open Table Collective took a field trip to St. Peter's Episcopal Church, at the historic corner of Michigan and Trumbull in Corktown.
Danny prompted us to consider resonance and encountering God through beauty. We processed how our alignment with true beauty, rooted in the Kingdom of God, buffets us against the dissonance of the chaotic world around us.
Beatrice, a vestry member of St. Pete's, gave us a brief overview of the church's history of beauty and service, and led us through communal chanting and blessing.
Invitation to the Kingdom Life
Shannon Wimp Schmidt
June 6, 2026
Shannon, expounding on the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Mark 12 and Luke 10, explored how the Kingdom of Heaven requires us to think differently. She showcased that our faith cannot be focused solely on our personal devotion or piety, but must also be focused on caring for those around us.
She left us with a helpful tool, "See, Judge, Act," to consider how the morals and ethics of the Kingdom of Heaven calls us to live out the character of Christ in all areas of our lives.
Our Turning the Gem Sessions are highly conversational, so the audio recordings can be difficult to hear, but we hope that it can give you a sneak peek into what our Gatherings typically sound and feel like.
Unsettling Our Faith:
Planting Seeds for a Decolonized Discipleship
Jason Miller-Villegas, DMin
May 16, 2026
Jason explored how Christianity in the U.S. has been shaped by settler colonialism, distorted historical narratives, and imperial ideas. Through land acknowledgment, storytelling, spoken word, discussion prompts, and practical examples, he invited the group to consider how faith can be re-rooted in truth-telling, reciprocity, humility, and solidarity rather than domination or extraction. The conversation touched on indigenous perspectives, hidden histories, restorative solidarity, backlash to justice work, and concrete practices for cultivating a more communal, liberating, and honest expression of Christian faith.
(This is our first attempt at an audio recording. Because of the conversational nature of our gatherings, some of the conversation in the room can be difficult to hear.)
From Overwhelm to Overflow: Reclaiming Lament as Covenant Speech
Shenay Shumake
May 2, 2026
Shenay Shumake taught on Psalms 42–43, focusing on moving from overwhelm to overflow through the practice of lament. She framed lament as “covenant speech”—an honest expression of pain, longing, and disorientation that still refuses to let go of God.
A major thread of the night was the story of the Sons of Korah, whose family history held both rebellion and mercy, yet who still became worshipers and sanctuary dwellers. Shenay connected that background to the psalm’s movement from orientation, to disorientation, to reorientation, showing how faith often includes seasons where God feels distant, life feels broken, and hope has to be practiced intentionally.
She also pointed to Jesus as both companion and answer in those moments of disorientation, and ended with a call to cultivate disciplined hope—to keep singing, remembering God’s faithfulness, and finding a “song” that helps steady the soul. The evening closed with table discussions reflecting on what stood out, what people were wrestling with, and what they were taking away.
The Price of Loving Like Jesus
LaShaun Phoenix Moore
April 18, 2026
LaShaun shared a powerful reflection on “The Price of Loving Like Jesus,” exploring the cost, courage, and complexity of Christ-like love through the story of her relationship with her mother. She spoke honestly about intergenerational trauma, estrangement, caregiving, forgiveness, and the hard-won reconciliation that came near the end of her mother’s life. The conversation that followed invited the community to consider how love can require both grace and boundaries, how forgiveness can free the one who forgives, and how we might choose compassion even in painful or complicated relationships. The evening offered a moving reminder that love like Jesus is rarely easy, but it can be deeply transformative.
Spiritual Typography
(part two)
Dr. Naomi Walters
April 4, 2026
In this session, Dr. Naomi Walters continued her talk on Spiritual Typography. We explored what each type looks like in worship, prayer, community, and everyday life — including the unique gifts each type brings to the broader Christian community, and the pitfalls each can fall into when taken to excess.
Overall, we learned that spiritual diversity is by design. It reflects the trinitarian nature of a God who both is diversity and creates diversity.
The goal isn't for each of us to perfectly balance all four types, but for our communities to make room for every type to flourish — so that together, we more fully embody the image of God.
Spiritual Typography
(part one)
Dr. Naomi Walters
March 21, 2026
Have you ever been bothered by the congregational pronouncement, “If that song didn’t bring you to tears, there’s something wrong with you?” Have you ever been befuddled when the book you recommended as profoundly meaningful lies untouched on a friend’s shelf?
Despite our tendency to view differences between us and those around us as indications that something is wrong with us (or more often, with “them”), the first session of this two-session series will introduce a spiritual typology that might give us language to name and understand individual and congregational spirituality types.
Promise & Pain:
Loving the Church we cannot escape
Cory Hendrickson
March 7, 2026
The Church can be baffling and beautiful, flawed and holy, wounding and life-giving — sometimes all at once. At this gathering, we made space for the complicated love many of us carry: a love that questions, laments, hopes, and stays.
Together, we explored what it means to remain rooted in a community that has marked us deeply, and to seek renewal in the midst of its imperfections.
Processing Lament
Shalini Bennett
February 21, 2026
Prayers of Lament are ways to approach God with the realities of sorrow, frustration, and angst that consume and distract us.
Shalini helped us better understand what lament is, why it's such a powerful way to turn to God, and showed us how we can practically put our words into a prayer of lament. We both privately and corporately practice this way of praying, and walk away with a new spiritual tool that helps to face the difficulties in our lives and the world around us.
Creation Care & Consumerism:
The Call of the Creation Story
Tatiana Schmidt
February 7, 2026
In Genesis 1:28-30, we read, "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
But what does this passage say about our purpose and way of being in the world today? Tatiana explored how God created the world and its inhabitants in love, and calls us to love creation by caring for animals, being mindful of our consumption habits, and advocating for the flourishing of all created things around us.
Special Events
Thank you so much for your attendance and interest in these unique events.
We are working on more offerings in the coming months
Along with our twice-a-month Turning the Gem live gatherings, The Open Table Collective offers other special trainings & seminars designed to lead to more individual and collective well-being and flourishing.
On this page you will see the next few special events coming up in 2026. Please come join us! You will not regret investing into your spiritual health!
Previous Seminars, Trainings, and Events:
THE TIMELINE EXERCISE SEMINAR w/ALAN LIM
One of the most transformative and powerful exercises a person can do is to look over their own life time and identify how God has shaped them over a lifetime. Alan Lim is an expert leadership coach and guide that will help each participant discover truths that can lead to transformation.
ENNEAGRAM & IDENTITY SEMINAR W/AARON MANES
The Enneagram is just one tool to help people understand how God has made, shaped, wired, and gifted them. Aaron Manes is an expert in the Enneagram and a wonderful coach in the process. Come join us to discover more about yourself and grow in your view of yourself, your neighbor, God, and the world.
LEADERSHIP & RULE OF LIFE SEMINAR W/DANNY COX
One of the most basic tools we believe each person needs to have in their belt is a "rule of life". If you don't know what a "rule of life" is then maybe this shorter seminar is for you. We will help each person write a personal rule of life and help with focusing ones values and direction of life. .