Up until this point, the reader has learned about the big problem facing the church in America, specifically with the millennial generation; they no longer want to attend our current churches. While this generation is spiritual, they do not connect with the
contemporary medium of church. The reader has also learned about the tables Chris has experienced in his life that have illuminated the importance and value of gathering as a church community. This last section will ask the reader what tables they have in their life that could help draw them back to the church.
Chapter 20:
In this chapter, I will ask the reader to look into the mirror. The whole point of sharing some of my experiences around the table was to help expand the reader’s mind and to be able to see different tables in their own life that have helped to nurture and grow their faith. This chapter is all about application; how might the reader live differently and engage the church with renewed passion and commitment when they consider what it might look like to gather around tables and food.
Intended Readers:
The primary audience would include: • Pastors
• Millennials who no longer attend church
• Those who are looking for a new expression of church • Church planters
• Church leaders • Seminary students
The secondary audience would include:
• The “nones” – those who claim no religious affiliation. • Those looking to practice better hospitality in their life.
Manuscript: Section 2 and section 3 are completed. The completed book should be around 30,000 words. Four months will be needed to complete it.
Author Bio:
Christopher Lapp began his career as a College ministry minister in the Seattle area. He later moved to co-pastor a non-denominational church in Long Beach, California while completing his Master of Arts Degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. Upon
graduation, he continued serving his congregation and community in Long Beach. He started his Doctoral Studies at Portland Seminary and began studying gathering church communities around tables and food.
In 2015, his family moved back to the Seattle area after the birth of their first child to be closer to their extended family. Since moving, Chris has served as an adjunct professor at a local university and currently works in the Seattle tech industry while worshipping and serving at the local Anglican Church in whatever capacity is needed. He is expected to complete his Doctor of Ministry in Semiotics and Future Studies from Portland Seminary under the tutelage of Leonard Sweet in 2017.
Chris has been married for 8 years to Samantha Lapp, Director of Children’s Ministry at Holy Trinity Church in Edmonds, WA. They have two young children. He is an avid reader and writer, a want-to-be traveler, and committed to making and eating healthy food.
Publishing Credits: Lapp and written several blogs on his website and has been featured on Portland Seminary’s blog.
Future Projects:
The Weakness of God: Rediscovering the Path to Inner Healing
Jesus redeemed the world through his death. In God’s weakness, strength was brought to humanity. We live in a world that is always looking to boast in our strengths. However, the apostle Paul understood there was power in weakness – something he learned from his own life and from the life of Christ. In this book, Lapp unpacks the life-giving irony that weakness leads to strength.
The Gift of Pain: The Redemption Found While Living with Chronic Pain
After being diagnosed with a debilitating form of chronic arthritis, Lapp has been faced with the sorrow of suffering. In this memoir, Lapp takes the reader on a journey through the journey of his diagnosis and the lessons he has learned from it. While the pain has not left, his perspective has shifted to be able to find the gift in the pain.
Fathered: Lessons from the Fatherless
Losing his father at the age of twelve was one of the most devastating experiences Lapp has ever faced. In this memoir, Lapp takes the reader on the journey through the losing of his father at such a pivotal age. He discusses the lessons he has learned on his journey from being a fatherless teenager to beginning his own journey into fatherhood. Through the stories, we learn that Lapp was being Fathered all along by the one who calls Himself, “The Father to the fatherless.”
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I initially started this program with the intention of discussing more effective ways the church could engage with popular American culture. The church has been losing the culture wars for years in America and it has been turning my generation, the millennials, away from church. With this in mind, I started my research. They spent a considerable amount of time researching the early church and how they engaged culture. My studies led me to learn more about the ancient agape feast, or love meals, which was the hallmark of early church gatherings. I quickly began to see how these communities shaped the congregants’ perspective toward loving and serving the other – especially through ancient Roman plagues and persecutions. This showed me the value of rediscovering this medium for future church gathering.
As I began to research my generation I quickly began to note how the values of the millennial generation would greatly compliment the rediscovery of church
communities gathering around the table. With this in mind, I refocused of my dissertation to further study how the medium of ancient agape feasts compliments the values of the millennial generation and how agape feasts speak the language of a generation who has not rejected faith but the medium through which faith is presented. Studying semiotics under Dr. Leonard Sweet helped to reinforce the importance of building a framework for faith in the postmodern world that is experiential, participatory, image-rich, and
connected. The table is one of the best mediums I know to connect all four of those aspects of faith in a way that effectively communicates the gospel to the millennial generation.
This dissertation, then, represents what it might look like to construct our church gatherings around tables and food instead of pulpits and pews. Using research from the early church’s engagement with culture and the millennial disconnect from contemporary churches, I build the problem this dissertation seeks to find a solution to. After walking through other approaches to this issue, as seen through Phyllis Tickle, Leslie Newbigin, and Alan Hirsch, I offer my thesis of the table being an effective medium to communicate the gospel to the millennial generation in America.
I believe that by engaging the conversation about changing the medium through which the gospel is communicated by structuring the future of the church in the
framework of the ancient Agape Feasts, my original topic of how the church can best engage with popular culture is answered. Around the table the church will learn to look into the eyes of the marginalized, the outcast, and the “other” and see that everyone is human. It is hard to have a fundamentalist binary belief system while eating and
communing with people who don’t see life the same way. The table provides the perfect environment to gain compassion and love for God and his image bearers.
I believe this dissertation is a great first step into exploring how the ancient Agape Feasts can be implemented in the future of the church. There has not been much study in this specific area and I believe this dissertation is a great contribution to a thin area of study and expertise. A helpful future area of study would be to research more in depth the liturgy of these ancient gatherings. Although I make mention of a few examples of the ancient table liturgies, it would be helpful to gain a fuller picture of what these gatherings looked like. Another area of future study would be to engage the effectiveness of Agape Feast type gathering currently happening in different parts of the world.
This dissertation has taught me a lot about the ancient church and it has also given me great hope for my generation, the millennials. More than ever, I believe the church needs to begin to look at how it can gather around tables and food. While this might not be a lucrative profession for my pastors, I believe this will create dynamic church communities that will be better equipped to love and serve an ever-diversifying world with the hope that is found the gospel of Jesus Christ. My hope is that my artifact, which is a book proposal, will open millennials to the conversation of church around the table and that it will inspire people to begin to reflect how they might create church
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