Thank you for picking up this little book about getting back to the table. Pastor John Adolph of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church and I have collaborated to offer simple, scriptural reflections to help you journey for 60 days and reflect on this important message.
In Southeast Texas we are a believing community, a family of faith. Our hope is that two shepherds from different Christian traditions are able to model the importance of working together for the common good. We truly love, respect, and appreciate each other.
By focusing on the different tables that appear in the Scriptures, we hope to reinforce the importance of getting back to the table: the table of the family and the table of the Lord. Repetition is the mother of learning, and so these 60 reflections are meant to drive home the importance of getting back to the table.
We believe that getting the families of our community to sit down at least 2 to 3 days a week can transform and lay a solid foundation for both marriages and children. There are so many obstacles to family life that we hope this book serves as a reminder of how essential getting back to the table is for the future of our civil society.
The second step of our campaign is to do our very best to get people back to the table of the Lord, back to church. In a post-Covid world, we need to be reminded of the essential nature of Christian community and fellowship, and the nourishment that the Lord Jesus desires to give us at His table every Sunday.
I am so grateful to my brother, Pastor Adolf, for wanting to do this project together. Our prayer is that our collaboration reminds the community of the importance of working together in our beautiful multicultural family of faith. May Southeast Texas continue to grow in the image and likeness of Christ as we work to build up the Kingdom of God for our good and the good of all His Church!
Bishop David L. Toups
Diocese of Beaumont
AUTHOR BIOS:
Dr. John R. Adolph is an honors graduate from the Interdenominal Theological Center, Morehouse School of Religion (MDIV) in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also an honors graduate of the Houston Graduate School of Theology (DMIN) in Houston, Texas. Dr. Adolph is the Pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas, where he has served faithfully since 1996. He is a gifted teacher and preacher of the Word of God.
Bishop David Toups was ordained and installed the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Beaumont on August 21, 2020. Growing up as the youngest of three children in both Louisiana and Florida, he was ordained a priest in 1997 for the Diocese of St. Petersburg. He has previously served in parish ministry in Florida, in the office of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations in Washington, DC, and as a seminary professor, dean, and rector/president at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. He is now a proud Texan!