The Biggest Table

In this episode, I am joined by the owner and founder of Wild Goose Coffee, Nate Westwick. We talk about coffee a lot, but more than just coffee, we talk about why coffee is important for communities, and how coffee might help us pay attention to the world around us. We also talk about Nate’s new book, Clearing the Path, and his journey as an author.

Nathan Westwick is the owner and founder of Wild Goose Coffee Roasters, a specialty coffee roaster in Redlands, CA. He is a former high school math teacher who also works in the Spiritual Formation department at Sandals Church, a multi-site church in Southern California, creating content aimed at bringing people along in their personal discipleship journey. Nathan recently published his first book, Clearing the Path: Connecting with God in a Cluttered World. He lives in the Redlands area with his wife of 24 years and his three teenage boys.

Wild Goose Coffee
Buy Clearing the Path on Amazon.

For our listeners, Wild Goose is offering a special promotion of 20% off a one time order using the code TABLE at checkout. To learn more and to order coffee, please visit wildgoosecoffee.com. 

A chance encounter with a gentleman back in 2008, while he and his church were cleaning and restoring a cemetery, sent Chris questioning how and why he did church, In 2018 he began to find answers to these questions when he started a garden. Since 2018, Chris has sought to fight food insecurity in his zipcode in Knoxville, seeking to transform a food desert into a food oasis through Battlefield Farm and Garden.

I was fortunate enough to sit down and have a wonderful conversation about Chris's journey and the incredible work he is doing for his community. In some ways he has become pastor to more people through planting a garden, people who would never step foot into a church.

Originally from Cincinnati, Chris has earned degrees from Morehouse College, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Cincinnati Bible College. Since then, he has pastored churches in Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee, while also being an adjunct professor both in the US and abroad. He has also been an active member of his communities, working with diverse faith groups to tackle pressing issues, including gun violence and creation care. 

In 2018, his life trajectory changed when he started a community garden, named Battlefield Farm, across the street from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN, which opened his eyes to the effect of food disparity in his community. Since 2018, the garden has grown and now includes the Eastside Sunday Market. Chris now also is helping other churches and organizations establish gardens.

Battlefield Farm: https://battlefieldfarm.org/
Chris Battle Instagram: @battlefieldfarm
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/battlefieldfarmandgardens

This episode is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee, creating better community through coffee since 2008. Please visit www.wildgoosecoffee.com to buy fresh roasted coffee and to contribute to better communities. 

In this episode, I am joined by my friend from graduate school, Jen Manglos. Jen leads people as a pilgrimage guide, having walked all or parts of the Camino de Santiago multiple times. Jen shares how being a pilgrim has shaped her view of food and hospitality, while also sharing ways in which she has grown in embracing her own embodiedness and limitations. Through walking as a pilgrim she reveals to us that a lot of the way of the pilgrim is lived through a posture of receptivity and not taking.

As a spiritual director, pastor, and pilgrimage guide, Jen Manglos delights in helping others discover their own belovedness in God through an embodied, creative approach to spirituality. Since receiving her MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from the Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology she has moved into providing care and support for wanderers, women, and leaders in the ministry and nonprofit worlds. She currently resides in Seattle where she is enjoying that PNW life.

To learn more about Jen and her work as a pilgrimage guide, please visit: www.jenmanglos.com.

This episode is brought to you in part by Wild Goose Coffee, creating better community through coffee since 2008. Please visit www.wildgoosecoffee.com to buy fresh roasted coffee and to contribute to better communities. 

Food occupies a central place and sometimes disproportionate place in our lives. Researchers have noted that we make over 200 food choices a day, many without much deliberation.  And so whether our thoughts about food center around having too little or too much, whether we have a distorted view of food or a healthy view of food, food and eating is something we all have to partake in in order to survive. 

And so the question I think we must ask ourselves is will food, the table and hospitality be used as a space for growth and for transformation, not only for ourselves, but for others as well.  As a person seeking to follow Jesus through loving God and loving my neighbor, I see time and time again, food being used in the Bible to communicate some really deep truths. 

From the very beginning, God places humanity in a garden full of amazing and diverse foods for us to eat.  But it's not too long before food becomes the avenue through which sin, destruction and brokenness enter into the world and affects all of creation, including ourselves.  But God doesn't leave humanity to figure out a way back to him.

He seeks to restore that relationship. And when he wants to communicate  salvation, he seems to always use food. Think about it, the Passover. Images of the messianic age showing up in the prophets, to the Lord's Supper, and at the very end, at the final book of Revelation, we see the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. 

In all of these, food play a prominent role in how God communicates His salvation.  But then let's think about while Jesus was here on Earth, and what do we find Jesus doing time and time again?  He eats.  He loves to eat. He loves to tell stories about food. He loves to be with people in their homes and at their tables regardless of any human created identity markers. 

And so as I've read and I've studied and I've talked with others, I have come to see food, the table, and hospitality as a deep expression of God's love for us and our love for one another.  As we prepare food, as we share food, as we eat together, there is this space that is created where foes can become friends and transformation occurs not only for our guests, but more importantly for ourselves.

And in an age defined by factions and tribalism, what better way to break down these barriers than through sharing a meal together?  That's what I want to explore in this podcast, The Biggest Table. Through stories, through biblical, theological, and psychological reflection, I want to explore the table as a means of experiencing God's transformative love. 

I hope you will join me on this journey as we discover in new and fresh ways what it means to be transformed by God's love around the table and through food and taking that transformation for more and more people to partake in themselves.  Welcome to The Biggest Table. 

In this episode, I turn the hosting duties over to my friend Peter Englert, as he interviews me. This is a chance for you to get to know me and my journey with food from daily dinners with the family to meals shared in China to my relationship with Grandpa to cooking professionally. As I reflect on my journey with Peter, I begin to see cooking as a way that I experience God's delight in me. It hasn't always been easy, and it definitely isn't easy right now, but food has become a central theme in my life.

Peter's Bio:
Peter Englert serves as the Adult Ministries Director at Browncroft Community Church. He married Robyn and along with their daughters Hayley and Lucy, they reside in Rochester, NY. Peter graduated from the University of Valley Forge with a B.A. in Pastoral Ministries and an M.A. of Theology. He's an avid fan of the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, Buffalo Sabres, New York Jets, and the LA Galaxy. You can find him in a coffee shop enjoying a good discussion or walking around his neighborhood.

In this episode I talk with my good friend Monica Romig-Green, and her journey with food, starting with her family to sharing meals with her good friend Mike. After, we talk ministry, food, and being with people.

Monica was born and raised in Southern California and fell in love with Canada after living in Toronto in the early 2010s.  She was ordained as a transitional deacon in June 2023 and is deeply honoured to be serving as Assistant Curate at Christ's Church Cathedral, Hamilton, Ontario.   Before following a call to ordained ministry, Monica had three previous careers:  as a professional actor, a theatre administrator, and a spiritual director.  All these experiences have shaped the way Monica approaches ministry, focusing on communication, community care, and spiritual growth.  She holds degrees from Stanford University, Talbot School of Theology, and Trinity College Faculty of Divinity, and has written and taught on prayer, improvisation, and spiritual formation.    Monica is also passionate about theatre and movies and delights in discussing the latest in pop culture.  She loves living in Hamilton with her brilliant husband Matthew - a scholar and writer on Christian spirituality and neuropsychology.

Monica's Websites:

• https://www.playwithoutceasing.com/
• https://monica-romig-green.com/

In this episode, I have a conversation with Alex Mandes, who has worked extensively with churches to help them embrace the multi-cultural reality all around them. We especially focus on the nature of meals within Latino culture (which is naturally diverse in and of itself), while also talking about Jesus on the margins.

Alex Mandes is a leader within the multicultural churches. He has worked with the Evangelical Free Church of America, and has also trained thousands of Latino pastors. He is the author of Embracing the New Samaria.

In this episode, I talk with Michael Frost, author and international speaker, who has written extensively on the mission of the church and how the church might move forward in today's culture. He shares his insight into meals and how they shaped the early church, and how we might recover that today.

Check out his newest book Mission Is the Shape of Water, a fascinating look at the history of the church.

Mike Frost's website: mikefrost.net.

In this inaugural episode of The Biggest Table, I am joined by my good friend, Ty Hoad. Ty recounts his own journey with food and unreasonable expectations he put on people. We also look back at the meals we have shared together, including peach donuts, white truffle risotto, and smoked Waygu short ribs.