NextReformation interviews Sara Miles...

Len over at Next Reformation on the heels of just finishing Sara Miles book, " take this bread ", takes the time to track Sara down and interview her. I'll be posting some thoughts of my own on the book in the coming days, so stay tuned. I can say, it is a breath of fresh air...it will challenge,  and encourage you to live the gospel...to increase the boundaries of God's table.

Here is a snippet of the interview with Len and Sara, do yourself a favour grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy the conversation...

( Len Hjalmarson )...I've been thinking about the connection between listening as a powerful mode of hospitality, and welcoming the stranger. Henri Nouwen writes,

"To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept. .. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you." Henri Nouwen

I love this; it seems to hit at something deeply true about the gospel - that unless we create safe places for others, there is little chance they will ever know they are loved. One of the strong refrains in your book is the "open table." Do you think we have hope of deeply engaging the world apart from an open table?

( Sara Miles )...Well, the Table is open....eternally. When churches forget that it's God's Table, and act as if it's theirs to control, then they lose God's power to touch, heal, feed and love without exception.

Read the whole interview here, over at Next Reformation.