PODCAST · religion
The Table Church DC
by The Table Church DC
The Table Church is a multiracial, LGBTQI+ Affirming, Jesus-centered congregation in Washington, DC. Our vision is to embody a more beautiful gospel that announces collective liberation and the renewal of all things.
Episodes
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Love Runs Both Ways
Content note: this sermon discusses sex, consent, coercion and abuse in relationships, and church teaching about sexuality that has harmed people. "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does." Plenty of us heard that half of 1 Corinthians 7:4 used as a weapon. Paul...
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No Body Is for Sale
Content note: this sermon discusses sexual harm, sex work, and a Bible verse that has been used against LGBTQ people. Purity culture taught that bodies matter because they can be ruined. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says bodies matter because God raises them, lives in them, and has bought them.…
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The Church Keeps Judging the Wrong People
Content note: this episode includes frank discussion of sexual harm. Churches have a reputation for policing everyone else's behavior while ignoring the harm happening inside their own walls. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronts a community that looked the other way while a well-connected man...
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Excellent Answers Can’t Get You to Love
We live in an image-is-everything world. Influencers coach us on how to speak, how to present, and how to pitch ourselves to get ahead. Even in communities that prize curiosity and good questions, it's easy to trade the search for truth for the comfort of airtight answers. In this week of Hot...
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Church Is Basically One Big Group Project
Remember group projects? There was the partner who vanished, the one who did all the work, and the crush that made everything complicated. Community can feel the same way: a room full of people you didn't pick and can't control. So what do you do when belonging gets messy? Kicking off our fall...
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Commitment Isn't a Moment, It's a Thousand Steps
Ever had a big, dramatic moment — a decision, a promise, a "this changes everything" instant — that didn't actually change much? Pastor Tonetta opens with a story about the most intense altar call of her life, and what her body remembers isn't the music, it's the fear of being surrounded and...
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Who Actually Gets Invited to the Table
Every community has a guest list — and every guest list has an unspoken logic about who makes the cut. Tochi digs into why we default to inviting people who already look, think, and live like us, and what gets lost when we do. Using Encanto's "We don't talk about Bruno" and Janelle Monáe's Dirty...
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Who Told You That You Couldn't Dream Big?
Why do so many of us secretly believe there are things we're not allowed to want — a school, a job, a kind of joy — because of who we are? Antonio unpacks how internalized limits get planted early, and how they quietly run our lives long after we've "made it." Drawing on his own story — from a...
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What Happened After the Black Squares
Remember 2020? The marches, the black squares, the sense that everything was about to change? Six years later, a lot of that momentum has quietly faded back into business as usual. This episode sits with an uncomfortable question: what's the real difference between what we say we believe and what...
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Joy Is Not the Opposite of Justice
We're taught that changing the world costs everything: burning out, giving until it hurts, treating joy as a distraction from the work that actually matters. But what if that's backwards? Drawing on two one-paragraph parables from the Gospels, Octavia Butler's Earthseed novels, and — unexpectedly…
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When Being 'Wise' Means Leaving Someone Behind
In the summer of 1969, two completely different visions of the future played out at the same time — one aimed at the moon, the other rooted in a Harlem park packed with people who'd rather celebrate together than watch a flag get planted 250,000 miles away. This episode uses that split screen to...
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Gatekeeper or Gate Breacher? You Decide.
There's an old story about a rich man who feasts every day while a man named Lazarus lies hungry right outside his gate. The rich man knows his name. He still does nothing. Trevor Went pairs that story with Octavia Butler's time-travel novel Kindred to ask a question that's harder to answer than…
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Someone Else's Win Isn't Your Loss
Ever feel resentful when someone else gets a break you had to earn the hard way? This episode digs into why rest, time, and success can feel like a competition — and why that instinct might be lying to us. Pastor Heidi uses a 2,000-year-old story about day laborers getting paid unfairly (or so it...
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Imagination Is a Battleground, Not a Hobby
We're living in what feels like a dystopian novel — and Octavia Butler saw it coming in 1993. Her Parable of the Sower imagined a world of climate collapse, privatized towns, and a politician promising to "make America great again." When the future feels foreclosed, who gets to imagine what comes...
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Fear Is Not How You Steward Anything
Description: Most of us were handed a set of rules about sex before we were ever given a framework for thinking about it — and for many people, especially those raised in religious communities, those rules came wrapped in shame, fear, and silence. The damage is real, well-documented, and affects...
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Everyone Wants a Village, Nobody Wants the Bill
Most of us want the benefits of community — safety, belonging, mutual support — but bristle at the friction that actual community requires. This sermon confronts that tension directly: why do we wait until we're "rich enough" to give, and what does it really cost to be part of something? Pastor...
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Losing Your Grip to Find Your Life
Most of us carry more than we realize — not just stuff, but the anxiety that comes with it. The drive to accumulate, to secure, to hold on tight isn't a character flaw. It's what happens when we build our sense of self on things that can be taken away. In this sermon, Pastor Tonetta explores what...
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The Gifts at the Bottom of the Bag
What if one of the most important things we're carrying is something we forgot we had? In this week's installment of "Everything We Carry," Matt opens up 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 to talk about spiritual gifts — the ones we've buried, the ones we're nervous to use, and the ones that still…
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The Version of Power Nobody Taught You
Most of us learned that power means control — over people, outcomes, situations. But what if that definition is exactly what's breaking us, and breaking the world around us? Preached by Pastor Tonetta, this sermon uses the story of Antoinette Tuff — a bookkeeper who talked down an armed gunman...
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The River's Edge: Seeing What You Could Ignore
Most of us know we have some form of privilege — racial, economic, positional — but knowing it and actually doing something with it are very different things. What do you do with the guilt? The discomfort? The uncertainty about whether listening and learning is enough? Elder Daniel explores the...
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You Can't Rebuild What You Won't Grieve
We all carry things we don't talk about — grief, shame, exhaustion, ambivalence about money and power. Most of us walk into rooms and put on our composure, because that's what we've been taught is acceptable. But what happens when the weight of it finally has to land somewhere? Pastor Tonetta…
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47 Seconds Is All We Give Anything
You check your phone every 47 seconds. You say yes to everything and mean none of it. You refresh the news looking for a sign that something has finally gotten better. Somewhere in all of that, your actual life is happening — and nobody's really there for it. This week, Pastor Anthony looks at a...
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Your Ordinary Life Is Not Too Small
How do you keep living your regular life when the news is genuinely catastrophic? It's not denial — it's one of the most disorienting feelings of our moment. This week Pastor Anthony Parrott sits with that tension and refuses to offer an easy answer. Drawing on a post-resurrection story most…
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Jesus Didn't Come to Keep the Peace
What if the deepest problem isn't your worst habits or biggest failures — but your fear of death? And what if that fear is quietly behind almost every way we hurt ourselves and each other? In this Easter sermon, Pastor Toneta Landisina draws on the story of Lazarus to reframe resurrection as...
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The Third Option Nobody Talks About
When things feel out of control, most of us do one of two things: we retreat to what's familiar, or we come out swinging. But what if both of those instincts are actually traps — and there's a harder, stranger option that history keeps proving actually works? In this sermon, Pastor Anthony traces…
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Buy the Field Anyway: A Case for Stubborn Hope
What do you do when everything around you is collapsing — your community, your faith, your sense of home — and someone tells you to act like it's going to be okay? That's the tension at the heart of this talk, and it's not a hypothetical. It's the question Jeremiah faced in a jail cell while his...
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The Case for Crying in Public
Something is wrong, and a lot of us are carrying it alone. Whether it's personal loss, political exhaustion, or the weight of watching your community get hurt — grief has a way of isolating us exactly when we need each other most. In this sermon, Toochi Ngwangwa draws on the book of Jeremiah to...
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When God Asks "What Did I Do Wrong?"
What do you do when you've hardened — when grief, exhaustion, or the weight of the world has calcified something in you that used to feel things? This sermon sits with one of the oldest questions in the Bible: what happens to a relationship when one person walks away, and the other won't stop...
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When Things Shatter and Don't Go Back
What do you do when something breaks and can't be fixed? Not reshaped — actually shattered. Most of us build entire identities around those moments, and then spend years living inside the story we made up about what the breaking meant. Preached by Anthony Parrott, this sermon holds two truths at...
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Hearts of Stone Don't Have to Stay That Way
Most of us have learned to protect ourselves from pain by shutting down — closing off, going through the motions, settling for less than we actually want. It works, until it doesn't. This sermon asks a harder question: what happens when the numbness that kept you safe starts keeping you stuck?...
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Stop Pretending When You Pray
Many of us carry complicated feelings about prayer — maybe it was weaponized against us, maybe it felt hollow, or maybe we prayed hard for something and got silence in return. This episode sits with that tension honestly, without rushing past it. Antonio Ingram explores what prayer actually looks...
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Planting Trees You'll Never See Grow
You've been showing up, doing the work, trying to live with integrity—and the results aren't there. Policies get worse. People leave. Relationships fracture. So you're left with a brutal question: Is any of this actually worth it? This sermon explores the prophet Jeremiah, who preached justice…
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Beyond Resistance: Learning to Say Yes
When the ground beneath our feet feels unstable, how do we stay true to ourselves while adapting to a world that keeps shifting? Many of us know what it's like to recognize that the practices that once grounded us no longer feel sufficient—or worse, they deliver us back into shame and…
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The Clay Is Still Wet: Refusing Despair
Does the future feel inevitable to you? With authoritarianism, deportations, and relentless bad news, it's easy to believe everything is already decided—that we're just watching a slow collapse. Despair can start to feel rational, even responsible. But here's the problem: when we decide the…
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The Dangerous Comfort of Showing Up
What happens when the promises of progress turn into frustration? When the institutions we've trusted prove unfaithful? Drawing on MLK's lesser-known "three evils" speech and the ancient prophet Jeremiah, this sermon explores what it means to be faithful when everything you've taken for granted…
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Surviving Saturday: When Everything You Believed Collapses
Most of us feel like we missed the day in fourth grade when everyone else learned how to be enough. We know how to deconstruct harmful beliefs, but we've forgotten how to reconstruct something that can hold us. We're experts at spotting manipulation but have lost the ability to be moved. And when...
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They Asked the King Where's the King
Fear has a way of convincing us that silence and compliance will keep us safe—but what happens when staying quiet means cooperating with harm? This sermon explores how fear gets weaponized to control us, especially in times when oppressive power seems to be winning. Through the story of the Magi,...
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Scrubbing Off What American Christianity Got Wrong
What does biblical manhood actually look like? Spoiler: it's not what you've been told. This sermon explores the story of Joseph—a carpenter who had every reason to walk away from Mary's inexplicable pregnancy but chose something more difficult: solidarity, humility, and embracing mystery over...
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Saying Yes While Trembling: Mary, Jeremiah, and Inadequacy
Not all fear is the same. Some fear protects you from real danger—and if you've experienced religious trauma or spiritual abuse, those fears are legitimate. But other fear is trickier: it's the voice telling you you're not capable, not worthy, that you can't trust yourself. This sermon explores…
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Small Acts Matter When You Can't See Results
What do you do when giving up feels simpler than keeping going? When even the people you admire most are questioning whether any of this matters? This sermon explores why despair can feel like a guilty pleasure—offering a horrifying kind of consistency in chaotic times—and why that simplicity is...
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Learning to Hope in the Dark
What do you do when you've buried your hopes because holding onto them hurt too much? When the world feels so dark that giving up seems like the only way to survive the next day? This Advent sermon explores an uncomfortable truth: hope isn't always comforting—sometimes it's terrifying. Drawing…
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The Oppressed Will Win: Rereading Revelation
What if the book of Revelation isn't about escaping the world, but about resisting it? Drawing from visits to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing site and a memorial to lynching victims, this sermon reframes Revelation's final vision as a manual for living under empire—any empire that crushes...
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When Death Itself Dies
For centuries, Western Christianity has taught that hell means eternal conscious torment—but what if that's based on a mistranslation? This sermon digs into the Greek text of Revelation 20, the "millennium debate," and why early church theologians read the "lake of fire" as refining…
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The Book That Won't Let You Stay Comfortable
We've been told Revelation is about predicting the future or achieving the right political outcomes. But what if it's actually about something we can't control or engineer ourselves? This sermon explores how the Bible's most misunderstood book challenges both religious conservatives and…
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Justice, Mercy, and the Collapse of Empire
What do you do with biblical texts that depict God pouring out bowls of cosmic destruction? For those of us who believe in a nonviolent, loving God, passages like Revelation 15-16 create serious problems. They've been used to terrorize people and justify violence for centuries. This sermon offers…
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You're Fighting Systems, Not Just People
Why does doing the right thing seem to cost everything while everyone else appears to be thriving? And when resistance feels futile, is conformity really that bad? Using Revelation 13's symbolism of beasts and marks, this sermon cuts through religious jargon to expose how state power and…
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The Price Tag on Standing Up
We all participate in systems that harm people—it's nearly impossible not to. Your credit card, your phone, your morning coffee: all connected to exploitation somewhere down the line. So what do we do when opting out isn't really an option, but going along feels like giving up everything we stand...
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When the Bible Gets Weird and Wonderful
Ever wonder why the Bible ends with dragons, cosmic battles, and a woman giving birth in space? Turns out, Revelation 12 isn't trying to predict the future or scare you—it's doing something far more interesting. This passage takes everything the Bible has been saying about good, evil, death, and...
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The Four Horsemen and Finding Hope in Apocalyptic Times
What does it mean to witness suffering without becoming bitter or indifferent? Can you stare directly at systemic injustice and still believe in life? Using Assata Shakur's poem "Affirmation" and readings from Revelation 6-8, this sermon reframes ancient apocalyptic literature as a survival guide...
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When the Lion Turns Out to Be a Lamb
Ever wonder why the Bible is so hard to understand? It's not just because it's old—it's because we're missing the cultural references. Just like future generations won't get "boots with the fur" or calling 411 for information, we're 2,000 years removed from the world that wrote Revelation. This...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Table Church is a multiracial, LGBTQI+ Affirming, Jesus-centered congregation in Washington, DC. Our vision is to embody a more beautiful gospel that announces collective liberation and the renewal of all things.
HOSTED BY
The Table Church DC
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Table Church DC have?
The Table Church DC currently has 492 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Table Church DC about?
The Table Church is a multiracial, LGBTQI+ Affirming, Jesus-centered congregation in Washington, DC. Our vision is to embody a more beautiful gospel that announces collective liberation and the renewal of all things.
How often does The Table Church DC release new episodes?
The Table Church DC publishes regularly with 492 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Table Church DC?
You can listen to The Table Church DC on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Table Church DC?
The Table Church DC is created and hosted by The Table Church DC.
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