Oli otya bamukwano, Mukama yebazibwe (hello friends how are you, praise the Lord),
Have you ever sat on your front porch and listened to your parents, grandparents, or some older, wiser person having a conversation? Maybe they weren’t talking to you at all. But as you listened, you learned. That was part of the inspiration behind our Roundtables.
From the Porch to the Roundtable
When we first began doing Roundtables, we had a group of men—pastors and ministry leaders—sitting around a table having a conversation while others listened in.
The idea was simple: come and listen to wisdom.
We wanted it to feel a little like sitting on the porch listening to your elders talk. You could hear different perspectives, stories, experiences, and biblical wisdom simply by listening to the conversation.
After the panel talked for about 45 minutes, we opened the floor for another 45 minutes of questions and answers. It sounded like a great plan.
And then we tried it.
We quickly discovered something.
People would stand up to ask a question and sometimes spend ten minutes talking about everything under the sun—sometimes with very little connection to the topic we were actually discussing!
So we changed the format.
Instead of people standing to ask questions, we asked them to write their questions down. A mediator collected the questions, quickly read through them, and presented them to the panel. That worked better. And we continued doing Roundtables that way for several years.
But as we did more and more of them, we began noticing something else.
People were enjoying the Roundtables, but something was missing.
The panel sitting at the front of the room was beginning to feel more like a classroom lecture than a conversation on the front porch.
And we didn’t want people simply to listen. We wanted them to think. We wanted them to process. We wanted them to open God’s Word and wrestle with what Scripture says about the real issues they are facing in their culture and in their daily lives.
So we prayed.
And we prayed some more.
We asked God to show us how to make the learning more effective for the people we are serving.
Then God gave us an opportunity to make a major change.
We Needed to Change the Way We Were Learning
When we took a break from running the full-time School of Ministry, we suddenly had some additional bandwidth to implement change. So we made a big change.
We cleared the room.
We put a large sign on one wall that said YES.
Another wall said NO.
And another said MAYBE.
When people arrive, Deborah stands outside and welcomes them. She explains how the Roundtable works, give each person a chair, tells them the topic, and asks them to choose which sign they will sit under.
For our upcoming August Roundtable, the question will be:
“Is it okay to get a second partner?”
People choose YES, NO, or MAYBE.
Then the mediator begins the discussion.
Each group is asked to explain why they chose their answer. The mediator moves from group to group, allowing people to hear different perspectives.
And then something really interesting happens.
People are allowed to change their minds.
If you hear something that changes your thinking, you simply pick up your chair and move to the sign that now represents what you believe. There is no shame in changing your mind. In fact, we want people to learn that changing your mind when you discover that your thinking doesn’t agree with God’s Word is a good thing.
We encourage people to support their answers biblically. Not simply: “This is what I think.”
But: “This is what I think—and here is what I believe God’s Word says about it.”
And at the end of the evening, Pastor Mugoya Joel, the lead pastor of The Bridge Calvary Chapel and a teacher at our School of Ministry, helps us bring the conversation back to the most important question:
What does the Lord say?
Because our goal isn’t simply to have interesting conversations. Our goal is to bring our thinking into alignment with God’s thinking.
Biblical Thinking Leads to Biblical Living
We are now doing Roundtables this way four times each year, and praise God, the people here are loving it!
They come ready to discuss.
They come ready to wrestle with ideas.
They come ready to hear what other people think.
And most importantly, they are learning to bring those ideas into the light of Scripture.
As an education director, this makes my heart happy. Why? Because I don’t simply want people to know what we believe. I want them to learn how to think biblically.
Our culture gives us plenty of ideas about relationships, marriage, family, money, leadership, morality, and how we should live. But as followers of Jesus, we have a different question to ask: What does God say?
Our prayer is that as people examine their thoughts against God’s Word, their thinking will begin to change. And as their thinking changes, their actions will change. And as their actions change, their lives will increasingly reflect Christ.
Biblical thinking leads to biblical actions.
Biblical actions lead to godly lives.
Lord, do what You want with these people.
You Can Be Part of This
God is using HUPSOS and Called Christians in many different ways to advance His Kingdom, and we couldn’t be more pleased. The Roundtable is just one of those ways.
It does take resources to make it happen. It costs approximately $386 USD to host a Roundtable, advertise it, record it, and make it available online afterward. Would you consider helping us make the next one happen?
You can give a one-time gift of $386, or you can give approximately $130 per month to help make four Roundtables possible over the course of a year.
But perhaps even more importantly, would you pray?
- Pray for the people who will sit in those chairs.
- Pray they will be willing to examine what they believe.
- Pray they will open God’s Word.
- Pray the Holy Spirit will bring conviction where conviction is needed, encouragement where encouragement is needed, and truth where there is confusion.
- And pray God will use these conversations to make disciples who make disciples, because that’s what we’re after.
Creating biblical thinking, one soul at a time.
And the Conversation Doesn’t Have to End
One of the beautiful things about our Roundtables is that the conversation can continue long after everyone leaves the room.
Praise God for Spev, who faithfully records these discussions and gets them posted online. That means someone can watch years later and still learn from the conversation. You can find our previous Roundtables, click here:
Roundtable Playlist on YouTube
Thank you for praying.
Thank you for giving.
Thank you for believing that what happens here in Uganda matters for the Kingdom of God. We are grateful that God allows us to serve Him in this place.
Lord, may we faithfully serve You.
Mukama akuwe omukisa! (God bless you!)
The Jinja Team
P.S. It takes approximately $386 USD to host one Roundtable. Would you consider donating to make another one happen? Or, for about $130 USD per month, you can help make Roundtables possible throughout the year. Click here to donate.
