J.R. Briggs

Reggie McNeal and his wife have three grown daughters. When the oldest one went off to college the family helped her move into her new dorm, met her roommate and got her settled in before pulling away in the family minivan.

The family drove home together. Later that night, they sat down at the family dinner table. Reggie was used to seeing the five chairs around the dinner table occupied, but now he looked around. Someone was missing. Five chairs around the table. Only four chairs were full. He started to pray for the meal…and he just couldn’t. He started to cry because he missed his oldest daughter so much. He realized that the family was not complete without his oldest daughter being there…and it broke his heart.

For Reggie, it hit him: this is how God counts attendance. God sees who is in attendance at our churches, but he grieves over who isn’t there that could and should be. Reggie could have sat there and said, ‘Well, look at this. Having four out of five seats full at the dinner table ain’t bad. That’s 80% capacity. We’re doing pretty good for our little family, aren’t we?” But instead, he noticed who wasn’t there – and he couldn’t get over it.

Imagine if we counted attendance in our churches the way God counts attendance? 
Imagine if we counted who wasn’t at the table of the family of God but should be – the lost, the hurting, the elderly, the younger generations, those who have been cast to the fringes of society.

When we learn to count those not in attendance – and we desire to reorient our lives in such a way that we want to do something about it – we begin to think with a kingdom imagination and our hearts beat with the heartbeat of God.

God is the God of the Empty Chair. What would have to happen if every church was a Church of the Empty Chair?

May our hearts break for who isn’t at the table. Because the good news of Jesus is that there is always room for one more at the family dinner table. Always.