THE QUICK SUMMARY

The Turquoise Table provides a simple way to connect your neighborhood, your community and build friendships.

Are you consumed with a busy life but unsure how to slow down? Do you desire connection within your community and think, “Absolutely, but I don’t have time for that” or “I can’t create that”? What if there was another way through it all, a way to find those moments of peace and to create a time for honest, comfortable connection? What if meeting neighbors and connecting with friends was as simple as showing up and being available?

Desperate for a way to slow down and connect, Kristin Schell put an ordinary picnic table in her front yard, painted it turquoise, and began inviting friends and neighbors to join her. Life changed in her community and it can change in yours, too. Alongside personal and heartwarming stories, Kristin gives you:

• Stress-free ideas for kick-starting your own Turquoise Table
• Simple recipes to take outside and share with others
• Stories from people using Turquoise Tables in their neighborhoods
• Encouragement to overcome barriers that keep you from connecting
• New ways to view hospitality

Today, Turquoise Tables are inviting individuals to connect with each other in nearly all fifty states and seven countries. Ordinary people like you wanting to make a difference right where they live.

Community and friendship are waiting just outside your front door.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

As a busy mother of four, author Kristin Schell was afraid her family was becoming disconnected and distracted by technology, school, church activities, volunteer involvement – and on and on.

She wanted to create something rich and real that she had experienced as a teenager. Looking back to memories of a high school study time in France, she created the concept of the Turquoise Table – a way to create community right where you live. 

During that time, she experienced the importance of gathering around tables to share meals and life. People gathered three times a day, giving a whole new meaning to “leisurely meal.” It was a slower, authentic time to connect. Her experience at the table was more than a meal; it was nourishment for her soul.

For Schell, the Turquoise Table is a place for everyone from every walk of life to sit down in safety, dignity, respect, and love – to be heard and to belong.

The Turquoise Table led to a revival of community in the simplest place of all: a table in her front yard.

Sometimes we are called far and wide on a mission, but more often we are called to love others in our everyday, ordinary lives…right where we live: in our own front yards.

The generations before us knew something we have forgotten about opening up their lives and homes to others through the simplicity of the front porch, a carefree lifestyle, being neighbors to neighbors.

What would it take to reclaim community in a simple and authentic way?

First, we’ve got to debunk the myth that hospitality is the same as entertainment. Genuine hospitality begins with opening our lives. It’s just as important to open up our lives. It’s just as important to open up our lives as it is our homes, and sharing who we are is far more important than sharing what we bake.

It all starts with inviting people to come to the table. Hospitality is always about the people, not the presentation.

Hospitality always feels small when you hold it in your hands. It’s not until you let it go, released like an offering, that you see how extravagant and hallowed it is. Building community, investing in the lives right in front of us, requires us to take the long view.

The table is a visible reminder of God’s love. An invitation to welcome others into the mundane, everyday moments of our lives. The beauty of the table lies in its simplicity, making an easy way to be present and available to listen. People want to be heard. You will connect if you open your ears and your heart.

Being present and listening is the foundation to hospitality. 

Kristen Schell, The Turquoise Table: Finding Community and Connection in Your Own Front Yard

A NEXT STEP 

If you are busy and overwhelmed, the last thing you need is one more project, one more thing to do. As author Kristen Schell illustrates in her book, the Turquoise Table offers simplicity. It’s more than a table; it’s a symbol of reaching out and making room without all the fuss and frenzy.

Here are a few of Schell’s ideas on how you can create your own Turquoise Table and reach out to your neighbors:

• Make a list of backyard activities you and your family enjoy.
• What events or gatherings already happen in your neighborhood?
• What aspect of hospitality feels hard for you? What holds you back?
• When have you struggled to belong or felt excluded? Has God put anyone on your heart who might feel left out, who might not have intuitively been invited to the table? Make room for that person, and invite them to your table.
• There’s always a reason, no matter the season, to bring people to the table. Here are a few creative ways to celebrate in the upcoming months:
  • Back-to-school (even especially if your school is in your family room!)
  • Halloween – Host a neighborhood soup party before trick-or-treating
  • Thanksgiving – Host a “friendsgiving” potluck feast
  • St. Nicholas Day (December 6) – Celebrate the traditional saint’s day by leaving chocolate coins and oranges on the doorsteps of homes with young children

Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston implemented the turquoise table concept across their community. Who in your church naturally demonstrates the gift of hospitality? Invite them into a conversation about bringing hospitality home to every household in your church.