The Table West: A Community for Young Adults

When driving down Maple Street there is a blue building right behind CVS Pharmacy called City Station. This building holds many different things including a daycare facility, student housing and church services. It also hosts a unique organization called The Table West. The Table West is a religious organization for 22-35 year-olds who are seeking community and friendship, while also participating in weekly worship services. This organization has not been operating long but upon first launching the program things were put to a pause.

“We started in January of 2020 and our goal was to launch our first program in April of 2020 but when COVID-19 hit it put everything on hold,” said Keith Trollinger, the Pastor and leader of The Table West. “We continued to meet through Zoom during the pandemic and rescheduled the launch date for the end of June and since then we have been meeting every Tuesday night.

            “Our programming will have services where I teach or we will have a guest speaker where we will teach through the Bible and we will do worship,” continued Trollinger. “Sometimes we will also have small groups as well where the speaker will come up with ten questions and then the members will break out into small groups and talk through scripture and life.”

Along with meeting Tuesday nights, The Table West engages in other activities as well. These activities allow for their members to have fun and grow together as a community.

“If we don’t do small groups we will do a lot of yard games that young adults love to play,” said Trollinger. “We also have Butter’ Dudder and AGW come or some sort of food truck come out and just music playing to provide a cool vibe for young adults to be in.”

There are not many organizations that cater towards 22-35 year olds, and since they are fresh out of college and getting into the world, community is highly important.

            “In this age range you have the millennials and the Gen Z’s that once this group gets out of college there is nothing much that a lot of churches offer for them,” said Trollinger. “In the church world there is usually something for junior high, elementary and high school kids and college, but when you get out of college there is nothing really available for you.

            “We found that a lot of young adults are looking for community and looking for a place to belong but don’t know how to communicate,” continued Trollinger. “We thought that we have an incredible opportunity to provide a healthy community to them while drawing them back into the local church.”

            With their mission in mind, they have been able to provide a sense of community for many young adults in Carrollton. The Table West has also been able to provide long lasting memories for the members and the staff workers.

            “The conversations that I get to have with these young adults and just talking through the word of God is definitely something that I love to do,” said Trollinger. “It has also been so fun being able to see a community of people hang out together and watch them mature in faith.”