Step One: Issue a genuine invitation to one or more of your neighbours."We'd love it if you could join us for a a BBQ next week. Are there any nights that work for you?"
Step Two: Make a big deal about their arrival.
"We all need to eat and drink to stay alive. But having a meal is more than eating and drinking. It is celebrating the gifts of life we share. A meal together is one of the most intimate and sacred human events. Around the table we become vulnerable, filling one another’s plates and cups and encouraging one another to eat and drink. Much more happens at a meal than satisfying hunger and quenching thirst. Around the table we become family, friends, community, yes, a body. That is why it is so important to “set” the table. Flowers, candles, colorful napkins all help us to say to one another, ‘This is a very special time for us, let’s enjoy it!’” Henri Nouwen
Step Three: Address their needs
Focus, focus, focus. On them. Not the game or anything else that distracts you!
Step Four: Send them out with a blessing.
1 Peter 4:9-11
Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!
1 comment:
An open heart is conducive to being hospitable.
Being able to forgive also helps to being generous.
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