Exploring the Angles of God's Mission in the West (An Acts 29 Event)

"He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
- Luke 14:12-14

Last Friday night, EBC hosted an Acts 29 event called Exploring the Angles of God's Mission in the West with pastor, author and speaker Tony Merida. All I can say is, if you didn't make it along to the event, make it a priority to listen to the audio here.

Tony beautifully captured something that is incredibly vital to the way we do church at EBC. To quote as Tony did from Steve Timmis and Tim Chester in Total Church: "Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality". In particular, Tony focused in on one of the most basic areas of "ordinary life": the table. When we look at the gospels, we see this in the life of Jesus. He spent much of his ministry teaching in peoples houses and over a meal. He was even called a glutton and a drunkard by his opponents because he always seemed to be at a party.

In an increasingly tense cultural climate, the role of basic hospitality  is going to be increasingly essential for the church. But we must not confuse hospitality with our cultures version of entertaining. Hospitality in the Bible is defined as love for the stranger, not hanging with our buddies. It is an extended hand of friendship to the outsider. Rosaria Butterfield in The Gospel Comes with a Housekey writes  “Radically ordinary hospitality is this: using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God.” This is our aim. Making strangers neighbours, and neighbours family.

Enoggera - we can do this. You can do this. We can love people by extending to them the most basic form of friendship - a meal. I'd encourage you to think through who in your life you can love in this way that doesn't know the love of God. You also might want to grab one of the two books I've referenced above to help you think through and grow in these things.

As Tony said when teaching on Luke 14:12-14: "according to Jesus, who you have over for dinner on the last day matters". Let's not forget that.

To God be the glory.
- Pastor Mike