To invite or not?

Susie and I were discussing the other night whether or not to invite friends over for dinner. Both of us were tired and the house was a wreck.

(We have been remodeling our house, including a full kitchen gut job, since November.)

Sound familiar? Here is a little glimpse “behind the curtain” into our thinking.

Principle 1: All people have intrinsic value by virtue of being created in God’s image. Therefore all people should be honored and valued as bearers of this image. See post “Outreach and the Image of God”)

Therefore, as a reflection of the character of God, relationships with others are to be highly valued and pursued, even above our personal desires for peace and retreat.

Principle 2: There is no ministry switch to turn off and on, there is only life. The issue is whether we are going to live life in light of the mission we have been given to glorify God by loving God and loving people. We are either living on mission or we are not.

So as people who highly value others and who also highly value the command of God to build relationships for the purpose of gospel expansion, (and as people who have been gripped by the power of the gospel to such an extent that a guest bathroom with no door is not a deterrent from having people over) we had a great and chaotic time over dinner with neighbors.

You see, we don’t really get to choose when “ministry” happens. We say that there is no sacred / secular distinction. A musician playing music to the glory of God is just as pleasing to God as the pastor who is preaching for the glory of God. Yet when it comes to our lives we are all too ready to draw lines and set up walls separating “ministry” from the rest of “normal” life. (Of course I recognize that proper boundaries need to be set. But those boundaries are probably being overworked in most of our lives.)

Well, we can’t have people over because the kids are crazy. We can’t have people over because the dog hasn’t been washed. We can’t have people over because the hallway hasn’t been painted. We can’t have people over because the table has homework and tax information all over it.

So the God of the universe is establishing and expanding his church, which he says that the very gates of Hell cannot prevail against it, yet a messy kitchen table can stop kingdom expansion in its tracks? ;-)

We are called to live lives that are out in the open for the purpose of coming into contact with others for the sake of the gospel, eating dinner, playing sports, rubbing shoulders with those God, in his overarching plan, has placed in our path, in our neighborhood. We say God is sovereign over all of life, yet we live life as if the non-christian moving in next door chose that house by happenstance. Let us embrace the mission that we have been given as we seek to pursue relationships with those around us.

“Fire up the grill honey, ________ is coming over for dinner!”