A short teaching block from our weekly Friends of BPC email. Updated each week.
A meal is never just a meal
The very first believers did not simply attend a weekly meeting. Luke tells us they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). A huge part of that devotion happened around shared meals and open homes.
Maybe we are too quick to divide life into the “spiritual” bits and the “ordinary” bits. Maybe when Christians gather, there is really no such thing as an ordinary meal. Through the apostles’ teaching, prayer and fellowship, Christ himself is remembered and welcomed to the centre whenever his people eat together.
That is what hospitality ministry is: opening our homes in the service of Christ. Not entertaining, not impressing, but sharing our lives and our tables so that people are drawn closer to Jesus and to his family.
I would love for our church to be a place where the front door swings open easily, where a shared meal is a normal way we care for one another and reach those still outside. It is a small thing, a cup of tea and a seat at the table, but the Lord loves to work through it.
Read about it for yourself: Acts 2:42-47; Acts 1:8
Adapted from MTS Ministry Paper 2.04 Hospitality Ministry.