Use Your Home for Influence

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Your Home is an Embassy Part 4

When was the last time you hosted a gathering at your house?

Sure, the church and community buildings have plenty of meeting space, and restaurants are easier than cleaning your dining room or kitchen table to make space for others to sit.

But when we value convenience too highly we sacrifice warmth, welcome, and a comfort level that can’t be experienced in commercial building spaces. So the next time your people are getting together, consider inviting friends into your home instead.

Potluck is always a good option that makes feeding a group easy on everyone. And remember everyone will enjoy being in a home, especially when it is not perfect! You can ease your friend’s guilt by not making your house Pinterest worthy! Relax! A less than perfect home is a gift.

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Dennis and I have good friends, Rob and Teresa, who bought a new-to-them house about two years ago. One of their highest priorities when they shopped for a home was a place that encouraged gathering. They wanted to purchase a home with a large, open living room and a smart flatscreen TV for streaming video studies, photos, and YouTube to enhance small-group experiences. They found an adorable one-story house tucked literally into a hillside in the back of a neighborhood.

After getting settled, they began to use their home for their small group, but their biggest love is premarital mentoring with newly-engaged couples. Instead of meeting at a restaurant or coffee shop, each week their mentoring begins with a home-cooked meal in their cozy kitchen. The young couples find enrichment from the study but also from seeing Rob and Teresa model transparency in their home.

Untie Your Story

What goals should you consider for your home?

Do you want your home to be the gathering place for your kids and their friends?

Do you feel compassion for international students at your local university who are lost in our American culture?

Do you care about the marriages in your neighborhood or church or work place?

Might God want to use you to befriend these people and make them feel the love of God in His embassy, your home?

Why don’t you try it. Next time you’re planning a gathering, birthday party, or family event, take the initiative to open your home.

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It doesn’t mean you have to do all the work; you can still ask others to bring a dish or help clean up. It simply means you’re willing to initiate authentic relationships with those on the guest list.

Remember your home is an embassy of the King. There are countless ways to love those around you in the setting of your home. There’s not a perfect formula, but you do have a perfect God Who will guide you and show you who to invite in.

Even small steps are important because they demonstrate your faith. May you experience the thrill of seeing God use you and your family as His ambassadors. There is nothing quite like it!

Part 1: Love Your Neighbor: Your Home Is An Embassy

Part 2: How To Be Hospitable When Hospitality Isn’t Your Thing

Part 3: An Open Door Policy

Part 5: Decorate With Meaningful Truth

 

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1 thought on “Use Your Home for Influence”

  1. We have tried to make hospitality a part of our family since our daughter were very little. It was important to me that they learned how to invite people into our home and help them to feel comfortable. Sometimes things are very planned out, which is mostly how our family does events and parties. But we have also had the spur of the moment let’s make some PB&J’s. Also encouraging them to have their homes picked up enough that you could bring someone home on short notice. The Lord is so gracious to give us a place to call home. We want to glorify Him in it.

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