The Ministry of Hospitality

Be Creative!

We have had so much fun thinking of various things to do while we are entertaining guests. We will often just share an evening of food and talking, but there are also times when we decide to do a special activity. In the summer, we often build a campfire in our backyard, and roast marshmallows while the kids play flashlight tag. Sometimes we eat outside, sometimes we have the meal inside. We have done projects with our guests, such as making crafts to hand out at the nursing home we visit, decorating cookies, playing musical instruments together, and, just recently, experimenting with a new “raw foods” cookbook.

If you don’t have any extended family in your area, holidays are a fun time to have guests. Even if you do spend the major holidays with family members, there are many ways to include other families in your holiday celebrations. One tradition that our family started several years ago is a special Thanksgiving Eve dinner and service. For many years, we just invited several families to our house the day before Thanksgiving, and enjoyed fellowship together, sharing the goodness of the Lord. But this past year, we decided to use the same idea and open it to our church family. We held the dinner in our church building, and it was a very special evening. The young people in our fellowship worked together to cook and serve a candlelit dinner to the families, and we concluded the evening with a time of worship and testimony – there was a unanimous vote to make it a yearly event!

The Blessings of this Ministry

We must admit that it is often with selfish motives that we invite people to our house, especially fellow believers. It is such a great blessing to share intimate fellowship with those of like-mind – this fellowship can’t be experienced visiting for a few moments after church, or in a phone call, although those things certainly have their place. Having people in your home is such a joy! And at times, the hospitality is returned by an invitation for our family, deepening the friendship even more.

Mothers, don’t worry! This is a ministry in which the whole family should be able to participate, even in the preparation. You shouldn’t have to cook the whole meal and clean the whole house by yourself! We only have 5 members in our family, but it is amazing what we can accomplish when we all work together. Our older daughter loves to cook, so she will often take care of a large part of the meal, while her younger sister sets and decorates the table and helps clean (her specialty is personalized place settings – she will often look up the meaning of each of our guest’s names, and write them on the place cards, or will put a Scripture verse at each person’s plate). The men of the house help with making sure the yard looks nice and the porch is swept off, and will help rearrange tables and chairs (and sometimes other furniture!) to fit the number of guests we are having. And as far as clean-up goes, we usually don’t allow our guests to help. Once they leave, most of us help wash the dishes and get the house back in order – it is a nice time to talk about the evening together before we go to bed.

Our family has been so blessed as we have worked together in this ministry of hospitality. As with all things, it has been a process that the Lord is continuing to work in us. Because our family is older now with no more small children, we have more time (and help!) to prepare for guests. Maybe your family is still young, and you feel like you don’t have as much time to invite guests into your house. That is fine – there are many seasons in life. However, we would encourage you not to miss out altogether on this blessing. Train your children early to reach out to those around them – this is one ministry that the whole family can do together. You will be amazed at the blessings that will come!

The Jorgensen Family