photo courtesy of ©Depositphotos.com / Nanka-photo
So ages ago I posted this on hospitality and what I was learning about it from Lauren Winner’s book, Mudhouse Sabbath. (I’m still learning.) One of the things she talked about in that chapter was how she felt her apartment just wasn’t right for entertaining well – she had a picnic table in her study with her computer and whatnot on it, and a desk in her kitchen where a table should go because that’s where things fit… but it made having people over for dinner a little awkward. I thought about that a lot, and for my birthday this year, I finally got a kitchen table. And four chairs to go with it.
I am sorry to say that my birthday was in May; the table wasn’t purchased and built until June; the chairs got stained and sealed at the beginning of July, but the table wasn’t painted, stained and sealed until the end of July/beginning of August – and I have thus far only had one person over for dinner. I had this fun idea that I would have everyone who came for dinner sign the underside of my table, and there’s a couple of Scripture verses about hospitality written or referenced there already – but I forgot to have my friend sign it – we were talking… which I suppose was the point of offering hospitality in the first place… But still. So much for my brilliant idea.
The thing about true hospitality, as referenced in my earlier post, is that not only do you have to invite people into your life as you are and not try to clean up and hide things, but you have to invite people into your life as they are – and this can be difficult. It is NOT the reason I haven’t had anyone over – that’s just too much insanity in my schedule and never being home for dinner hardly – but it is the reason I put 1 Peter 4:8-11 in the center of my table. I want my home to be a place where forgiveness happens over the dinner table. I want it to be a place where all are welcomed. Which means I need to become the kind of person who welcomes people.
A couple of friends and I are starting to talk about the possibility of planting a church. This is scary to me. I feel very strongly called to lead worship, and am doing so now on a volunteer level at a mega-church with amazing resources and a lot of red tape. There’s a degree of “isn’t there more to this?” creeping in to my thoughts on that…. and the disconnect between a) how you think about planning/leading for a college/20somethings ministry on Monday nights and b) how you think about planning/leading for a super-structured seeker-driven church is starting to get to me. (I lead worship for both kinds of ministries.) But so much of what I do is agenda-driven, and planned, and dependent on so many things falling into place – and so little of what I do is relational, outside of interacting with the band/leadership. How do I serve the poor – how do I invite someone who’s hungry to my house for dinner – when I don’t know who they are, or have time to go find out?
The church we’re starting to talk about would be different than what I’m used to – it would be house-church based. Central to it would be all the things church should be: relationships, grace, hospitality, really loving your neighbors practically (something I really want to be doing better) – but where would I fit? As a person, as a God-follower, I know I do fit – but how do you vocationally be a worship leader for a house church? Or is that what I need to do/should do at all? I could do any number of other things vocationally and still lead worship somewhere – but I still want to be planning services – I’m relatively good at it, and there’s little I enjoy more – and I want to do that for a living, not just on the side. But I don’t want to be doing it in the context I’m currently in forever either…
I suspect the questions just beginning to rise here may not have easy answers. In the meantime, tho, I have a kitchen table beckoning me – and a dinner to plan.
