A few weeks ago I was talking with my parents about the things to include in barrels being sent to St. Vincent and my mom suggested buying Correlle dishes. This began a conversation that included pampered chef, Tupperware, the softness of towels, and how many thread counts would be in my sheets 🙂
Just finished a conversation with my mother about corelle, Tupperware, pampered chef, and bedsheets…have the sudden urge to eat red meat
— John Wilburn (@Johnhwilburn) March 18, 2016
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I didn’t question the need for kitchen items like pots and pans in my new home. However the amount spent on such items was a different story.
You see though I’m in my forties part of me still embraces a part of bachelor living. Not the part about being lazy, never cleaning up after yourself, and being cheap. But the part that doesn’t have lots of people over for dinner. It isn’t that my cooking is awful of course, there are just lots of people in town who cook better meals, with more variety. In other words there is no reason for me to buy correlle wear for my ham sandwich or scrambled eggs.
Yet I found myself spending lots of money this week on Correlle, a toaster oven, microwave, fluffy towels, and 450 thread sheets.
Why? Because you can’t do missions and be a bachelor.
All ministries (and missions in particular) involve work in church on Sunday or Wednesday, but other teaching is done outside of church during the week. This is where the majority of your evangelism, discipleship, and counseling takes place as we use teachable moments for God’s glory. Unfortunately those kind of moments don’t necessarily arrive on their own, so we must create a place for them.
In a perfect world people would come to my house for a Bible study even if the only thing offered was slightly burned popcorn. But we don’t live in a perfect world, so I need to offer hamburgers and hot-dogs with french fries and Pepsi while we discuss how the historical narrative of Acts affects our interpretation of the book.
Will it be the best food they ever taste? Of course not! But that’s okay because eventually the will start coming for something much more important than hamburgers like Godly counsel, a challenge, encouragement, or listening ear. Of course there will always be something I can whip up for them in the kitchen 🙂
Walking through Wal-Mart yesterday with a toaster oven in my hands I reached a moment of frustration. “Lord I don’t need all of this stuff!” part of me said “I can live off peanut butter and grilled cheese sandwiches for the rest of my life!” The Lords answer to me was “John this isn’t for you! This is for all the people who will enter your home not understanding the truth of the Gospel. The people who want to study my word but don’t know how. The people who just need someone to talk to.”
So in the end it isn’t about how good my cooking is but creating a place where people feel welcome and ministry can take place.
Even if they have to eat an occasional bowl of burned popcorn.
svgmissionary.com 