Front Yard Missions

Spring time is here!

You might have noticed that the blogs are not as frequent as they have been. That's because the warmer weather is drawing my family and I outside more. As a result, when evening time rolls around, I am pretty bushed.

But while I have been out there lolly-gagging about with the family I've been thinking about outreach to our neighborhood, especially the kids who always seem to swarm to our house.

The Bible commands us to be hospitable, and I have come to find that hospitality is more than having someone over for dinner or giving a person lodgings for the night. The Greek word for hospitality in Romans 12:13 has the broader idea of loving strangers. It could even be translated, "entertain strangers."

Hospitality then, if I might pose a definition, has to do with the pouring out of affection upon your neighbor and giving yourself (and your resources) to them so that they may be comforted and gladdened.

Perhaps now you can see how broadly this can be applied, especially when it comes to the neighborhood kids. A game of kickball, hide-&-seek, or coloring with sidewalk chalk may be the highlight of some kid's week.

When we think of evangelism we tend to think of a one on one conversation with someone over the legal drinking age and lands somewhere in the upper middle class. But we must remember that these little ones are our mission field too, not just adults. They need to be the objects of our hospitable attention too.

This is the essence of James' words when he says, "true and undefiled religion is this, to visit widows and orphans in their affliction." Biblically speaking, an orphan is not necessarily one who doesn't have any parents. He is often one who only has one parent, or even has both parents in the home, but not in his/her life.

Francis Schaeffer once started a whole youth program with kids just by going around the town and rounding them up off the street. He would march up to them and say, "Hey, do you want to have a hot dog roast?" After grilling up some Franks he would tell them a Bible story and then they would play some games.

Some people can go all out, organizing backyard Bible clubs like Schaeffer. But most may just simply play the role of the parent-they-never-had for a few hours.

Just a warning though: if you show a kid some attention, you may never get them off your front porch. But that's a risk you take with love.