Yesterday I shared about why we should be hospitable, today I want to share some ideas on who you might invite and what you might serve to your guests.

Who To Invite

Who do you invite over?  The possibilities are endless.  You could invite someone who is new to your church or someone who has been there a while but you have never gotten to know.  Maybe there is someone you know who is going thru a rough time.

You could use it as an evangelistic opportunity, invite an unbeliever, maybe a neighbor.  Seeing a family living out the gospel in their home can be a powerful tool in the life of an unbeliever.

Also, don’t forget elderly and singles.  We have been blessed many times over the years when we have had older married couples, widows and single people in our home.

If you are really brave, you could fix extra food on a Sunday and plan on inviting someone at church over for lunch on a whim, maybe even a visitor.  We visited one church where a family invited all of us over for homemade pizza after the service, we were so impressed that they would be willing to have a large family over at the last minute, and were prepared with plenty of food.

What To Serve

When you are deciding what to serve guests, an important thing to remember is, “keep it simple”. Now is not the time to try that new gourmet dish which takes hours to prepare or to pick the most complicated thing in your cookbook that you could make.  Your time of hospitality will be much more sane if you fix something simple.

When I’m deciding what meal to fix for company, I first take into account when they are coming.  It makes a difference if they come for Sunday lunch or Friday dinner.  I would fix something different on a week night when I would have been homeschooling all day than I would on a Saturday night.  I consider everything that will be going on the day guests are coming, and fix a meal accordingly.

For instance, if it will be a Sunday lunch, I would usually do a roast because it is easy to throw in the oven and set the timer to come on during church.  Or, I might fix a lasagna on Saturday and put it in the fridge, then have it bake while I’m at church.

Friday evening I’d be more apt to do something like a taco salad, where I could cook the meat ahead and do all the chopping ahead of time, then just pull everything out right before they come. On a Saturday evening my husband might grill something for us to have with guests and I make sides to go with it.  But grilling wouldn’t be very practical during the week since Jim would be working.

I have a handful of meals that I use as my standards for company.  Meals that I have made lots of times, and that people seem to enjoy.  Your family could be helpful too in refining that list by providing honest critique of those meals.

I could probably make my “go to” meals blindfolded I have made them so many times.  When you are preparing for people to come in your home there are usually many things that are on your mind and that are needing to be done, so it is very helpful to make something that doesn’t take too much brain power.   The trick though is,   remembering what you served so if someone comes over a second time, you don’t serve them the same thing twice.

Join us again tomorrow for part 3 in our hospitality series.

What meals do you like to serve to guests?  Do you have a “go to” dish?

Other posts in this series: Hospitality Part 1, Hospitality Part 3, Hospitality Part 4, Hospitality Part 5