Archives for April 2011

Creativity has been defined as “adventurous thinking.” It is the ability to get away from the main track, break out of the mold, or diverge from the rest of society.

In the previous Blog posts we have already viewed hospitality in a creative way. We have thought adventurously, seeing Christian hospitality as the opposite of “entertaining”—those prideful attempts to impress others. In this creative approach, we have looked at hospitality as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now, let us continue to think adventurously and discover the specifics of hospitality.

Rollo May, the noted psychologist, writes in The Courage to Create that creativity requires limits. He reasons that the creative act “arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them.”

I can easily identify my own limits to hospitality—finances, energy, time. These are legitimate strictures, thrust upon me by my circumstances. As a Christian, I also have Scriptural limitations. Christ’s injunctions about putting the Kingdom of God before our desire for material possessions, denying oneself, going the extra mile, and other mandates inform my approach to hospitality. What creative responses can come “out of the struggle with and against that which limits me”?

Many of you will not have the limitations which are mine—my grandmother at 88 seemingly has more energy than I have. Others are blessed with unlimited financial resources. And, time hangs heavy on many a hand. So, I will share these creative struggles as examples, hoping they will stimulate ideas in areas of limitation other than my own.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Each of us must learn to determine what is important in our lives. We must come to an agreement with the time which we have been allotted. If the Lord is asking us to carry on extensive ministries of hospitality, we will then be able to know the human limitations within which we work.

We will learn to adjust our attitudes and discover shortcuts. We may also experience the supernatural. We may know when He is about the flowering of that planted eternity within our hearts.

Life Response

Develop some shortcuts of your own.

1. If you don’t have a file system already, buy some folders and start clipping time-saving ideas. Be forewarned that discipline will be required—discipline to collect these useful him,ts as well as to employ them!
2. Invite a small group of people who lead similar life-styles to brainstorm on some shortcuts which will aid effective ministry. Use each other as resource material. It’s amazing how many ideas can pop out of the head of five account executives, or homemakers, or farmers, etc.!

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

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God orders our days, to be sure.

When each morning we make the daily oblation, that sacrificial prayer offering our selves as servants for His sake, most of us can testify to His going ahead, charting, making paths clear, bringing the right people to the right place at the right time. Yet there is even more.

I think God gives us tastes of eternity; moments stretched allowing us to do more than we ever expected. Twenty minutes of sharing in which we plumb the depths of another soul at a level that normally requires years.

How often after rising early, spending time in His Presence, and committing the activities of His day to planning, have I looked in amazement at the clock. By all rights it should read “11:30,” according to all that has been accomplished. Yet I discover it is just 9:00.

In some strange way, when we are about His business, He makes the eternity, about which we know so very little, work in our favor.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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I am learning that there is always time for the things the Lord wants us to do. The writings of Charles Williams opened my mind more than anything else to the fact that our God does not exist in a world of time the way we humans do.

This English writer had the amazing ability of realistically combining the spiritual world with the material world. Each of his seven novels has the flavor of that Old Testament incident at Dothan where the prophet Elisha prayed that the eyes of his servants might be opened to see the fiery chariots and forces of the Lord. In All Hallows’ Eve,the city of death is superimposed upon the city of life. Or, according to Williams, they “co inhere.” The reader’s mind is continually stretched to look at time in ingenious and in more-than-human ways.

I like to think of time as a capsule spinning out in space. In this protective enclosure man exists. Outside is the vast universe into which he makes tentative explorations, discovering that there the aging process is slowed. Time is a human dimension, not a godly one. God cannot be contained by time.

Scripture proclaims in Isaiah that He is “the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity.” God is outside the capsule, beyond our limited concept of time. One thousand years are as but a day in His sight. Our minds are boggled at the mathematics required to communicate this incomprehensible dimension. Yet that very universe is somehow contained for, by, and within Him.

Ecclesiastes tells us, “He has planted eternity in our hearts.” What the ramifications of this may be are hard to tell. Perhaps there is an inner yearning to be beyond time, a continual struggle for immortality, for example, in the dictator, perverted as he seeks to strike lasting notches in finite time. I see some of this struggle in myself, yet there is more. Daily I experience, when I am doing the work He has set me to do, His manipulation of this human element to increase my usefulness for Himself.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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When we regularly entertain for sit-down dinners, we often invite people to bring one course for the meal.

One family is in charge of appetizers, another the salad, and another the dessert. This leaves me responsible for the main dish, accompanying vegetables, and bread. Sometimes I ask for specific donations, such as a fresh green salad. But more likely, I just allow people to bring whatever the spirit moves them to conjure up.

A friend recently reminded me of an evening about which I had forgotten: the “bring-a-pie” night. We invited about 40.

Half of them brought marvelous home-baked delicacies. There was next to no work for me. I simply extended invitations, plugged in the coffee pot, mixed a cold fruit drink, and offered a welcome heart. I didn’t even make a pie! There was no need. The buffet table groaned from a delectable array of 20 choices.

Rule number six: Keep files.

Four file drawers filled with folders stuffed with clippings is the secret of my avowed creativity. There is an envelope for “Organizational Ideas,” for “Economy—Food,” for “Breakfasts” and “Main Dishes” and “Appetizers.” One swift glance can provide me with enough stimulation for a month of creative and systematized hospitality. These files are the only way I can justify the expense of women’s magazines.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Rule number five: Use all the help that comes your way.

Gone forever are the days when I’d rather do it myself. I have learned about the inestimable value of helping hands. If some one asks, “Is there anything I can do for you?” I will probably respond, “Yes!”

In fact, there is something so satisfactory about sharing work with a friend, coordinating an evening for a large group in conjunction with someone else’s gifts and ideas that I will probably never again attempt to solo navigate through another huge affair!

Many a pleasurable evening has been co-hostessed with other women in the church. These have become opportunities for knowing one another as well as ministering.

A friend and I once recognized that many new couples needed to become acquainted with each other. We jointly planned a crepe dinner. We each flipped one hundred of these thin French pancakes, served punch for the appetizer, a sauce of mushrooms, ham, and sour cream for the main dish, and offered several choices—raspberry and peach melba, butterscotch and almonds, some thing chocolate—for dessert.

She provided chafing dishes and extra utensils, a large coffee server, and placemats. My contribution was the home and the beverages. We set up tables in every room downstairs, with punch bowls in several places, and enjoyed the evening getting acquainted ourselves.

I am no longer afraid to ask someone to toss the green salad I didn’t have time to put together, or to fry bacon for those hurried after-church brunches. My family has learned to lend invaluable assistance. They rally in that last hour before guests arrive—David takes care of dinner music and “licks and promises,” those getting-children-presentable details. My oldest son, Randall, is in charge of ice and water. My daughter, Melissa, arranges appetizers and serves them. All are expected to be on standby in case of emergencies.

For breakfasts my husband is generally the chef-in-command, seeing as he has an eager hand with an egg and experience working as a short-order cook, which includes skill in flipping pancakes, turning browned sausages, and rounding off ground meat patties just so.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

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Rule number four: Clean as you go.

This is the cardinal principle to orderly management. Leave a room as ordered as you found it. Straighten up before you retire for bed at night.

Clean pots and pans and utensils directly after use. I have developed a system whereby I wash the dishes after each course of a large party. The kitchen is already straightened from last-minute preparations.

The punch cups are washed after the children have collected them and people are sitting in the living room talking. The salad and dinner plates are cleared by the children while I scrape and wash and stack.

All that remains is dessert silverware and plates, goblets, coffee and tea cups, serving dishes. A major portion of the cleanup is accomplished before the last course, at which time I relax, enjoy the conversation, and think about how little there is left to do.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Rule number three: Do as much ahead of time as possible.

Once my approach to homemaking became more orderly—when I sat down and planned a week rather than allowing each day to just happen—I could foresee setting aside special time in preparation for a special event. Frozen salads could be mixed on Tuesday. I could prepare the chicken divan on Thursday evening and then place it in the refrigerator. I could bake the dessert some morning after breakfast, when all the accumulated dishes could be washed at the same time.

Friday’s dinner became a breeze. Nothing is more satisfactory than to be able to take a nap on the afternoon of an event, or to spend the morning at the library with the children.

In fact, because my schedule is now necessarily tight, doing ahead has become a game. I collect those recipes which do not require last-minute preparation—soufflés are out! I treasure foods which look great, taste terrific, but which require a minimum of kitchen time.

The trusted old standbys are utilized frequently. I test myself against the ease of a hospitality occasion. Hard work indicates that I am slipping back into old habits, running behind, not managing my time well, not planning or preparing ahead, doing too much, not being dependent on the Lord’s strength, but on my own. An aching back is a sure sign that I need to reevaluate.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Recently several of us were recalling special touches of class our mothers practiced.

My mother had a gift for last-minute inspiration. She worked, managed a big house, raised three kids, and loyally supported her high-pressure husband, who invariably involved us all in his choirs, recitals, retirement schemes, and other plans. Consequently, her entertaining was off the cuff, spur of the moment.

I lovingly recall the clean-the-refrigerator affairs on Sunday evening after church. The food was served hodge-podge on the kitchen table, but it had a personality all its own—the oyster stew suppers eaten off trays before the log-laden fire, the summer watermelon wedges glowing pink, green, and pearl piled in a basket.

David remembers his mother always serving beautifully. Mom is a woman with incredible energy who has established what for most would be impossible standards. She serves even casual snacks with placemats. Her home is a visual delight.

I once asked my husband if he remembered her in anything but high heels, and he laughed with the memory of her scrubbing a floor in heels and earrings looking like a queen. This is flair that is organized, controlled, and splendid.

It is classic Oriental antiques and polished surfaces and mellow lighting. “Nothing is worth doing without doing well.” It is a treat. Someone else commented on how his mother had served playmates peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—cut in wedges, resting on a white doily which was perched on a silver plate. That is definitely flair.

We each will develop our own style, but let us do it with delight, remembering Who is the source of these waiting-to-be-discovered homemaking triumphs.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The second rule builds on the first: Don’t be afraid to do things with flair.

An old patchwork quilt for a table cloth, huge baskets of dried fall weeds, a stylish hostess gown (no matter if it’s a hand-me-down as long as it looks good)—only one or two old dependables with class can cover a multitude of cleaning errors. Flair is a creative expression God has imprinted on our souls. Yet we Christians are wary of those dramatic touches of finesse.

God is not afraid to display His creativity. If we did one room in our home copying the glorious colors in just one of His sunsets, people would think we were outrageous. Yet He has donned His world with style and class and exquisite taste and breathtaking color combinations and scintillating humor. Humor? Well, have you ever looked at the rear end of a baboon! And, He allows this repetition of glory and delightful surprise in His human creature, as long as we don’t slip into the error of thinking it is all of ourselves.

Old wooden bowls and the variegated pile of baskets intrigue me. I use them as serving pieces. I love to provide fresh fruits in place of heavy, sweet desserts. Their appetizing colors are delightful. The yellows and oranges and purples sit juxtaposed against the grains of an antique hand-turned basin. These contrasts satisfy some unknown need in me. For flair, I add crumpled, wizened figs on a string which I buy from a Greek grocer.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

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