He Got Coffee With a Homeless Man Every Friday for a Year. It Changed Everything.

Every Friday is 28th in Burnside Starbucks.

I'll never forget it.

Um, but there was something powerful about that, just getting together around a table uh week after week, and again, the barriers just broke down.

And Don's life took a whole different turn.

I mean, he was he came off the streets, he got started running a shelter.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast, where we bring practical help for your faith and life.

Here's today's episode.

Okay, question for you.

What if you found out that making a difference in God's kingdom was as simple as eating?

I would agree.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, hey, we're Gabe and Melissa Colstead, and we're gonna talk this week about the power of eating and how it makes a difference.

And really, it's it's so biblical.

It is so biblical.

Eating together.

Uh, and I'm just gonna point something out.

In Luke chapter five, we see Jesus, he has met somebody named Levi, later known as Matthew.

Matthew, yes, and um, and he's gotten invited to go over to Matthew's house for a party.

Yeah, and with all of Matthew's like sinner friends, yeah, yeah.

And the tax collectors.

Yeah, the tax collectors, right?

And so Jesus accepts the invitation.

Jesus Christ goes over to a rager with Matthew.

And um it's very interesting how that was Jesus' first move in recruiting Matthew to be his disciple.

Yeah, showed up and ate with him.

Yeah, he goes over and he eats with him.

There's so many reasons why that works.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, we're gonna talk all about it.

We're gonna talk all about it.

Yeah, so good.

But what I want to point out is that we're at Westside, we're in a series through Midweek Motivation on bless the power of the blessed tool.

And it starts out with B, which is begin with prayer, begin with prayer, right?

And so you go begin with prayer and then you go listen and then you go eat together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then you go serve them, and then you end with share your story.

Yeah, right.

So it's it's kind of counterintuitive in a way that you would go, we're gonna put the actual, if you're a Christian, you might have heard the word evangelism or the gospel, you know, like the presentation of the gospel at the very end, yeah, yeah.

Right.

And and go, is that okay?

Is it okay to do it like that?

But I kind of get it.

Yeah, I kind of get it because like the guy on the side of the street with the bullhorn doesn't he's not changing lives, he's making people mad.

Like he may be sharing the gospel, which is great.

Like, I love that, but he's not connecting with anybody, yeah.

So it's like now if you put the bullhorn down and talked with somebody, which I'm sure happens, that's when change can happen because he's listening, he's hearing their story.

Maybe they go grab a voodoo donut.

Right.

I don't know.

Somewhere in there, there's gotta be you gotta earn somebody's I don't know, input into your life.

Yeah, you gotta happens with food.

You gotta earn the right to be heard, and that's and and the but and if you look at the ministry of Jesus, that's what he did.

He actually did it that way.

Yeah, and in Acts chapter two, we also see this.

Uh, we see this happening in Acts chapter two.

They shared meals together, you know.

We see so much, like the early church was big on food.

I was thinking about even before the early church, like I was thinking about the old testament, all the celebrations and festivals that the the Israelites had.

Yeah.

Tons of the Bible.

They all had to do with food.

Yeah, the Bible is full, it's practically a cookbook, right?

I mean, it's it's amazing how much it talks about food.

Yeah, you go to John chapter six, and Jesus is on a hillside teaching people, but what does he do?

He feeds the five thousand and the four thousand, and the four thousand.

That's a different time.

Yes, yeah, two different times.

He's feeding people, he totally feeds people, and and and what what we learn is is that uh somehow eating together breaks down barriers.

Yeah, you know, and and so we're gonna talk about it for a little bit.

You got something really specific that you've experienced with eating together.

Okay, so when we were talking about this particular topic for midweek motivation, you had said something about how food brings you together.

Yeah, and it reminded me of the if tables.

Now, if you don't know anything about that, it's Ginny Allen out of Texas, this whole group, and they basically do um meals together.

You gather like six to eight of your gals, and you sit once a month at a table, you eat together, and you just talk.

And there's like certain questions that spark the conversation, but it just and you just get to know each other.

I have done years of if tables, I have done probably four different if tables that I've led through the years, and I am not currently doing one, but they are so much fun because the whole point of it is to break down barriers and get to know each other and have fun together.

And for some reason, it works.

And it reminds me of when you go to like a party and you're feeling a little bit off.

And as soon as you get like a drink or some food in your hand, you're kind of you feel it just lowers all the barriers, relaxes.

It works somehow.

I don't even understand why.

But but the if table experience, uh, I'll just read this.

It says it levels the playing field, so sharing food acts as a powerful equalizer.

You're all on the same, you know, you're all just eating together.

Um it lowers conversational defenses.

For some reason, when you're sitting at a table, you just open up, yeah, you just start talking and you're eating and you're enjoying each other, and you're just you're talking and talking, and there's great conversation.

And so I love that.

And then it models the biblical early church, which is what we are even talking about, the feeding of the 5000, the feeding of the 4,000, Acts 2, all of that.

And then um, and it cultivates a culture of belonging.

And I think when you share a meal with someone, that person or that family just becomes kind of your people.

Yeah, it's like for some reason they all of a sudden memorable shared experience.

Yeah, I just recently we had a guy from Liverpool, England, come and stay with us for a few minutes.

Nick, great guy.

And we hung out and ate with him.

Yeah, and I swear he's like our best friend now.

No, I I love Nick.

Can't wait to see him again.

I mean, there's something about that that when you invite somebody over or you go to someone's house, he did bring you tea.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he brought me chocolate.

So one.

He's smart that he's brilliant, anyways.

But I was just thinking about that with the if table and how that just really the whole point of that is just sharing a meal together to bring you together, to bring you closer in community.

And I think that's a beautiful thing.

So it is, it is, yeah.

In fact, I actually had that experience today because I was at this like workshop and um and it was felt a little awkward, you know.

And then they were like, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna break for lunch.

And everybody in the room, you could tell they were just like, Oh, thank God.

Because we know it's gonna be better if there's food.

Oh, is and uh so that was kind of a fun thing.

I had a really, really big experience with this.

Um, you know, we're talking about spiritual influence, and as we're even as a church, we're in a series called The Wild Work of God, looking at the book of Acts, and we're looking at how God works through ordinary people.

And that's why we're talking about this right now is that it's not rocket science to impact somebody spiritually.

It's so simple.

You begin with prayer, you listen, you eat together, you serve, and then you share your story.

And when I was in college, I got a chance to be part of this um outreach ministry that went to Portland in downtown, and we reached out to homeless people.

Uh yeah.

Uh, and so I was, you know, I was at this shelter, kind of like doing a uh I I was preaching basically.

Yeah, basically you would preach, they would have to listen to you teach, and then they would give you food.

And then they would and then they would eat after that, right?

So they so they were a captive audience waiting for their food while they you know listened to some right, you know, dork up front talking.

And uh so I did the thing, and then afterwards I had a really great conversation with this guy that wanted to receive Christ, and it was wonderful.

His name was Don Miller, and um he was great, he was great, you know.

And what we did was we we just started going out for coffee every week, every week while we were in college, yeah.

While we were in college, every Friday it was 28th in Burnside Starbucks, I'll never forget it.

Um, but there was something powerful about that just getting together around a table uh week after week, and again, the barriers just broke down.

And Don's life took a whole different turn.

I mean, he was he came off the streets, he got started running in the shelter.

He got yeah, he became uh one of the staff members at the shelter.

This took years, you know.

He went through quite, but he came to our church, he was baptized at our church, um, just an amazing thing.

Yeah, and I think it's so fantastic that such simple tools like food can be used by God to bring to break down barriers and then bring people's hearts to to Jesus.

And something that we've even experienced, you know, some of you might be watching or listening, and maybe you're like, Yeah, I mean, I've experienced that.

You might be like, hey, I somebody somebody ate with me and it and it helped me, you know, maybe to maybe to go grow closer to them or maybe to grow closer to the Lord.

But you don't always have to be the initiator.

And this is one of the surprises.

Did you notice that Matthew invited Jesus to his house?

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

All Jesus did was say, Okay, I'll come.

Yeah.

Um, and so Jesus shows up.

We I mean it's it's good to do that.

It's good to throw some hot dogs on a grill and do something for the cul-de-sac.

I love that.

Yeah, but but there's two ways, you know.

You don't need so if somebody invites you, sometimes you don't think about that.

You know, like well, what if what if you just passed over an invitation for a meal?

Yeah, that might have been God going, like, this is your chance, yeah, you know, to to have an inf We've met a lot of people's houses for food.

Absolutely.

We had some neighbors, some Filipino neighbors that used to invite us over because our daughters were friends, yes, and so we had some Filipino neighbors that used to invite us over for these parties.

They would do these parties, they partied for every occasion.

It was unbelievable.

And they made these lumpia.

Do you remember like the egg roll things and Ube?

Oh my gosh, it was.

The food was so amazing.

But we went over there a bunch of times and they always did karaoke karaoke and food, and and so you know, I'm just like, and uh um, you know, we're just doing like karaoke and stuff, but again, you're like barriers are completely gone by that.

You have all your food, yeah, everybody's having a good time.

What's so interesting is that couple ended up coming to church with their daughter.

Yeah, he accepted the Lord, yeah, and um, and then his son started coming to church, and his son, I think, accepted the Lord at the church.

Yeah, well, then then yeah, and so yes, they both did the dad and the yeah, and she was already a Christian.

Yeah, she was already a Christian, but oh my gosh, it was really cool.

But that started out as just going to their house, eating their food and hanging out.

Absolutely.

We ended up a few years, yeah.

Yeah, they moved away now, but oh that was really funny.

Yeah, so this is such a simple idea.

It's so, so, so simple.

Eat together, yeah.

It doesn't have to be fancy.

I mean, we've done it in our cul-de-sac with a barbecue and some hot dogs.

We've done it, you know, just with uh like coffee or having people over for a pizza party, or you know, there's so many ways, or going to their house.

Um, you could even just go to a restaurant.

You don't have to, it doesn't have to be a big deal.

I think the thing is is that once you begin with prayer and then you spend some time listening to somebody and and kind of hearing who who they are, what they're about, there's that time when you kind of sense is is this are we at the place where maybe a cup of coffee would feel normal?

Yeah, you know, and or maybe I'll invite them, maybe we'll invite them over and see if they say yes, or maybe they might invite you and say yes.

Yeah.

Um, so here's how it works is in the bless B L E S S, prayer becomes an invitation.

So think about someone you've been praying for and take a practical step towards spending time together.

So if you're doing the bless tool, which is available on the Westside app right now, go go to the Westside app, download Westsidecom Church, that's the app name on your app store, and uh, and then get that there.

And the very first thing you're gonna see is bless as a tool.

And you can go right through this whole process.

You you'll see the names of the people that you want to pray for, and you can start praying for them, and you can keep track of it.

And you can you can then advance to going, I've prayed for them.

Now I want to listen.

I'm gonna pray that God opened this door, uh, and then I'm gonna eat with them.

And you can kind of track this whole thing and say, you know, I've really invested in the life of this person.

It's it's kind of a way you could tell if you've done the relational investment that needs to come before sharing your spiritual story.

Yeah.

And I just love that tool so much.

Eating gives listening room to happen.

And you ask a good question, you put away the phone, and you let the conversation breathe.

You know, and that's how that's how people start to open up.

Hospitality can be simple.

Take out a picnic, share lunch, you know, make room for connection.

I'm a big fan of hospitality.

Oh, yeah, I think that's so important.

I think everybody's home should be ready to invite somebody over.

If someone knocks on the door and needs to talk, I think and welcome them in.

Yeah, give them a croissant.

Here's another idea.

One uh Halloween, we put a canopy tent out front.

Remember this?

Oh, we didn't know.

And we we did s'mores, yeah, and we gave those away to our neighbors.

And then one other time we did uh hot cider and that was a hit.

And we was so simple.

I mean, we were out there anyways because we had the candy and candy to the kids.

Uh so that worked out real well.

But yeah, I think the the thing that we want to push here is love without a required outcome.

As you know, this if you if you take time to eat with somebody, what you're saying is you're you're valuable.

Yeah, you're valuable enough for me to spend time with, yeah, and and to share this wonderful experience with.

And that's so, so, so powerful.

So, you know, consider how an occasional invitation could become part of your life.

That's really that's really it.

So we want to encourage you to do right now is just this week invite one person you'd like to know better to share a meal and see what the Lord will do.

I mean, you just never know.

And so if you've been praying for them, it's time to it's time to take that next step to ask them, hey, you want to grab coffee sometime, or hey, we're having dinner uh tomorrow night, you know, or next or join us.

Yeah, see what God will do.

I think it's great.

Yeah.

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