Your Meal Is On Us is a ministry based on Matthew 5:16. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  We are always looking for a way to be a blessing to the people in the neighborhood and a way to get our people focused on others. Your Meal Is On Us gives the people a tangible way to let their light shine.

First, we printed a business card with all the information needed on it. At the top of the card it says, “Your Meal Is On Us.” Below that is the name of our church, our address, phone number, email address and website. On the back of the card, the times of our services are listed.

Next, we made announcements to the church to inform them what Your Meal Is On Us is all about. We followed up with regular announcements in the bulletin. We instructed people to pick up the cards from a table in the lobby. We told them to take the card to a restaurant and, as God burdens their heart, to buy a meal for someone. It could be a family, a couple, or someone eating by themselves. They may seem lonely, be a veteran, or celebrating a birthday or anniversary. Once you have picked the people you want to bless, tell your server you want to pay the check for a specific table, but you do not want them to know that you are the one paying their check. Tell the server just to let them know their check has been paid and to give them the Your Meal Is On Us card.

The good news is that people are doing it! They are out in the community being a blessing to people they do not know. They are doing random acts of kindness and showing the love of Christ. It is such a joy to watch the people as the server explains that their check has been paid by someone from Lighthouse Baptist Church. You get to see the big smile. They’re awestruck because no one does that. We want the community to know there is a church in town that not only loves God but loves people. We had an older couple in the church – he is 83 years old – talk to me recently about Your Meal Is On Us. She said, “My husband takes a stack of these cards and goes around being a blessing to other people.” Before we printed the cards, they didn’t have an outlet to do anything for Christ. Everybody can do something for Christ. Young people have also come up to me, some college kids, and say it’s such a blessing to be able to be a blessing to someone else.  We’re creating a joy that they did not have before. How do you put a price tag on that?

The bottom line is we now have more people in our church focused on other people instead of themselves. Instead of coming to church and going home and that’s it, we have people intentionally going to a restaurant to be a blessing and a witness to others.

tom@lbcxenia.com