The Heart of Hospitality

A great reminder about hospitality.  It's powerful!

Trillia Newbell:

As Christmas approaches, let's remember that hospitality isn't about the what, when, and where. It's about the who. Hospitality is about the person we get to welcome in and love. We can trust that the Lord will bless those who come into our doors if we have hearts to serve and love them. Your guests might not remember your space, but they will surely remember your care. 

Opening your home may seem like a major undertaking. But it's small thanks to the Lord who gave everything to live among us and die on the cross in our place.

Read the rest.

A Theology of "Home"

Steve Timmis with a long, yet powerful article tracing the social conditions that have brought us to where we are today in terms of or notions of family and "home" and how the Biblical story fits into this.  These concepts are worthy of much reflection for the sake of church and mission.  His thesis:

Having tried to establish an historical perspective, let me state in fairly bold terms my thesis. The concepts of home and family are an important dimension of human identity, and there is something intrinsic to being human that craves for a context of refuge in which individuals have identity, and are accepted and secure. But the purpose of such 'units' is to offer a 'home' to the "strangers and aliens", and to face the world with an open face and welcoming arms.

Read the whole thing.  

Books by Steve Timmis here.

"True hospitality is sacrificial, uncomfortable, and does not seek to impress others."

Great post on hospitality here.  It should be normative for us!

Welcoming Sinners

Here I need to address in detail one of the issues that many Christians reading this book will find most challenging. We are to imitate Jesus by being intentional about developing intimate fellow- ship with sinners. This means that we are to make the effort to build such close relationships with unbelievers, regardless of their beliefs or way of life, that we delight to eat and drink at one another’s tables and visit joyfully in one another’s homes. This will mean that we are going to get to know people who are considered by some of our churches to be sinners—the kind of people that God-fearing people should despise. 

Why should we welcome sinners and unbelievers joyfully, and why should they welcome us joyfully? Every day of our lives Jesus comes to each of us in our rebellion, moral failures, lack of love, and our reluctance to honor him. Even though we have cold hearts, every day he asks us to welcome him into our lives and into our homes. Every day he says to each one of us: 

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20) \

How poorly we understand the gospel and the grace of God to us when we think we ought not to have “sinners” in our homes, or that we ought to keep ourselves and our children away from the homes of obvious sinners. Fellowship with sinners is the gospel. There is no other gospel of Christ.

- Jerram Barrs, Learning Evangelism from Jesus, p. 92, 93

On Hospitality

Christina Fox:

Martha was focused so much on the details that she missed the reason why she was hosting guests---so that they might learn from Jesus. If scrubbing and cleaning becomes our focus, we might miss sharing the mess and dirtiness of our lives with others. If our greatest concern is wondering how a group of people will fit in our home, we'll miss the opportunity to make room in our hearts for people. If we worry about making the perfect meal to serve, we'll miss sharing with our guests the only food that satisfies.

Hospitality is an act of service that helps us share the love of Christ with others. God calls each of us to practice hospitality, whether it comes easy or not. And for those of us who hesitate for one reason or another, it becomes an act of obedience to our Savior who has opened his own home for us through his shed blood on the cross. How can we do any less than open our own hearts and homes to others?

Read the rest.

The Central Importance of Hospitality for Mission

David Mathis:

The twelve of us sat in silence, on the edge of our seats. You could have heard a pin drop. 

I had pilgrimaged from Minnesota to muggy Orlando, and her stifling August humidity, for a weeklong intensive course on evangelism with Steve Childers. Fortunately, Reformed Theological Seminary is as air-conditioned as it is Reformed. 

With only a dozen students on board for five 9-hour days with one of the country’s top church-planting strategists, it was a rich week, to say the least. During these precious hours, the Beijing Olympics were playing second fiddle to learning about the advance of the gospel around the world and in personal conversation. 

Time and again Childers had thrown us curveballs. He knew how to keep us on our toes. But now he had us nothing short of captivated. 

“You know what the key to evangelism in the 21st-century will be, don’t you?”
He wasn’t talking Global South, but the Western hemisphere — and America in particular.
I’m sure he could see on our faces how eager we were for his answer. Wow, the key, we were thinking. This is huge. 

He paused and smiled that memorable Steve Childers world-evangelism grin. He waited. Still waiting. Still paused. Still nothing. Hold it . . . hold it. I was almost ready to burst with, “Just c’mon already!” 

Finally he lifted the curtain. 

“Hospitality.” 

Then another long pause to let it sink it.

Read the rest.

Along these lines, you have to get this book.  It's really strong.  

Hospitality in the Church Matters

Great post from J.D. Greear.

A Picture of True Hospitality

John Starke:

Sarah and Lindsay both work in midtown Manhattan. Sarah is a Christian; Lindsay isn't. After several attempts to share Christ with Lindsay, Sarah simply invites Lindsay over to dinner, where she has many folks from her local church coming over for a meal and fellowship. Lindsay meets a handful of singles and a few married couples with kids.

She spends the evening eating and talking about life, which naturally leads to faith, since that's what everyone else shares in common. She witnesses thankfulness and hears about the providence of God in their lives. She sees how Christians interact with their friends, spouses, and kids. One single girl invites her to coffee, and another family invites her over for dinner, where a few other church members join her.

When she finally comes to church, she immediately recognizes a dozen people, rather than feeling alone. After a few visits, she attendes a Bible study that explains the basic parts of Christianity and tries to answer difficult questions and objections. She then joins a small group fellowship that regularly meets for meals and game nights outside of their study time.

After some time of visiting and engaging, Lindsay suddenly realizes, "I believe this stuff." She doesn't have all of her questions answered, but she feels a warm affection for Jesus and conviction of her sin. The gospel seems like such a great relief. She is added to their number.

Read the rest.

A great vision for this is mapped out in this book.

Missional, Meals, and Mario

Remember, too, that we’re witnesses to grace, not to good works and certainly not to good catering. Jim Petersen tells the story of his friend Mario, with whom he had studied the Bible for four years before Mario became a Christian. The Bible studies reflected the fact that Mario was a Marxist intellectual who’d read all the leading Western philosophers. A couple of years after his conversion, Jim and Mario were reminiscing: “Do you know what it really was that made me decide to become a Christian?” Mario asked. Petersen thought of all their Bible studies and philosophical discussions. Mario’s reply took him by surprise. “Remember that first time I stopped by your house? We were on our way someplace together, and I had a bowl of soup with you and your family. As I sat there observing you, your wife, and your children, and how you related to each other, I asked myself, ‘When will I have a relationship like this with my fiancée?’ When I realized that the answer was ‘never,’ I concluded I had to become a Christian for the sake of my own survival.” Petersen did remember the occasion. He remembered his children behaving badly and his frustration at having to correct them in front of Mario. Yet Mario saw the grace of Christ binding that family together.

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus, p. 95

No Time For Mission? Got Time to Eat?

People often complain that they lack time for mission. But we all have to eat. Three meals a day, seven days a week. That’s twenty- one opportunities for mission and community without adding any- thing to your schedule. You could meet up with another Christian for breakfast on the way to work—read the Bible together, offer accountability, pray for one another. You could meet up with colleagues at lunchtime. Put down this book and chat to the person across the table from you in the cafeteria. You could invite your neighbors over for a meal. Better still, invite them over with another family from church. That way you get to do mission and community at the same time; plus your unbelieving neighbors will get to see the way the gospel impacts our relationships as Christians ( John 13:34–35; 17:20–21). You could invite someone who lives alone to share your family meal and follow it with board games, giving your children an opportunity to serve others through their welcome. Francis Schaeffer says:

Don’t start with a big program. Don’t suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community. . . . You don’t need a big program. You don’t have to convince your session or board. All you have to do is open your home and begin. And there is no place in God’s world where there are no people who will come and share a home as long as it is a real home.

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus, p. 92

Mission as Hospitality

Meals bring mission into the ordinary. But that’s where most people are—living in the ordinary. That’s where we need to go to reach them. We too readily think of mission as extraordinary. Perhaps that’s because we find it awkward to talk about Jesus outside a church gathering. Perhaps it’s because we think God moves through the spectacular rather than the witness of people like us. Perhaps it’s because we want to outsource mission to the profes- sionals, so we invite people to guest services where an “expert” can do mission for us. But most people live in the ordinary, and most people will be reached by ordinary people. Even those who attend a special event will, for the most part, have first been befriended by a Christian. “For those looking to connect with people in the local community it isn’t that hard if you really want to. Just invite people round, let them know they can go home if they need to and then enjoy a meal together. You’re going to eat anyway, so why not do it with others!” 

Jesus’s command to invite the poor for dinner violates our notions of distance and detachment. Mission as hospitality undermines the professionalization of ministry. Mission isn’t something I can clock out from at the end of the day. The hospitality to which Jesus calls us can’t be institutionalized in programs and projects. Jesus challenges us to take mission home. It may be a surprise, given my emphasis on meals, but I loathe church lunches—those potluck suppers in draughty church halls. They’re institutionalized hospitality. Don’t start a hospitality ministry in your church: open your home. 

Much is said of engaging with culture—much that’s right and helpful. But we must never let engaging culture eclipse engaging with people. People are infinitely variable and rarely susceptible to our sociological categories. If you want to understand a person’s worldview, don’t read a book. Talk to them, hang out with them, eat with them.

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus, p. 91  (my emphasis)

Mission Through Meals

Jesus didn’t run projects, establish ministries, create programs, or put on events. He ate meals. If you routinely share meals and you have a passion for Jesus, then you’ll be doing mission. It’s not that meals save people. People are saved through the gospel message. But meals will create natural opportunities to share that message in a context that resonates powerfully with what you’re saying.

Hospitality has always been integral to the story of God’s people. Abraham set the agenda when he offered three strangers water for their feet and food for their bodies. In so doing he entertained God himself and received afresh the promise (Genesis 18:1–18). God was Israel’s host in the Promised Land (Ps. 39:12; Lev. 25:23), and that would later shape Israel’s behavior. A welcome to strangers and provision for the needy were written into the law of Moses. Rahab is saved because of her faith expressed through hospitality ( Joshua 2; James 2:22–25).

Hospitality continues to be integral to Christian conduct in the new covenant: “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Rom. 12:13);“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Pet. 4:9; see 1 Tim. 5:10); “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matt. 10:40; see 25:35–40); “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2).

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus, p. 89

Don't Be Condescending With The Poor

We think we’re enacting grace if we provide for poor. But we’re only halfway there. We’ve missed the social dynamics. What we communicate is that we’re able and you’re unable. “I can do some- thing for you, but you can do nothing for me. I’m superior to you.” We cloak our superiority in compassion, but superiority cloaked in compassion is patronizing.

Think how different the dynamic is when we sit and eat with someone. We meet as equals. We share together. We affirm one another and enjoy one another. A woman once told me: “I know people do a lot to help me. But what I want is for someone to be my friend.” People don’t want to be projects. The poor need a welcome to replace their marginalization, inclusion to replace their exclusion, a place where they matter to replace their powerlessness. They need community. They need the Christian community.

If you tell someone he’s a sinner who needs God while you’re handing him a cup of soup, then he’ll hear you saying he’s a loser who should become like you. But when you eat together as friends and you tell him what a messed up person you are, then you can tell him about sin and grace. Jim Petersen writes: “I know of no more effective environment for initiating evangelism than a dinner at home or in a quiet restaurant.”

Consider Jesus. Yes, he adopted the attitude of slave when he washed the disciples’ feet. But think, too, how often he accepts ser- vice. He accepts hospitality from Levi (Luke 5). He lets the woman at Simon’s house wash his feet (Luke 7). He asks for water from the woman in Samaria ( John 4). He’s not just the helper of sinners, still less their project worker. He’s the friends of sinners, who came eat- ing and drinking.

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus, p. 82, 83

We Can't Just Write Checks

Audit the activities of your church. How many offer some kind of reciprocal payback? Is your youth program designed to reach lost young people in your neighborhood or to provide a safe haven for church kids? Are your home groups doing adventurous mission together or offering a cozy support group? 

Luke repeats the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame in verses 13 and 21. These four examples represent the marginalized, powerless, and vulnerable as a whole. They’re the “orphans and widows” of James 1:27 and the “tax collectors and sinners” of Luke 15:1. Our attitude to the marginalized is to be shaped by our expe- rience of God’s grace to us. God welcomes us to his party, and so we’re to welcome the poor. The kind of fasting that God desires is “to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house” (Isa. 58:7). 

We’re called to follow Christ into a broken world. Simply writing a check keeps the poor at a distance. But Jesus was the friend of sinners. As we learned in chapter 2, to invite someone for a meal in Jesus’s time was an expression of identification. That’s why Jesus’s habit of eating with tax collectors and sinners was so scandalous.

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus, p. 82

They Are Selling Us Hospitality

In his book, Bowling Alone, Robert Putman reveals that there’s been a 33 percent decrease in families eating together over the last three decades.  And more than half of those families are watching television as they eat together. Over the same period there’s been a 45 percent decline in entertaining friends. Growing up I would ask each Sunday, “Who’s coming for dinner today?” Not whether but who, because I knew my parents always would have invited someone. “In the typical American household, the average number of dinners eaten together is three per week, with the average length of dinner being 20 minutes.”  Many homes no longer even have a dining room. We protect ourselves from outsiders, but our security systems and garden gates are our prisons, cutting us off from community. Instead we get our community vicariously through soap operas. Friends is a television program or a Facebook number, not people with whom we eat and laugh and cry.

Instead we’ve commercialized hospitality. In his history of Starbucks, Taylor Clark argues that the secret of Starbucks’s success is not in its coffee, but “the pull of the coffeehouse as a place.” When sociologist Roy Oldenburg coined the term “third place” to describe a neutral gathering spot that’s neither home or work, “the company,” Clark writes, “now had its philanthropic rallying cry: it wasn’t a coffee company, but a third place bringing people together through the social glue of coffee.” Starbucks’s research showed that people wanted “a cozy social atmosphere above all else. . . . For those seeking a refuge from the world, the cup of coffee they bought was really just the price of admission to partake of the coffeehouse scene.” Starbucks is selling us hospitality.

- Tim Chester, A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table, 46, 47

Understanding Hospitality

Mark Driscoll:

Hospitality is not just hanging out with Christians. The word “hospitality” in the Bible literally means to welcome the stranger. Fellowship is when you hang out with all your Christian friends. And that’s great and it’s good and you should. Hospitality is when, in addition to your friends, you invite strangers to hang out with your friends so that they too start to become friends.

That’s exactly what Jesus is talking about here. Hosting a party, hosting a banquet, hosting a feast, having a generous menu, having a generous guest list. And as we do these things, what we’re showing is something of the character of God, that we can party to the glory of God. We can have a great time and laugh deeply and eat well to the glory of God. And as we do, we’re showing something of the character of our God and something of his heavenly kingdom.

Read more and see some clips from a recent sermon here.

Hospitality

Melinda, who writes at, "Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat", has a good post about Biblical hospitality:

The hospitality we offer to friends is not about making an impression, but about making them feel loved. So often when I prepare for people to be in my home, I spend all of my time cleaning the house, preparing a perfect meal and making everything and everyone appear just right. But do I take a moment to pray for our guests? Do I ask God to reveal to me any needs they might have so that our family might have the opportunity to minister to them? Not usually.

Today the kids and I were ministered to in the home of a friend from church. It was clear that she wasn’t trying to impress us, but she and her kids simply invited us to share their day with them. It was peaceful, loving and enjoyable.