Soul Talk
Hospitality Is Something You Become
Hospitality is far bigger than hosting dinner, and the Christian practice of welcoming the stranger is due for a revival. (Footnotes by John Ortberg.)
Welcome is something you become; not just something you do. Becoming a Person of Welcome invites you to expand your conception of hospitality beyond hosting dinners in your home. And each chapter features a spiritual practice aimed at planting a posture of generous living deep in your soul. i
But according to Making Room, the Christian tradition of hospitality has fallen by the wayside. Welcoming the stranger is central to the gospel and at the heart of the early church’s ministry. But aside from outposts of hospitable outreach, the Church needs to revitalize care for the least of these.
And Saved by Faith and Hospitality makes the case complete. God’s relationship to his people is, at the core, an act of hospitality to strangers. And Jesus is the divine host who extends God’s hospitality to all people. There’s nothing more Christlike than welcoming the poor and outcast.
i. If you’re ready for some graduate-level work on the welcome wagon, consider this thought from Dallas W: A much-used doormat says: “Welcome friends!” Could yours also genuinely welcome enemies? Or is the association with a doormat still more than your feelings can stand? When you loan a dress, a stereo, a car or some tools or books, are you able to release them with no hope of seeing them again, “without despairing of anyone,” as Luke 6:35 suggests, and with no thought that now the borrower will be obligated to do you a favor?
