You want to grow your church?
Practice hospitality. (And that means more than serving awesome fried chicken)
I’ve read about 50 articles today that begin a similar way. They promise us church growth and then give us a few steps to implement hospitality. Tips like making sure that the word of life doesn’t come with the breath of death—in other words tell your greeters to try some breath mints.
Now don’t get me wrong. These articles have been really helpful. And I really do believe that healthy churches are also hospitable churches. But when I read these articles something in my stomach starts to churn.
What’s the Problem?
Hospitality is not a means to grow your church. It is fundamental to a churches identity. It is who you are. If we’ve botched hospitality it is because in some way we have botched the gospel.
Consider the story of Simon the Pharisee. This dude was a terrible host. There are certain things that a host does for his guest. Or at least he has a servant or somebody do them. But not Simon. Simon’s hospitality stinks. And Jesus tells us why, “…he who is forgiven little, loves little”. Our hospitality reflects our grasp of the gospel.
Furthermore, hospitality is a reminder of our alien status. Show me a church that does not practice hospitality and I will show you a church that is comfortably living the American dream. They’ve started thinking that they are home and so they’ve lost their sojourner impulse.
Throughout the narrative of Scripture God’s people are portrayed as sojourners. They are slaves in Egypt. Exiles in Babylon and Assyria. This doesn’t change in the New Testament. Our Master didn’t have a place to lay his head. We are strangers. Aliens. Sojourners.
When we embrace this it isn’t hard for us to associate with the bewildered single mom trying to get her three scraggly-headed kids through the door. The fact that she’s a stranger here on a Sunday morning is obvious to all. And so the alien in us begins to emerge. We remember what it was like when the Lord picked us up out of a pit so we greet her with warmth instead of apathy.
Yes, we need to train our greeters. Breath mints are helpful. But before we get into the 10 steps for greeting somebody with a smile, we should first remind them what it was like to be a foreigner brought into the family of God.
How to Read this as a Mr. Leader-Man
Some of my readers are leaders. You get stuff done. Your kind of a big deal. You know that your fundamental task in the church as a leader is to help other people use their gifts. You build up the body this way. (I’m not disparaging that. It’s true. That is often how you serve).
And you hear something like this and you start thinking about ways that you can train people to have a theological basis for hospitality. You think of all the people that you need to teach to be hospitable.
And do that.
But be careful…
Be careful that while everyone else is getting their hands dirty you aren’t sitting down eating some of that pie that you delegated to be made. Don’t forget that when Abraham entertained angels in Genesis 18 that it wasn’t his servants that showed hospitality. It was Father Abraham getting his hands dirty.
You’ve read in all your leadership training books that there are some things that simply cannot be delegated. Maybe hospitality and service is one of them. (See 1 Timothy 3:1-3 and note that “be hospitable” is as important to your elder qualification as “don’t be a drunkard” is).
“(And that means more than serving awesome fried chicken)”
Not that there is anything wrong with serving awesome fried chicken…
True. So true.
on the day Christians call Holy Thursday, a Christian man knelt in a prison and washed the feet of juvenile prisoners . . . including the feet of women and Muslims . . . and this man did this as a servant of Christ in imitation of Him
for this action, the man received much criticism from those in his Church who were strict traditionalists, but others in his Church ‘understood’ the ‘why’ of what he was doing there in that sad place and on that day and caring for those young people without judgment.
it is said that he who forgives much, loves much . . .
perhaps hospitality is also a sign of the Presence of the Holy Spirit being allowed to be seen in how people care for others simply because they need to be cared for . . .
I think you are right, MIKE, when you said about Christians and hospitality, this:
“It is who you are. “
Amen. Great post.
We had two (2) types of greeters in our church; humble greeters and just greeters. I never needed a director or producer to help me act like a servant. God did that for me. He adds the right touch to anything we desire to do through tribulation and grace.
HOW HE WAS MADE KNOWN TO THEM
BY THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD . . .
There is a great story in the Gospel of St. Luke about kindness shown to a ‘stranger’ who was not at first ‘recognized’, and how that ‘stranger’ was welcomed to join some sojourning Christians for a meal and to rest,
as the night was coming on them all:
“28 As they came near the village to which they were going,
He walked ahead as if He were going on.
29But they urged Him strongly, saying,
‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So He went in to stay with them.
30 When He was at the table with them,
He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
31 Then THEIR EYES WERE OPENED, and they recognized him; and He vanished from their sight.
32They said to each other,
‘Were not our hearts burning within us
while He was talking to us on the road, while He was opening the scriptures to us?’
33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
34They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and He has appeared to Simon!’
35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how He had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. ”
We should not avoid ‘hospitality’ . . . the ancient call of God to look out for the strangers among us is a pre-figuration of Christ’s new teaching of the Golden Rule . . .
and, who knows, if being hospitable is ‘who you are’,
you may very well discover that Christ Himself is present in spirit when you are caring for that stranger in need of your kindness.
St. Luke has told us that that here is a precedent for this. 🙂
this account is found in the Gospel of St. Luke 24
I went to a funeral this week at River of Life and Steve Irwin head pastor was clearing tables…all the tables…and Pastor Brian Fink was serving with an apron on…I think Dave knows these men.