Hospitality and the Great Commission …

Sitting at a corner table at a Starbucks, I was enjoying the free-flowing conversation with a local pastor I was spending time with to get to know better and learn more about the congregation he serves as Preacher.

In the mix of questions I was peppering him with, I asked, “What’s the greatest weakness you have among the people in your congregation.”

The young preacher didn’t even hesitate.

“Hospitality,” he responded immediately.

He went on to explain that the people comprising the congregation were friendly to visitors who joined them for church services. But in spite of that “corporate friendliness,” the people were lacking in extending hospitality to others, personally, especially by opening their homes and inviting others in.

That’s a significant weakness considering this local congregation seems to be serious about wanting to make new disciples by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ without practicing an “attractional model” of evangelism. The elders of the church don’t want as a focus for evangelism that of inviting people to a church service and having the preaching be the only way people hear the Gospel.

Instead, the leaders of this church desire to see a more biblical model of disciple-making practiced by leaders equipping the saints to be capable and competent in going into their world and building opportunities with people they know and meet to share the Gospel with them.

However, lacking in hospitality will directly impact the ability for this congregation to carry out such a model for evangelism.

Although most churches today practice something like an attractional model of evangelism where churches attempt to attract spiritually dead people to want to attend a religious service or event at a specific building, that kind of evangelistic model is least effective and yields a lesser harvest. By equipping and sending the saints out into the world as ambassadors for Christ, many more people will be responsive to hearing the Gospel IF we extend hospitality to others by sincerely and warmly inviting people into our homes and our lives.

The more we open our homes and lives and invite others in, the more opportunities we have to build the kind of friendships and relationships that foster an interest in, and greater willingness to hear, our message about Jesus Christ. But the more we lack in extending hospitality to others, the more we directly hamper our efforts of carrying out the Great Commission of going into the world to make disciples.

James Miller tells a story about hospitality in the workplace. A guest of a Marriott hotel discovered that her sister had just died. She was upset and shared her grief with a hotel employee. The employee, named Charles, took a sympathy card to the staff and had them all sign it. He gave the card to the grieving woman, along with a piece of hot apple pie.

Shortly after her visit, the guest wrote a letter of thanks to the president of the hotel chain. She wrote, “Mr. Marriott, I’ll never meet you. And I don’t need to meet you. Because I met Charles, I know what you stand for. I want to assure you that as long as I live, I will stay at your hotels.”

Miller concluded his story with this: “Christian hospitality is more than a passing kindness. It’s an incarnation of God’s love.”

“In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father,” Matthew 5:16.

Our extending hospitality to others is a way to effectively share God’s love with others. Such open hearts and open doors earn Christians a more natural opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, and from that sharing, the opportunity to make disciples.

Are you known for your hospitality? What could you do to make practicing hospitality a more consistent and natural part of your life? How could practicing hospitality help you become a more effective disciple-maker?

Scotty