I wish I could remember the name of the brother who greeted me and my family when we worshipped with Shadow Hills Church in Las Vegas.
Many years later, I keenly remember the warm, enthusiastic way he took us under his care to find the worship center, receive bulletins and meet a few others before the musicians signaled the beginning of the service. Most surprising was his enthusiastic offer, “Can you join my family for dinner after worship?”
I am certain it was apparent that we were just tourists and a family already practicing the faith, yet he still gave us the best welcome I have ever received from a church. I think of him often. He lived Christian hospitality.
Here’s the question: “What’s become of Christian hospitality?” Before you dismiss the question with the usual, “Times have changed,” “We’re all too busy,” “We’ve become impersonal,” or “It’s not safe to bring strangers into your home,” consider that hospitality is a command from God’s Word:
Romans 12:13b — “… practicing hospitality …”
Hebrews 13:2a — “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers …”
1 Peter 4:9 — “Be hospitable to one another without complaint.”
The word translated “hospitable” or “hospitality” comes from two words which together mean “love of a guest/stranger.” Hospitality is one of the commands we inherited from the Jewish roots of our faith and had very practical applications in the early church — as well as God’s church today.
The reasons (excuses?) we cite for not being hospitable might apply in random instances but they do not explain the wholesale neglect of hospitality that often marks contemporary church life. That neglect weakens God’s church as we lose the warmth and vitality that follows obeying our Lord and the natural connections believers find in “showing love” to one another in our homes.
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SOURCE: Baptist Press
Bob Carpenter
