This One's for the Girls

More On the Hospitality Commands

I finally finished the book last week and wanted to share just a few more portions of this little gem by Alexander Strauch.    It was a great book and it inspired me to be more consistent about opening our home.    I have probably had weekend supper company at least once or twice a month for a very long time--  but upon completing this book, I  felt an unction to step it up.

This past Sunday, we had  a couple over  who have been members of our church for about a year and a half.  (The menu was tuna fish, chips, guacamole and a brownie cake that my 15 year old made from a mix--  just to let you know that I'm keeping it simple!!!)  We shared a very nice time of fellowship and spiritual conversation and the whole time we were eating, I kept wishing I had had them over sooner!   As they were leaving, they thanked us and told us that we were the only people from our church who had invited them over for a meal.

Alright--  enough from me.  Here's what Strauch has to say:

If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, we will want to invite them into our homes.  We will want them to fill our homes.  The presence of Christian brothers and sisters in our homes is a foretaste of our glorious, heavenly dwelling place that will be filled with people, angels, and the perfect host--  our Lord Jesus Christ.

Despite the joy of Christian hospitality, it is easy to neglect hospitality during times of spiritual stress and apathy.  Neglect, however, is a sure sign of slacking love.  Hospitality may be costly and intrusive, but that is what Christian brotherly and sisterly love demands.  Thus the Spirit of God warns us not to neglect the practice of hospitality.

When most Christians hear about their responsibility to practice hospitality, they can think up an amazing number of creative excuses to explain why they can't be hospitable.  Yes Christians are commanded to practice hospitality.

Alright--so to whom should we extend hospitality?  Here's a list I came up with:
1--  New church members
2--  Long time church members
3--  Hurting church members
4--  Widows  (This would especially fall under a deacon's ministry responsibility-- although we should all take care of our widows!)
5--  Visitors
6--  Lost people whom we are trying to evangelize

Here's to opening our homes.  As we continue on this journey of hospitality, I'll let you know how it goes!

The Hospitality Commands

I once overheard a woman tell another woman that her spiritual gift was hospitality.  It struck me as rather funny to hear her say that because this particular woman had never, in several years of living here, had my family over for supper (and my husband is the pastor of her church.)   I wanted to tell her that hospitality isn't a spiritual gift--  it's a Biblical command.   (But I held my tongue!)    Seriously, I wouldn't throw stones, as I am trying to improve in this area myself.  I just started  rereading the book The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch.  The following is an excerpt from the first chapter.  I hope this whets your appetite as it has mine.

While on vacation, my wife and I had the opportunity to visit a couple who had previously attended our church and home Bible studies but had since moved away.  We were concerned about their spiritual welfare.  We were delighted t learn that they were living for the Lord and were actively involed in a small local church.  They had one complaint, however.  During the past year, that they had attended the church, not one person--  not even one of the spiritual leaders--had invited them over for a meal or a time of fellowship.  So, our friends still did not feel a part of the fellowship and were quite disheartened.

An elderly single woman, who now attends our church, related an experience to me that dramatically illustrates why we need fresh teaching on the subject of Christian hospitality.  At one time in her life, she had to travel more than an hour by bus every Sunday to attend a small suburban church.  Each week after the Sunday morning service, she would eat alone in a park or library so that she could attend the evening service.  She did this for four years.  What left her with sour memories of this church was the fact that in four years no one invited her home to eat a Sunday afternoon meal or to rest.  It wasn't utnil she announced she was leaving that an elderly woman in the church invited her home for a meal on her final Sunday.

At times I have traveled as long as two or three hours on a Sunday morning in order to preach at a church.  In some instances, when I finished speaking, I was handed a check, invited to return, given many friendly handshakes and bid a warm good-by.  But no one thought to invite me home for a meal, to provide rest before my long drive home, or to seek further fellowship with me after the Sunday morning service.

These experiences distress me, and so they should!  They are examples of lifeless, loveless, inhospitable Christianity.  Worse, they are examples of outright disobedience to the clear commands of Scripture.  In concluding the Letter to the Hebrews, the inspired writer impl0res his Christian readers to cultivate a deep, affectionate love for one another as brothers and sisters (13:1).  He then immediately warns them not to neglect a vitally important aspect of their brotherly and sisterly love--  hospitality.

Consider yourself exhorted!