THE CASE FOR HOSPITALITY-BASED MINISTRY

 No gift was more honored in the early church than that of hospitality. Being a “lover of strangers” was a requirement to become an elder, and was often written of as a mark of a godly person. What happened to the emphasis? Our culture created nursing homes and hospitals and orphanages and hotels and restaurants, and our hospitality is now done by strangers who make a living doing things that used to be done voluntarily for free.

Nonetheless, today there is still a great need for hospitality. Some single adults need a home away from home, whether it includes overnight housing or simply evenings spent in pleasant company of close friends. We need foster parents and extended families and adoptive parents, both formal adoptions and informal. We need established households who are willing to give radical hospitality to long-term guests. We need adult children who are willing to forego career to help take care of (“honor”) their father and mother. We need church members who gladly sell houses and lands to make funds available for those who are in need.

On a smaller scale, we need people who are willing to reach out to invest their time in high-maintenance people. I know that often there is not enough energy left over at the end of the day for energy-draining folks. But if you don’t give your energy to those who are friendless, then who else will? What do you think Jesus would do? (See Matthew 14 for a clue!)

Families can find their greatest ministry through radical hospitality. Instead of Mom directing the choir, Dad serving on the board, the teens running off to youth group, and the younger ones attending outreach functions, the whole family can stay and serve together. Of course, a family should be careful about how much exposure to special-needs people each member can tolerate. You don’t want to have such an open door that you endanger or embitter your children. But the family can serve as a kind of collective witness through the way they interact with one another, and a family working together can minister grace to another family on every level. What better way could there be for other parents learn the kind of skills they need to discipline their children in the ways of the Lord than to watch you with your children?

Can single adults exercise hospitality? It is commanded, without specifying limitations, so it must be possible. Of course, a single adult will have to exercise caution about who would stay, but married couples must have similar barriers of protection. Nonetheless, one of the basic needs of every person is for a sense of belonging, and singles can work together to create their own home away from home as adults.

Hospitality should not be confused with entertainment. Entertainment might be done with an eye to impress someone, or perhaps with a goal of being invited back. But hospitality is done with selfless abandonment and gracious servanthood toward another person, with no thought for self. Is hospitality difficult? Yes. A hospital (which is related to the word “hospitality”) has sick people who are in a “taking” mode, and those who help them must sacrifice on behalf of the needy. Is it dangerous? Yes, there is risk. Is it tempting to quit? Yes, otherwise Peter would not have had to remind us to “practice hospitality without grumbling.” (1 Peter 4:9) But is hospitality worth the difficulty, the risk and the temptations? Definitely.

There are many worthwhile programs that feed the poor, train parents, educate children, teach the truth, supply the needy and shelter the homeless. But I would be so bold as to assert that none is as effective as an open home, a welcoming smile, a listening ear and a loving heart. Every program that has been devised could be done better in the home. If one home out of every ten would adopt a fatherless child, there would be no more orphans. If every Christian family would minister radically to just one other family per year, then in a decade the entire world would be turned upside down!

All of this and more is what it means to be given to hospitality. May the church today remember and return to a radical commitment to being hospitable.