Christian Hospitality

New Decisions are called for in New Times - Series

Christian Hospitality

Moving towards a true Christian concept of “hospitality”

The way Christian hospitality often functions in most churches today is that every once in a while, some people in the church invite other members of the church over to dinner. They eat a meal, share some stories, and then the guests go back to their own home. But this is not really hospitality. This is entertaining. Most Christian hospitality is little more than Christian entertaining.

There is nothing wrong with entertaining. Entertaining is a form of fellowship and is a great way to get to know other people. My wife, Jan and I “entertain” all the time, and we thoroughly enjoy it. Christian hospitality, however, is quite different.

True Biblical Hospitality

In biblical times, hospitality involved allowing newcomers in town to stay in your house while they were there. It involved giving itinerant prophets a place to live. It included taking people in from the street where they were likely to get hurt. It may even include giving food and lodging to those who were too poor or too sick to care for themselves.

The common theme to hospitality, it seems, involves meeting a physical need of someone else, especially in regard to food, lodging, and safety.

It meant taking those who were in some sort of need or danger and providing them with food, lodging, safety, and security. It meant making your home their home.

Hospitality begins with a willingness and desire to share what you have with people in need. Maybe it is your food. Maybe it is a spare room. Maybe it is clothing.

Then hospitality takes place when God brings people to our attention that have needs, and we seek to meet those needs with what God has given us. God nudges us to serve him in the least of these. God desires for us to be a blessing to the world by being good news to others.

Hospitality, as someone has defined it, is making someone else “feel at home.” How can we, as followers of Jesus, help others “feel at home” when they are in our presence? How can we put them at ease, serve their needs, give them comfort, safety, healing, and rest?

Hospitality is not true hospitality unless it makes us less comfortable and someone else more.

Do you have examples of how you or a friend showed hospitality to someone else? Do you have suggestions or tips on how people can develop hospitality? Share your stories and ideas in the comment section below.