I imagine some of you might know the author Rosaria Butterfield. Butterfield, by her own admission, was an ardent feminist and an openly lesbian activist who passionately sought to refute the biblical view of marriage and sexuality. She was also a professor of English literature and women’s studies at Syracuse University.
She has shared her story of repentance and faith in Christ in her book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into the Christian Faith. It is a worthwhile read.
Here is the point: Butterfield defends that it was the love demonstrated through hospitality that God used as a key to unlock her heart. Convinced of the importance of hospitality as a divinely ordained means to win our neighbour for Christ, she writes: “Hospitality in a post-Christian, isolated, lonely world is one of the most valuable gifts the church has to reach our society.”
In a similar way, I remember talking to an ex-Jehovah Witness who came to a living faith in the Lord Jesus. I asked him how he became convinced of the Christian faith. He said it was on account of the warm and tender hospitality of some of the Christians he met ‘campaigning’ for the Watchtower that the truth of the gospel began to work in him.
Although more examples of the need for and blessing of hospitality could be shared, they point to one reality: the church of Jesus Christ cannot overstate the importance of practicing hospitality. Indeed, Scripture enjoins God’s people to practice hospitality (cf. 1 Peter 4:9, Rom 12:13) because it is, as Butterfield reminds us, a gift for us to reach our nation for Christ.
In this article, I want to address Christian hospitality by answering the question: How do we practice it? Here are five practical ways to practice hospitality.
First, pray
Pray for opportunities to invite people into your homes. Pray that your eyes are open and you will be given spiritual discernment to understand the needs of your guests. Are they grieving? Are they able to relate to your stories? Are they struggling with financial needs or are they struggling with hopelessness, etc? Pray for open eyes and open hearts.
Second, keep it Christ-centred
In your pursuit to show warm and loving, Christ-centred hospitality do not make it a reflection of yourself. You are not the foci in your gift of hospitality, Christ is. With a Christ-centred approach to hospitality, you move away from the Martha approach (preparing everything perfectly, on time, and warm) to the Mary approach (sitting at Jesus’ feet and discussing what is eternally important). It is not always an either-or, but if we feel the house has to be immaculate, that we have to be the best hosts, and provide the choicest of food, hospitality will be more about you than Christ. Keep it Christ-centred.
Third, although your home does not need to be immaculate, it needs to be safe
It needs to be a refuge in a world full of hostility and brokenness. My wife and I recall having two young men who came from broken homes over for dinner and fellowship. They were in their mid-20s. What they expressed broke our hearts. They said, “never in our entire lives have we experienced this: a dad and mom and children sitting around a table together, laughing and enjoying a meal together.” What they knew and were living in was violence and abuse, food insecurity, and the like. Make your place of healing and hope.
Fourth, do not practice hospitality expecting something in return
If we do, we will be partial to one demographic over another, one person over another. Show no partiality, the Bible commands.
Fifth, expect things to be messy at times
As Butterfield shares sometimes when you put the hands of the stranger into the hands of the Saviour, you may get hurt. Be prepared. Be wise. Set boundaries but err on the side of compassion. At times practicing hospitality is walking by faith in what the Lord would have you do even when things get messy.
Although there are more principles or ideas that could be shared on ways to practice hospitality allow me to close with this: always keep the end goal in mind. Butterfield put it well when she said: “Christian hospitality is seeking strangers and making them neighbours and embracing neighbours so that by God’s grace, they may become part of the family of Christ.” That is what we desire of all people we love through the life-giving and even life-changing practice of Christian hospitality.
