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Vibrant, fruitful, growing congregations practice Radical Hospitality. Out of genuine love for Christ and for others, they take the initiative to invite, welcome, and include newcomers and help them grow in faith as they become part of the body of Christ. They focus on those beyond their congregation with as much passion as they attend to the nurture and growth of those who already feel connected, and they apply their utmost creativity, energy, and effectiveness to the task, exceeding all expectations.


What is hospitality?
The roots of the word hospitality originally meant serving as a good host as well as being a good guest. The Latin hospes meant both host and guest, and is derived from hosti, which means enemy (think hostile!) and poi, which means people. Whether you were a guest among strangers or were welcoming a stranger as a guest in your space, hospitality came to mean engaging strangers with goodwill, overcoming the estrangement, the distance, the unknown with a receiving, open spirit. Christian hospitality reveals a genuine love for others, an outward focus, a reaching out to those not yet known, a grace that motivates people to openness and adaptability, a willingness to change behaviors to accommodate the needs and receive the talents of newcomers. It describes the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ. Hospitality brings the heart of God into view through us. Hospitality also describes the yearning to be sent by Christ into the lives of others to share the gracious love of Christ in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. Radical hospitality respects the dignity of others, and expresses God’s initiating and inviting love for every person. It is a mark of Christian discipleship, a quality of Christian community, a concrete expression of commitment to grow in Christ-likeness by seeing ourselves as belonging to the community of faith “not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28).

Practicing hospitality
As we practice hospitality, we become part of God’s invitation to abundant life. It is Christ’s welcome, not merely our own, that we offer others. Grounded in Christ Hospitality streams through scripture, with both its attractional and missional aspects, and it’s grounded in God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. In Deuteronomy, God reminds the people of Israel to welcome the stranger, the sojourner, the wanderer. Why? “For you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). We, too, were once estranged from God, strangers to the faith, residing outside the community where we now find rich resources of meaning, grace, hope, friendship, and service. We belong to the body of Christ because of someone’s hospitality. Someone invited us or reached out to us, encouraged us, offered us the embrace of Christ. Someone—a parent, a spouse, a friend, a pastor, or even a stranger—helped us feel that we belonged to God. We were engrafted into the body of Christ. If we had not felt accepted, loved, welcomed, and supported in some measure, we would not have remained connected. At every turn, the disciples seem ready to draw boundaries and distinctions that keep people at a distance from Jesus.

What is radical hospitality?
Radical describes practices that are rooted in the life of Christ and that radiate into the lives of others. Radical means “drastically different from ordinary practice, outside the normal,” and so it provokes practices that exceed expectations, that go the second mile, that take welcoming the stranger to surprising new levels. By radical, I don’t mean wild-eyed, out of control, or in your face. I mean people offering the absolute utmost of themselves, their creativity, their abilities, and their energy to offer the gracious embrace of Christ to others. Churches characterized by Radical Hospitality are not just friendly and courteous, passively receiving guests warmly. Instead, they exhibit a restlessness, an unsettling awareness of those who stand in need of grace. They are genuinely curious about and interested in forming relationships with people outside the faith community. They are eager to carry Christ’s initiating love with them into their daily lives.

What does radical hospitality mean to you?  How does it reframe who's your neighbor and what is family?