The Church As A Center of Hospitality
Bruce Rowlison, Creative Hospitality p. 64

The church is another logical center for hospitality.  We are a large family--the family of God.  Some people think that the church is one of the few places left where we can meet people who are different from us but form a larger family.  It is amazing how we overlook the simple acts of hosting in the church:

-learning a person's name

-finding things for which to affirm them

-listening attentively

-introducing them to other people

-staying with them past the first hello

-making your name visible to them

The church needs to find more ways to take the visitor seriously.  The church of which I am a part has periodic friendship dinners.  People who have visited the church three or four times are invited into the home of a family in the church for dinner.  There are twenty to thirty people, and the visitors outnumber the members (so they have a balancing sense of power).  The host is joined by the leaders of the church.  It is made clear to the new people that they have the ear of the church leaders who need their input.  What are their needs?  What drew them to our church?  What brought them back again?  What is important to them?  It is amazing, the helping that comes from a person who has not yet "settled in."  When most church boards make decisions affecting new people, their only source of information is, "When I first joined this church seven years ago...."  We become out of touch, like the parent who keeps making all the decisions for his teenager by saying, "When I was your age...."  We have discovered that church visitors feel the "put downs" even if they cannot verbalize them.

This page last updated on Sunday February 27, 2005 10:35 AM

Disclaimer: We are not a counselling service.  We prepare materials to help church
members and church leaders better understand the problems abuse brings and prevention methods.

Designed and maintained by Megan Field      Space provided by