Extend Hospitality Beyond Your Church
Love of Strangers
The New Testament word translated as hospitality is literally “love of strangers.” We know we’re not wrong in applying the term to welcoming those in our churches because each of the hospitality commands is nestled within passages about brotherly love. At the same time, while our hospitality should start in our local churches, it shouldn’t stop there. In addition to welcoming one another, we should welcome unbelievers, as well as needy saints.
Once when Jesus dined in the house of a Pharisee, he said to his host:
When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14:12–14)
The world schemes and calculates, “What can I get out of this in this life?” But Christians are strategically storing up treasure in heaven. Imagine the meals and accommodation there!
We bonded with our former next-door neighbors because they had kids the same age as ours and a friendly labrador who liked to play with our golden retriever. They had lived in Dubai for a long time and were happy to join us for dinner and attend our Christmas carol parties, but they never showed interest in the gospel.
How Can I Grow in Hospitality?
Keri Folmar
This short book encourages Christians to serve Jesus through loving, welcoming care of others. It features biblical advice for practicing hospitality at home, sharing the gospel with neighbors, and serving in church in a number of ways.
Nevertheless, when a Muslim friend of theirs wanted a Bible, they came to us. As a result, I was able to lead my neighbor and her Muslim friend in a Bible study through the Gospel of Mark. Eventually both started coming to church.
How well do you know your neighbors? I confess, my husband and I have gone through seasons of being more or less involved with our neighbors—often realizing that we had wrongly become too “busy” to reach out. But fellow Christian, make time to invite your unbelieving neighbors into your life for the sake of the gospel.
Remember, you don’t have to go it alone. Are there other church members in your neighborhood with whom you can partner? For instance, I know several women who rotate hosting neighbors for dessert. They use “get to know you” questions aimed at deepening their conversations and have found that many neighborhood women are lonely and in need of friends. Through rotating dessert nights, they have ample opportunity to share the best news in the world with their neighbors.
Thank God that Jesus extends his welcome beyond those of worldly repute—even to the likes of you and me!
Do you have neighbors, coworkers, friends from school, or other relationships you can invest in for kingdom purposes?
And what about the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind? Is there a prison you can visit? A retirement home? A crisis pregnancy center? Is someone in the hospital? Can you invite someone into your home who cannot return the favor? Jesus welcomes those with nothing to give, and so it should also be with us. Thank God that Jesus extends his welcome beyond those of worldly repute—even to the likes of you and me!
Another way of extending hospitality beyond your church is by opening your home to missionaries or traveling saints. Living in Dubai, we’ve had this kind of welcome offered to us numerous times when we’ve traveled back to the United States. We’ve been shown hospitality by longtime friends in Austin, new friends in Williamsburg, a single pastor who bought a big home in Texas to house missionaries on furlough, and other dear saints who have sacrificed their time and space to make us feel welcome. We’ve even had a family give us their car to drive for months at a time. These saints remind me of Gaius whom John commends in 3 John 5–6:
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
Gospel-workers depend on the hospitality of the saints.
The book of Acts is a record of hospitality extended in the early church. People like Jason, Priscilla, and Aquila risked their necks to show hospitality to those who were preaching the gospel. Hospitality toward gospel-workers is all over Paul’s epistles. He expects hospitality for himself from both churches and individuals (Rom. 15:24, 32; Philem. 22). He asks the churches in Rome to show hospitality to Phoebe, writing, “Welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you” (Rom. 16:2). He asks the Colossians to welcome Mark and Titus and to help Zenus and Apollos as they travel through Crete, instructing, “See that they lack nothing” (Titus 3:13).
Housing and supporting traveling missionaries and gospel-workers is a privilege— one that is mutually beneficial. Hearing about what’s happening in other parts of the world makes us thankful for our access to Bibles and fellow believers, and it spurs us on to pray for those who haven’t yet heard the gospel. One day, we’ll worship God face-to-face with the people we’ve prayed for!
Do you have a spare room or an empty basement? Use them to bless missionaries you know or that your church supports. Who knows? The Lord may just use one visiting missionary to get you overseas for gospel work too.
As God has welcomed us, we have the responsibility and privilege to extend our welcome to others beyond our local church.
This article is adapted from How Can I Grow in Hospitality? by Keri Folmar.
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