As semi-newlyweds, John and I really want our home (okay... tiny apartment!) to be a place where people feel welcome. What does it look like for our home to be a place of ministry and encouragement to the college students in our church, to neighbors, to large groups of people, to small groups? It can seem like a daunting task to respond to the call in 1 Peter 4:9 to "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling," when we're living on a budget and our apartment isn't sparkling clean. The Girl Talk blog has done a series on this topic recently and I was so challenged when I thought of the reason
why we practice hospitality: because God has welcomed us into his family through Christ while we were still sinners. John Piper says, "The ultimate act of hospitality was when Jesus Christ died for sinners to make everyone who believes a member of the household of God. We are no longer strangers and sojourners. We have come home to God. Everybody who trusts in Jesus finds a home in God."
How can we extend the same grace that we have received from God to others in welcoming them into our homes and lives? Here's are some ideas of what purposeful hospitality looks like:
"What I mean by strategic hospitality is a hospitality that thinks strategically and asks: How can I draw the most people into a deep experience of God's hospitality by the use of my home or my church home? Who might need reinforcements just now in the battle against loneliness? Who are the people who could be brought together in my home most strategically for the sake of the kingdom? What two or three people's complementary abilities might explode in a new ministry if they had two hours to brainstorm over dinner in my house?
Strategic hospitality is not content to just have the old clan over for dinner again and again. It strategizes how to make the hospitality of God known and felt all over the world, from the lonely church member right here, to the Gola farmers in Tahn, Liberia. Don't ever underestimate the power of your living room as a launching pad for new life and hope and ministry and mission!"
~John PiperWhat other ways can we practice strategic hospitality?
