Do not neglect to show
hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels
without knowing it.
--Hebrews 13:2 NRSV
This Sunday I will be
preaching on Christian hospitality.
If you have been fortunate enough to travel, you
probably have had varied experiences at hotels.
Some hotels have staff who work hard to ensure their guests have a good
stay. It quickly becomes obvious in how
they greet you, answer questions, offer suggestions or help you with any needs
you have. Often, managers of such hotels
hire staff who are good with people and train their staff how to make guests
feel “at home.” At other hotels,
however, it becomes instantly obvious that all you are to the desk clerk is merely
another annoyance in a long line of annoyances.
I have a number of friends in the restaurant business
who tell stories of working for different owners, companies and managers. They tell me every restaurant has its own
culture. Some have a culture that treat
patrons merely as a means to an end; each person who orders is only one number
added to a total. The goal at such
restaurants is to get as high a total as possible to make as much money as
possible. At other restaurants, while
the goal is still to remain profitable, just as importantly the owners and
managers work hard to create an environment where people feel welcome and
seen. In these restaurants, quality of
service matters, so does the quality of food, and often they are profitable
because people are willing to pay for a place where they feel welcome.
I believe churches have cultures too and creating a
culture of welcome and hospitality doesn’t just happen; it must be intentionally
created. No doubt, some churches have a
more friendly atmosphere than others, but friendliness is not the same as a
church oriented toward welcoming strangers.
Churches focused on insiders (members of the club) know when to stand,
sit, pray and sing, but someone from another tradition or from no faith
tradition may be baffled what to do on their first visit. Most churchgoers have been at it so long,
they don’t even remember visiting a church for the first time, but in today’s
culture where fewer and fewer people claim a religious tradition or practice,
those who take the adventurous step of entering a church feel like they are
entering a foreign land with strange customs and rituals. A church has to work on making such church “tourists”
feel at home.
More than merely welcoming visitors, healthy churches
have an outward facing orientation.
Their church building and all aspects of church life are meant for
sharing with those outside the church. This is more difficult to manage than it may
appear on the surface.
Church members work in jobs all week concerned with
protecting the property and assets of their businesses or that of the companies
they work at. In their personal lives,
church members work to increase their financial assets and protect their homes. Is it any wonder that when they come to
church and serve on church boards, they approach the church building and its
other assets in the same way? In a time
of dwindling attendance and financial giving, what church people learn in every
other area of their lives comes into play—get as much as possible, hold onto as
much as possible and cut back on outflow of money and resources.
A church’s “profit” however is not found on its
balance sheet. As much as good fiscal
policy matters in any organization, the point of the church is not to
accumulate more but to give away more. A
blessing of the decline of American churchgoing may be that Christians learn
the point was never to pile up more money and build bigger buildings. Instead, the point was to demonstrate the
love of Jesus Christ by doing what Jesus did: giving himself away. Jesus said, “For those who want to save their life will
lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world,
but lose or forfeit themselves?” (Luke 9:24-25 NRSV). What does it profit a church if they build
the biggest building, have the biggest budget, have the most members, but nobody
experiences the sacrificial love of Jesus?
Or maybe in this day and age, what does it profit a church if it has a
building and an endowment but because it’s holding onto what it has with
clenched fists it can never open its hands and arms to welcome the stranger at
its door?
A church’s
“profit” is in sharing what it has with those who need it. Of course, budgets, giving and building
maintenance matter, but those things are merely just tools to show love to
others. A church that wants new people
to join so it can make its budget goal is no different than the restaurant or
hotel that sees people as numbers.
People in our culture are dying for an alternative way to liv. Whether they realize it or not, they hunger
for a way to let go of the things they are clinging to in order to embrace
something that spiritually matters. The
problem may be that too many church folks have the same problem.
Grace
and Peace,
Chase
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