I love cooking for friends. Inviting one or two families over to share a meal around the table. During seminary I would host dinner parties with people in our apartment building in order to get to know them better. Nothing was expected of the guest but to show up. I would spend days picking out a menu of items the guests would like and cooking in our oh-so-tiny kitchen. The table would be set and we would simply spend time with one another.
Sometimes I worry that the church has lost the art of hospitality. If church was a dinner party we only make the type of foods that we personally like. We don't invite people over that often. And the room looks like we didn't expect them to show up. Then we don't really want to spend time getting to know who comes.
We need to rethink hospitality. Its about having a place that we invite people to and genuinely care about them for them, and not what they could possibly give us. What has been your best experience of hospitality and how can we extend that to the local church?
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