The Value of Hospitality

If you go to church this Sunday, how will you see yourself… as a host or a guest?

Are you someone that invites others in, or do you wait to be invited? DO you see

church as ‘your’ church, or is it ‘their’ church? Does it feel like home to you, or do

you feel like a visitor when you go?

At River we value hospitality in all its forms, recognising that when we feel invited

welcomed and loved, then loving, inviting and welcoming comes as a natural result.

Jesus himself made this statement, “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor,

the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed.” (Luke 14: 13)

The more we journey on in our walk with Christ, it’s good to ponder our motives… do

we invite, love and welcome because of what we can get out of it, or because of

what we can give…

I remember when we lived in rural Ethiopia, out of a heart of love and hospitality, our

family decided to put on a feast for about 80 of our close neighbours and some

elderly folk from the local church. We killed several chooks and a goat, and a group

of local friends came and helped prepare the feast. What I did not expect was the

richness of relationship in the preparation! What a joy it was!

As friends, we had so much fun preparing together and the bond of love between us

blossomed and grew. The feast was the talk of the town for sure, but I am sure we

were blessed far more in the preparing and the giving, than those 80 people were in

the receiving! ( I’ll never forget when my friend Zelphi cracked a rotten egg, and put it

in to cook with all the good eggs, and I had to learn to cook the “rural Ethiopian

way”! )

Who do you have in your world that you can partner with to be hospitable, and what

could that look like?

Do you need to shift your thinking to become a host at church instead of a guest?

God loves it when we are hospitable.