Tag Archives: Neighbor

Facilitating Biblical Hospitality

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The Missional Church – Part 3: Living Missional Principles

Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 14:12-14; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9

Missional Living Homework:

  • Each day this week, take some time to read the local newspaper and watch the evening news. Follow up by praying for the welfare of your city in light of what you know, asking God to bring his kingdom to bear upon those situations as well as the ones you don’t know about.
  • Each day this week, pray for the people who live on your street. Specifically pray for them by name (if you know their names). Pray for their physical and spiritual well-being, as well as any trying situation they are facing that you are aware of.

Hospitality

How would you define it?

φιλοξενία – the Greek word for Hospitality

compound word: philo – xenia “love” of “stranger”

Biblical hospitality is distinctive from the conventional view because it reaches out to undesired, neglected people who cannot reciprocate.

 

The Stranger

Strangers are not simply those we don’t know

Strangers are those who are disconnected from basic relationships

Barriers to Hospitality

Lack of Margin

Changing view of family & home

Practical Ways to Live Out Hospitality

  • Invite people into your home
  • Sometimes being outside is less threatening
  • Identify single parents in your neighborhood who need weekend childcare
  • Provide short-term or long-term foster care
  • Care for someone who is recovering from surgery
  • Be a “home away from home” for college students or others away from family
  • Hospitality isn’t always about inviting someone in. Provide hospitality at a local nursing home.

Questions:

  • In what ways does an understanding of biblical hospitality change your regular practices?
  • What first steps would you need to take to create a space in your home (or church) to welcome children, teens, the elderly, students, and so on?
  • Besides welcoming people into our homes, in what other settings might we be more hospitable?
  • What might you have to give up in order to make room in your home and church for hospitality?

Missional Living Homework:

  • Identify the “strangers” in your neighborhood. Make a list of those who are in need of hospitality.
  • List three things that need to change to allow you to make hospitality a way of life. Develop a plan to take steps toward being more hospitable toward strangers. Who is the first stranger your will welcome?

Like A Good Neighbor                   

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The Missional Church – Part 3: Living Missional Principles

Jeremiah 29:4-7; Matthew 5:14

Missional Living Homework:

  • As you examined your budget, what stood out? Did you discover any space for deepening your participation in mission?
  • Was there anything you decided to sell (no need to disclose what it is) and pass along the proceeds?
  • What did you learn about yourself? What lifestyle changes have you settled on or are pondering for your missional future?

Seeking the Best for My City

When we make conscious and committed decisions to seek the best for our neighborhoods and cities, life flourishes not only for us but also for those whose lives we touch.

General Rules of Social Interaction

  1. If you see someone at your favorite place a few times, you have permission to give them the “nod” of recognition (or subtle wave)
  2. If you’ve recognized their presence a couple times, it’s socially okay to say “hello.”
  3. Once you’ve said hello to someone once or twice, it is okay to make comments like “hey, it sure is nice today” or “is that book you’re reading interesting?”
  4. After you’ve broken the ice, you can introduce yourself.
  5. Once you’re on a first-name basis you have social permission to have normal conversations with them, and things develop from there

Questions:

  • Up to the present, how seriously have you considered your street and neighborhood to be your mission field?

Missional Living Homework:

  • Each day this week, take some time to read the local newspaper and watch the evening news. Follow up by praying for the welfare of your city in light of what you know, asking God to bring his kingdom to bear upon those situations as well as the ones you don’t know about.
  • Each day this week, pray for the people who live on your street. Specifically pray for them by name (if you know their names). Pray for their physical and spiritual well-being, as well as any trying situation they are facing that you are aware of.