THE RISE AND FALL

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations:

RADICAL HOSPITALITY

Romans 15:7<= /p>

Excellent churches welcome people well.

A sermon pr= eached by

Dr. William= O. (Bud) Reeves

First Unite= d Methodist Church

Hot Springs, Arkansas

January 18,= 2009

There&= #8217;s a story about a county agent who had to go to a farm in his jurisdiction to talk with the farmer about a matter of county business. Driving up the dirt road leading to the farm, he encountered signs that said things like: “Trespassers will be shot,” “Beware of Dog,” “Keep Out …This Means You!” Arriving at the door, he was a litt= le worried about what he might encounter.&nbs= p; But he was greeted by a smiling, congenial farmer.

When t= he county agent was ready to leave, the farmer said to him in sort of a wistful way, “Come and see me again sometime. I don’t get many visitors= up this way.”[1]

Well, = no wonder. The entrance to his f= arm did not indicate that the visitor would be greeted with much in the way of = hospitality.

That f= armer reminds me of some churches. = They want to grow; they would like to have people join; they are happy to have visitors come to church. But = there are no visible signs to indicate that desire. Or, like the lonely farmer, the si= gns they have communicate a different message altogether. And they wonder why they are decli= ning.

Excell= ent churches, on the other hand, display the signs of growth and health. They practice the strategies that produce fruitful ministry. Re= cently there has been a discussion going on across our denomination about what tho= se practices and strategies are. Bishop Robert Schnase of Missouri wrote a= book that identifies five practices that are present in every fruitful church. Some fruitful congregations are la= rge, and some are small, some in the city, and some in the country. But whatever the context might be, excellent churches display some common characteristics. Today and for the next four weeks,= I want to look at the five practices of fruitful congregations and compare th= em to our ministry here at First United Methodist Church of Hot Springs. I think we are already excellent i= n many ways, but every so often the vision needs to be recast. We need to remember who we are and= what we are all about. We need to = think about ways we can improve and be an even better “community of faith, connecting people to God, to each other, and to the world.”

So tod= ay we want to talk about HOSPITALITY. That’s such a friendly word.= Hospitality is the ministry of inv= iting and welcoming people who might be a part of our fellowship and ministry. Partly it’s about evangelism—introducing people to Jesus. And partly it’s about making people feel like they belong to the church family. Hospitality means caring for the outsiders and making them insiders. It’s more than entertaining.&= nbsp; Hospitality is related to words like hospital and hospice. It’s a way we care for peopl= e who are hurting, people who need help, people who have sin-sick souls. It’s a way we offer rest and= peace and comfort and love on behalf of Christ.

Hospit= ality is a sign and an act of grace. I’ll never forget a mission trip I went on to Juarez, Mexico, a few years ago. We built a l= ittle casita for a family, 800 square fe= et of concrete block with no running water. You would have thought we had built those people a mansion. On the last day, the family invite= d our mission team to eat with them in their new home. The food was prepared in the cardboard-and-crate kitchen of the old house and laid on boards inside the = new house that was not yet quite finished.&nbs= p; We were hesitant to eat it, though it smelled really good, until our= maestro told us that the woman had= spent probably a month’s income for her family to buy this food. Suddenly we didn’t care if t= he health department had inspected her kitchen. That food was a sign of gratitude,= love, and hospitality that we could not refuse.&= nbsp; And it was good!

One of= the Biblical commands for hospitality is found in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It simply says, ̶= 0;Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”[2] The context of this statement is t= he tension between Christians who were Jews and Christians who were Gentiles.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> In the early church, the Jews had = a hard time accepting the Gentiles into the fellowship. Paul said the whole point of the m= inistry of Christ was to open up the grace of God to all people regardless of their= background. Christ welcomes us all, so we shou= ld welcome one another the same way.

The we= lcome of Christ is unconditional, like God’s love. It doesn’t matter who you ar= e, what you do, what you have done, how much or how little you have, or who yo= ur momma was. You are welcomed by Christ. The welcome of Christ= is for relationship. He already = knows you deeply; he wants you to know him in a deeply personal way. And the welcome of Christ never ends. The life he offers is e= ternal life, starting the moment you enter into a relationship of faith with him a= nd lasting forever.

This i= s how we are to welcome the stranger and outsider into our fellowship. Our welcome is unconditional, acce= pting people wherever they are in life or on their spiritual journey. We want to welcome them deeply, no= t just in passing, but to develop relationships, friendships with those who come in our doors looking for a spiritual home.&nb= sp; What we have to offer them is not just a membership in a really nice civic club. We’re not j= ust a positive social organization. We’re the church of Jesus Christ, and in our fellowship, a los= t, broken, and hurting soul can find peace and rest and the greatest gift of all—eternal life. After the way Christ has welcomed us, why shouldn’t we be the most welcoming people on earth?

All ch= urches welcome. Some just don’= t do it very well. To this day I h= ave not forgotten a church in eastern Oklahoma that my family visited on vacation years ago. I was about 15 years old. We would generally stop in at a lo= cal Methodist church wherever we were on vacation, mostly so we could keep up o= ur perfect attendance pins for Sunday School.= In this little church, on a summer Sunday morning, the preacher star= ted the service by asking if there were any visitors present. Well, all 50 people turned and loo= ked at us. We had to stand up, and m= y dad introduced us and answered a short interrogation from the preacher about our purpose for being in their town, and when we got to sit down again, I could feel the heat rising from my cheeks. It didn’t help me feel welcome.<= /p>
Most c= hurches today understand the need for ministries of hospitality. Unless you want to get on a downwa= rd spiral, there are some things you just have to do. You have to have greeters who will physically welcome people. Yo= u have to have a welcome center where guests can find information about the church, again staffed by an outgoing, friendly-type person. You have to make some sort of cont= act, by mail or phone, with people who visit your worship service. It’s even better if you have= a team of lay people who make personal contacts—we’re still worki= ng on that. And every welcoming = church has members who wear nametags. (Have I mentioned before how important that one little thing is in making guests feel welcome?) = This is Christian Hospitality 101.

But to= day I want to take you a step further. Excellent churches—fruitful congregations—practice RADICAL HOSPITALITY. The difference is in the adjec= tive. “Radical” means from t= he root or source, and radical hospitality is an attitude of welcoming that is ingrained in the culture of a congregation. It is in the DNA of fruitful congregations to go out of their way to welcome newcomers. Hospitality doesn’t just hap= pen at the front door; it happens in every room on the church campus. The focus of fruitful congregation= s is on the outsiders, not the insiders. They truly understand that the church is the only organization on the planet that exists for the sake of those who are not yet members. Most churches don’t get that= , and they struggle to be fruitful. But when they do get it, it’s awesome!

Michigan residen= ts Christine Bouwkamp and Kyle Kramer got married in the spring of 2007. Their wedding reception included a different kind of hospitality. Instead of hosting a formal dinner,= they held a simple reception at their church where guests were invited to help distribute food to people in need.

In the= weeks leading up to their wedding, Christine and Kyle had decided they wanted to begin their marriage with an act of service to Christ. With that goal in mind, they figure= d out how much money they would spend on a more extravagant reception and instead used that money to purchase five thousand pounds of food for those in need.= Immediately after the wedding servi= ce, the couple put on aprons marked "Bride" and "Groom" and joined their wedding guests in distributing food out of a truck to 100 neighborhood families.[3]

That&#= 8217;s radical hospitality. One of t= he radical hospitality ministries here started when somebody began to wonder a= bout families with special needs children. How could we welcome families who have a child that cannot do the regular Sunday School and church thing?&nb= sp; The result of listening to their needs and talking and praying about= it was the Open Hearts class, staffed with people who have been specially trai= ned and older elementary students who are trained to serve as “peer buddies” for these special kids.&nbs= p; Because of this ministry of radical hospitality, several families ha= ve been able to participate in church where it was just impossible before.

We are= trying to be radically hospitable by making opportunities available for intentional relationship-building with new folks. We have been offering a time for “Pizza with the Pastors” for a year or so. And startin= g this month, we have developed a four-week course called “Plug-In.” In four one-hour sessions, we want= to help new people get a taste for the flavor of our church, to learn a little= bit about our beliefs and what we offer as a congregation. I believe a new member who goes th= rough “Plug-In” will be ahead of the game in terms of getting involved and feeling a part of our church.

Then t= onight we are going to ask the Board of Stewards, the leaders of our church, to ag= ree to personally help new members get assimilated into the church. We are going to develop a mentoring ministry, so we can pair up active members with new people to help them get established. The church is al= l about relationships, and we want all our new people to know from their earliest contact with our church, that somebody here cares about them and wants to h= elp them be a part of the church family. I’m very excited about these new possibilities and very gratef= ul to those who have been working on them.

Why bo= ther with these sorts of ministries at all?&nbs= p; Sounds like a lot of work. (It is.)= What do we hope to gain from the practice of radical hospitality?

For on= e thing, we get to know some really great people.&n= bsp; The Letter to the Hebrews says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that = some have entertained angels without knowing it.”[4] We have some wonderful people in t= his church, and when we welcome new people in, we get more wonderful people. I’ll bet most of you can thi= nk of a person who has come into this church in the last year or two that is just= an angel, a blessing and an asset to our fellowship. Keep ‘em coming!

But ev= en more than that, by opening the doors of hospitality in our church, we prepare to receive an even greater Guest.

There&= #8217;s a story about a couple having dinner at a stylish London restaurant. The food was superb, and the setting—complete with chandeliers, crystal and silver—was unbelievably elegant. Nonethe= less, when the main course arrived, the woman felt the need for a little salt. But there was no salt shaker on the table. She called the waiter over, only to be told that she must be mistake= n. Each table always contained dispens= ers of pepper and salt. However, suc= h was not the case at this table. H= orrified, the waiter immediately brought her a saltshaker. When it was time for dessert, the m= aitre d' appeared, insisting that because of the oversight they choose something "on the house."

The wo= man protested, "It's not that important."

"= But, Madame," he replied in all seriousness, "what if you had been the Queen?"[5]

What i= f we prepared for every guest, not like the Queen of England, but like the King = of the Universe? Every gue= st in our house is Christ in our midst. Every child of God bears the face of Jesus. When we minister to the needs of any of his children, you remember w= hat he said: “Truly I tell you, j= ust as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you d= id it to me.”[6] Hospitality to anyone is hospitali= ty to Jesus.

Practi= cing hospitality fulfills the commission Jesus gave his disciples before he left= the earth: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” [7] Our mission in hospitality is to = make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. That’s a huge vision, a huge reason to be in ministry, but it all comes down to focusing a little piece = of everything we do on making the outsider feel welcome among us.

Church, let’s do our best to practice radical hospitality. This is our calling. This is the command of Christ. This is our opportunity to make a difference in the lives of God’s children. This is our challenge—to bear fruit for the Kingdom. Amen!<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

&= nbsp;

&= nbsp;