Church Staff Values – Hospitality (Part Nine)
“I will make my heart and home comfortable for the Spirit.”
“I will make our church welcoming to believers and seekers.”
Corporate hospitality starts with personal hospitality. We can’t expect to have unfriendly people make up a friendly institution. Hospitality must start with me as I open myself up to God and those he directs in my path. Scripture tells us that God is present among assembled believers, so God is in our churches. I wonder if he always feels welcome?
Too many believers have too many restrictions on what God can do they limit his work and restrict his true nature. When we start defining how God can work by human terms like charismatic or liturgical, emotional or cerebral we limit his presence and expression. How comfortable can God feel when we tell him when to speak, where to sit and when to leave? Hospitality is a spiritual discipline that starts by welcoming God into our lives and ministry.
If this happens in my spirit, then I become receptive to others and can empower our church to be welcoming as well. We must first learn to welcome God and then we can learn to welcome others. Welcoming others doesn’t mean impressing them, it means accepting them. Hospitality requires sincerity, not showmanship. We should do all we can to make our homes inviting and our churches welcoming. Realizing that our homes and churches are not the focus, the relationships are. Hospitality challenges us to make people feel welcome, coming into the presence of God is tough enough. Let’s not make the church an obstacle. Let us express the hospitable heart of our Savior by welcoming Him and his children into our homes.-
-
