Toolbox For Faith

I just finished a wonderful book entitled, “God’s Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World” by Amy G. Oden which focuses on our call to share the good news of God’s love with others and offers practical suggestions for how we can practice that hospitality in our lives and our congregations. Here are a few excerpts from the book to give you an idea of Dr. Oden’s approach.

“Gospel hospitality is God’s welcome, a welcome that is deep and wide. Gospel hospitality is God’s welcome into a new way of seeing and living. Ultimately, gospel hospitality is God’s welcome into abundant life, into God’s own life. . . . Gospel hospitality almost always entails some kind of risk and leaves all parties changed. As we participate in gospel hospitality, God’s welcome becomes a way of life that we share with the world.” (Pg. 11)

“Greeting is only the first step in hospitality. Gospel hospitality calls us to the next step beyond greeting: feeding. . . . As Christian people, we have food to share with a world that is hungry, even famished. Spiritual wanderers - those spiritually starved and denied - show up at our doors, not because they like our buildings or even because they like us, but because they are hungry. Hungry for forgiveness, for rest and peace. Hungry for mercy and grace. Hungry to explore and grow. Hungry for the good news of new life, of abundant life. Hungry for God to do a new thing. Gospel hospitality offers welcome food. . . . Gospel hospitality calls us beyond friendliness to share the solid food that blesses our lives.”(pg. 12)

“The point of gospel hospitality is to invite others to experience the living, welcoming God and to experience the living, welcoming God in others.” (pg. 15)

“How do we live gospel hospitality in real life? Throughout the centuries, Christians have called the intentional and mindful living out our faith ’spirituality’. Spirituality can sound fluffy or insubstantial, but in truth it is made up of concrete, everyday practices that pay attention to God. A spirituality of hospitality is a particular practice of paying attention to God’s welcome in our lives and paying attention to the welcome we extend to others.”(pg. 53)

After explaining her understanding of Gospel Hospitality, Dr. Oden then offers 14 different scenarios to practice Gospel Hospitality which include a Bible passage, a reflection, questions and a suggestion for how practice an element of Gospel Hospitality in daily life.