Hospitality III – Practical Hospitality

Clint Ware: Hospitality III – Practical Hospitality

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I. What Should Hospitality Look Like Today?

  A) What people expect from hospitable people:

  - they would be nice , welcoming, caring “smiling” 

- they would make an effort to talk to me beyond just saying “hello” and shaking my hand (firmly)

- they would make eye contact with me and be genuinely interested in me

- they would make it a point to include me

  B) The motive behind the hospitality is important

- most of the time people are nice when they want something

- worldly motive vs. churchy motive vs. Kingdom motive

  C) Kingdom Minded Hospitality

- Because God loves them …we will love them.

and has charged us with being:

an authentic representation of Himself, 

an authentic representation of Jesus

an authentic representation of  the Gospel (I Peter 4:8-10)  

II. How can we best do it?

  A) Be nice (for Jesus)

  B) Talk to strangers (for Jesus)

  C) Give it some thought (make a plan) (for Jesus)

- if you don’t make a plan you won’t 

~ How can I be more hospitable in my day to day life? (for Jesus)

~ How can I use my home to be hospitable? (for Jesus)

~ How can my family become more hospitable? (for Jesus)

  D) Focus on the people not you performance. (for Jesus)

III. Helpful How-to’s on Hospitality

  A) Facts about strangers or visitors (especially in church)

- they naturally feel uncertain and insecure

- they don’t know what happens next

- they are searching for something

- they usually decide whether they will come back within 10 minutes

  B) Put yourself in their shoes (what are they thinking?)

- will anyone like me here?

- is anyone here interested in knowing me

- “is this Jesus thing for real”