Hospitality has fallen on hard times in our culture. There was a day when it was normal for people to drop by unannounced, stay for hours, and be genuinely welcome the whole time! Clearly, those days have passed, but that only makes hospitality an even more powerful gesture now.
Have you considered the power of hospitality in your evangelism? Opening your home and enjoying a meal with unsaved acquaintances offers great advantages in your sharing the good news.
Hospitality expands your influence. Suppose you have a co-worker with whom you’ve had many conversations over a number of months. Perhaps a dozen times you have “woven a gospel thread” into a conversation. By inviting that co-worker and their immediate family members into your home, you expand any existing influence for the kingdom. No longer is there a one-on-one influence, but your family is now influencing a family. In other words, more souls are involved, both sharers and receivers. If the wives didn't previously know one another, maybe this gesture of hospitality will open up that secondary friendship. Maybe it's the husbands who are meeting for the first time and this connection will lead to their having coffee one-on-one in the future. Increasing the number of relationships and interactions involved means more opportunities to share the good news.
Hospitality deepens your relationship. Years ago prior to my being a pastor, I had a co-worker whom I would have considered my closest friend at work. He was unsaved. We had many conversations about Christianity and the gospel. We talked everyday about all kinds of things. However, our relationship took on a whole new dimension after our family invited him and his wife over for dinner. That simple gesture communicated care in a way that a hundred conversations at work couldn’t. Essentially, I was saying, “Come into my safe space. Eat my food. Get to know the people most precious to me. Let us get to know you and those precious to you.” Our conversations about the gospel thereafter were just different. Freer, deeper, better communicated and received…because the relationship was deepened by hospitality.
Hospitality normalizes gospel conversation. The climate of your home is very different than the climate of your office, your neighborhood, or Starbucks. Your home likely bears evidence that disciples of Jesus live there: Scripture murals, bibles laying about, Christian books on the shelves, Christian music playing. A prayer before sharing the meal—likely the habit of your home—certainly concretizes the faith present in your household. When you invite people into your home, the customs of the home become the norms for that engagement. That atmosphere makes spiritual conversation seem far more natural than it might standing next to the copier at the office. In a sense, it would be odd to your guests for the conversation not to turn toward the Lord.
Hospitality lengthens and varies your conversation. At work, in the gym, or wherever we interact with acquaintances, we’re forced to deftly insert short elements of the gospel into concise, surface-level conversations that mostly deal with the same subjects over and over. Not so when sharing a meal in your home. The meal offers the opportunity for lengthy, varied conversation which will provide far more natural openings to segue toward spiritual matters. In conversations outside my home, I have rarely gotten to the full gospel simply due to the limited nature of the encounter. Conversely, when my wife and I share a meal with unbelievers, only rarely are we unable to share the complete gospel…and in a way that flows well in the conversation.
Hospitality fosters further interaction. Hospitality only perpetuates a relationship. A simple, “We would love to do this again,” sets the stage for a follow-up invitation. Most guests are flattered to have been invited in the first place and will eagerly agree, "We'd love to do it again, too!" You may even find them reciprocating by inviting you into their home. At any rate, an initial act of hospitality can open a series of interactions that build on one another. If you are open about your faith from the beginning, they’ll know to expect that kind of conversation in the future. Hospitality not only makes it easier to talk about the gospel...it provides a natural way to keep talking about it by getting together again and again.
Have you ever had an unbeliever into your home for the purpose of building rapport and talking about Jesus? Whether yes or no, why not choose someone and reach out to them right now?
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