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Elements City Church

Summer at Elements - wk5: The Practice of Hospitality

Summer at Elements - wk5: The Practice of Hospitality

As we follow after Jesus we are invited into some practices and habits we see in his life. We examined some of these earlier this year with our Unhurried series. This summer we're diving into more. We invite you to experiment with us, and grow in these practices -- to see which ones God might be nudging you to make more prominent in your life. How might He be wanting to use these to do more work within you as He grows you and shapes you to be more like Jesus?

Locations & Times

Elements City Church

1825 N Alvernon Way, Tucson, AZ 85712, USA

Sunday 5:00 PM

Thanks for joining us tonight!

Whether you're on-site or online, we are praying that tonight will be an encouragement to you! If you're new, we'd love to have you fill out our connection card.
https://connect-card.com/yr4Y0g8VLBSqzKXeubjb
A disciple is someone who
knows and follows Jesus,
is becoming like Jesus,
and is committed to the mission of Jesus.
Luke 19:1-10
The Story of Zacchaeus
5(ish)-Minute Nerd-Out:
The Importance of The Table
For Jesus, meals were no longer a means of exclusion,
but a means of inviting people into the Kingdom of God.
"People who want to avoid the truth about themselves can always find something in the preacher to criticize.”
Warren Wiersbe
The Son of Man came . . .

Two statements.
One reveals the mission of Jesus,
the other reveals the method of Jesus.
What is the mission of Jesus?
To seek and save the Lost

What is the method of Jesus?
Eating and drinking
How did Jesus walk people into His Kingdom?

One meal at a time.
This method of eating and drinking with the lost is called hospitality.
1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 both list hospitality as a requirement of church leaders.
Hospitality:

“Turning strangers into neighbors, and neighbors into family.”
Rosaria Butterfield

“Expressing the welcome of God the Father through tangible acts of love, ideally, through giving food, shelter, and relationship.”
John Mark Comer
Lives are rarely changed over a sermon.

But they’re often changed through conversation.
Radically Ordinary Hospitality, according to Rosaria Butterfield:

Those who live it see strangers as neighbors and neighbors as people of God. They see God’s image reflected in the eyes of every person on earth. They know that the Gospel comes with a house key.
Hospitality is not the same thing as Entertainment!
Entertainment excludes.
Hospitality includes.

Entertainment is performance.
Hospitality is service.

Entertainment has a clear line between host and guest.
Hospitality blurs that line.

Entertainment is sporadic.
Hospitality is a way of life.

Entertainment is an act of reciprocity.
Hospitality is an act of generosity.

Entertainment helps you climb the ladder.
Hospitality helps you lift up those below you.
Suggested Practices:

- Commit to eating and drinking with non-believing friends once a month. Commit to sharing aspects of your faith through natural conversation each time you do this.

- Connect with someone who models hospitality well. Ask them to help you develop your own hospitality skills, such as cooking or conversing. Sit in on a meal with them and observe what they do and how they display hospitality.

Thanks for partnering with us!

To those who tithe to Elements, thank you for enabling us to be the church in our city. Your gifts help fuel the mission of Elements City Church, as well as our capacity to function as a church on a daily basis. 
You can give online at the link below, or through the Elements app.
http://elementscitychurch.org/give
Thanks for worshipping with us tonight! We invite you back next week as we continue our Summer @ Elements series looking at some practices and rhythms of following Jesus.

Join us this summer on-site or online every Sunday at 5pm!

Keep an eye on the Events tab in the Elements app for our upcoming events.