Teaching and Modeling CompassionSample

Compassion Through Hospitality

When our children were young and in grade school, they desperately wanted friends at church. We had moved them from a close-knit small New England church to a larger church in Virginia when my husband changed jobs. The transition challenged each of us in many ways. Grief found its way into our moving boxes as we said hard goodbyes. Disorientation sprung from those boxes as we unpacked. We were not from this region of the country and had different accents and different customs.

Anyone who has moved knows the awkward feeling of being alone and excluded, all while grieving the familiarity of their former home. Anyone who has changed churches also knows this feeling. We were made for community, and community for Christians is the church. But if the church doesn’t welcome the stranger or show hospitality to the lonely, hurt ensues.

While we’ve all failed to be that person for others at church at some point, working with intentionality to fulfill Christ’s directive to love our neighbor can become a learned behavior. As adults, we can invite the stranger out to a meal or over to our homes. We can strike up conversations, learn people’s names, and use those names each time we speak to them. Ask how you can be praying for them (and be sure to pray.)

For parents, we can instill these important Christ-like behaviors of hospitality in our children by preparing them before Sunday school and youth group to train their eyes on those young kids standing and sitting alone at the edge of the group. Encourage them to be an inviter: inviting kids to sit with them and speak with them. Teach them some basic conversation-starters. And when you’re all home enjoying lunch after the service, be sure and follow up by asking who they included that might’ve been excluded if it wasn’t for them. Ask who needed a friend and who they befriended.

In Mark 12, Jesus commanded his followers to love both God and their neighbor, afterward saying, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” Certainly, we should strive to do the same.