Any Given Sunday

The other Wednesday evening, following Bible study, we lingered.

There was conversation buzzing in one corner of the sanctuary, a cluster praying in another; two with Bibles open in deep discussion while others tipped their heads back in contagious laughter.

This scene unfolded, unscripted, for nearly an hour.

My heart sang.

For this we prayed.

Our small church is not yet two years old, and from the beginning, my husband and I prayed that hospitality would warm our fellowship, stitching our congregation together beneath the true Gospel.

Have you ever been in a church where—Whoosh—everyone vanishes after the closing prayer?

This is not how the early church of Acts functioned, nor what God intends for his people.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, (Acts 2:46)

Culturally, we live in a different time, with people driving various distances to meet for church. Most of us do not travel by foot, as the early church did, and fellowshipping in people’s homes is not always feasible.

But this does not mean we are to forsake hospitality.

After dabbling with a few different formats, our church has happily landed on the use of an online meal planner, a simple means of allowing our congregation to serve generously by sharing snacks. Our church supplies coffee and bottled water, and we take turns bringing food — fruit, cheese and crackers, sliced vegetables alongside ranch dressing, muffins, cookies, or a yogurt-and-toppings bar. Week by week, following our worship service, we linger to visit and eat. One Sunday per month we all pitch in and enjoy a sit-down meal, with lunches such as taco bowls, pizza, chili, or cold cut sandwiches.

Hospitality requires time, thoughtful planning, money (although it need not be expensive), and a cheerful willingness to serve. Following our hospitality hour, a few of us stick around to tidy up, and I promise you this: the rewards are manifold. I am thankful for the rich conversations, encouragement, prayer, and stories that unfold as we wash dishes, spritz countertops, sweep the floor, and lug trash to the bin.

As a congregation, we understand each other better now, largely due to the commitment to practice hospitality.

Sadly, hospitality has long been limited to entertaining from one’s home. While this is good, I believe such a narrow definition blinds us to the joys of practicing neighborliness in God’s house. Church is our spiritual home, a place we eagerly gather to welcome familiar and unfamiliar faces, unite beneath the preaching and teaching of Scripture, bear one another’s burdens, and break bread as a family.

Do we become bruised during the weekly grind; beaten down by this world? Indeed. Yet consider how an intentionally warm and gracious congregation may gather any given Sunday to encourage, pray, sing, uplift, and remind one another of truth: Christ is coming back.

Be patient as you begin to practice Sunday hospitality in your church. Rootedness as a body of believers takes time, repetition, and practice. Choose to serve others wholeheartedly as unto the Lord. It is good to forget about yourself for a while.

No church is perfect, but with everyone’s fingertips pressing seeds of kindness, generosity, time, and love into the rich soil of truth, hospitality will warm the ground like sunshine, yielding a vibrant congregation.