The Role of Biblical Hospitality in the Formation of Missional Communities in

Exurban America

Work

(MissionalCommunities)

World (Exurban America)

Word (Biblical

Hospitality)

The PaperThe Lifestyle

…MonksAction Research

Why?

*Church in decline

*Nominal difference in cultural factors &

decision making habits of believers

&non-believers

*MissiologistsView of the suburbs/exurbs

Talmid(im)

The goal is not knowing what the teacher

knows but becoming what the teacher is.

Hospitality…

Vulnerability and Availability

71 Direct References in the Scriptures

Jean Vanier:“Welcome is one of the signs that community is

alive.”He also states,

“A community which refuses to welcome whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is

fed up with visitors is dying spiritually.”

Hospitality…

Vulnerability and Availability

71 Direct References in the Scriptures

Literally means love of strangers

Ronald Heifitz…

Technical Change vs. Adaptive Change

Stranger

Guest

Friend

(Barbarian)

-------

Stranger

Guest

Friend

-------

(Family)

“Act Like You’ve Been

Out of the House!”

Early Church…*Extended to missionaries, teachers, apostles*Demanded of leaders (1 Tim 3 and 1 Tim 5)*The practice of sharing the Eucharist remembered God’s hospitality and served as a communal invitation and reminder of position and vocation…and was a foreshadowing of the great gift to come! (Rev 19)*The communal gathering was to be an invitation…(Luke 14:13)*Didache: Extended to travelling evangelists: food and water to reach the next place. *Resident Aliens / dependent on each other

“Let the poor men and strangers be acquainted with your modest table, and with them Christ shall be your

guest.” (Jerome)

“A harbor receives all who have encountered

shipwreck, and frees them from danger…So you likewise, when you see on earth the man who has encountered

the shipwreck of poverty, do not judge him, do not seek an

account of his life, but free him from his

misfortune.”(Chrysostom)

Antioch

Benedictof Nursia

Patrick of Ireland

~FellowshipIntegration

PresentationDecision

Technical v Adaptive

People and Place

God’s Welcoming

New Operating System

Nouwen says “strangers can cast off their strangeness and become fellow human beings (Nouwen 1996).

Peter Maurin wrote over 70 years ago that what we need are Houses of Hospitality to show the world what idealism looks like when it is practiced (Maurin 1936).

Hospitality is not an issue of space;it is an issue of the heart.

The Exurbs

They begin as embryonic subdivisions of a few hundred homes at the far edge of beyond, surrounded by scrub. Then, they grow – first gradually, but soon with explosive force – attracting stores, creating jobs and struggling to keep pace with the need for more schools, more roads, more everything. And eventually, when no more land is available and home prices have skyrocketed, the whole cycle starts again, another 15 minutes down the turnpike. (Lyman 2005)

The exurban people aren’t going to stay and fight the war against the inner-ring traffic, the rising mortgages, the influx of new sorts of rich and poor. They’re not going to mount a political campaign or wage a culture war. It’s not worth the trouble. They can bolt and start again in places where everything is new and fresh. The highways are so clean and freshly paved you can eat off of them. The elementary schools have spick-and-span playgrounds, unscuffedwalls, and all the latest features such as observatories, computer labs and batting cages. (Brooks 2004: 47)

Research

86% of people have events/patterns of living that keep their families from being together in the evenings 3+ nights a week.

56% 4+ nights.

Research

Nights Available for Involvement

6 or 7 Nights 0

5 Nights 1

4 Nights 2

3 Nights 7

2 Nights 22

1 Night 28

0 Nights 4

Research

Are Saturday and Sunday days of rest/free days, light activity days or days that are just as full as Monday through Friday?

Days of Rest/Free Days 1One Day Of Rest/Free Day 4Light Activity Days 22Days That Are Just As Full As The Week/Work Days 43

Research

Which of the following do you spend the most time on during work week/school nights (Sunday-Thursday)?

Work 6Family Activities/Commitments 29Television 2Sports 20Homework/Studies 10Family Time 3

?

Research

21 % stated that they didn’t believe it was their role to take care of others individually in their community. (Main Reasons: Church entity should do it, Government has resources to do it, and it is their own fault.)

48% stated that they knew it was the Biblical mandate to take care of others in need in the community but struggled with putting this into action regularly.

Research

When asked differently about their resources (questions pushed toward Jubilee orActs 2/4 thinking):

74% stated that what they earned was theirs and the community got what they determined the community should get. I.e., No sense or statement of communal thinking as to what is mine is mine for the community.

67% stated that they didn’t really need any of their neighbors.

Research

When you think about the houses/neighbors that you can see from your house, how many of those would you be uncomfortable inviting to your home?

I am uncomfortable with 75% or more 8

I am uncomfortable with 50% or more 15

I am uncomfortable with 25% or more 9

I am uncomfortable with 1-24% 3

I am not uncomfortable with any of them 3

Research

In open dialogue 21 times a respondent said in some way that they were nervous about how to host people in their home.

In open dialogue 16 times a respondent stated that they weren’t as good as someone else at being a host/hostess.

In open dialogue 15 of the represented homes didn’t think that their home was “good enough” to have people over. There is an obvious concern from the vast majority of the ladies interviewed (82%) of how their home would be perceived.

Research

Is your immediate family living in this area (within 25 miles)?Yes – 6No – 14

Did you move away from your immediate and extended family during your school aged years?

Yes – 17No – 3

Have you ever lived in a town for 20 or more years?Yes - 2No - 18

Research

Is hospitality, in this discussion…opening your home to others, something that every believer should do? Is it a priority of the faith?

Yes – 32%No – 68%

Is hospitality, in this discussion…opening your home to others, something that a select gifted few should pursue or is it something we are all called to?

Select Gifted Group – 40%Every Believer – 60%