The Need for Radical Hospitality

In most communities, 40 to 60 percent of people have no church relationship. A majority of our neighbors on the streets where we live do not know the name of a pastor to call when they face an unexpected grief. Most of our co-workers have a few close friends and a circle of acquaintances but do not know the sustaining grace that a church offers. Most of the families with whom we travel to our children's soccer tournaments and band concerts, most of the fine students we meet from the university, and most of the people who repair our cars and serve us in restaurants, do not have a forum where they learn about the essentials of peace, justice, genuine repentance, forgiveness, love, and unmerited grace. Most of those who crowd the malls, where we shop, attend ballgames we enjoy, and sit behind us at movies and concerts do not know what it's like to join their voices with others in song and how this lifts the spirit in ways beyond words. Most of those who share our benches at bus stops, who sit across from us in waiting rooms, who take their children to the school down the block from us do not have a community that prompts them to service, to take risks for others, and to practice generosity. [Bishop Robert Schnase (Missouri) citing the need for Radical Hospitality, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, pp. 19-20, Abington Press, 2007.]