Hospitality Checklist:
Plan the perfect menu.
Buy the most stylish and fashionable supplies.
Clean, polish and decorate.
Make sure everything is perfect and presentable.
Stress out and worry what your guest will think about your event!
Just reading this checklist makes my stomach turn flips with crazy anxiety! This check list is so many times the reality in our lives when we think about hospitality. It doesn’t have to be!!! In fact, these things do not define true biblical hospitality. *sigh of relief*
What a relief that this is not the standard we have to live by!!
The more I have studied what true biblical hospitality is, the more peace I have gained to be ME, as I serve others. I want you to find that freedom and peace as well. I want to share what I have learned and what the Bible says about it, so that we can walk joyfully as we try to seek out ways to be hospitable to those around us.
1. Biblical hospitality is NOT about YOU. Focus on how you make your “guest” feel.
When we focus our efforts on presentation and what people think about the “show” we’ve prepared, it focuses everything on us. True biblical hospitality focuses on the needs of others and how we can encourage and help them the most. Meeting their needs, making them feel important, and showing them that you are excited that they are around, is the heart of biblical hospitality.
Romans 12 is a key passage for learning how to show biblical hospitality. Here are a few points to notice:
- Presenting our bodies (all of our being and efforts) as worship to God. (v.1) Let this sink in! If we do everything as an act of worship, with the goal of bringing glory to God, our perspective and motives should change, right?
- We are not to conform to the world’s standards, but rather transform our thoughts, renewing our minds to be able to live in a way that looks more like Him. (v.2) If we change our mindset, where we begin to look the opposite of the world, our hospitality will look different too. It will look more like the hospitality Jesus showed while He was here on earth.
- We are not to think highly of ourselves and not show partiality. (v. 3 &9) If our thoughts are on how we can serve others first, then we won’t have time to be selfish.
For so many years I allowed my hospitality to be about me. I stressed myself out trying to put on the best presentation and wanted people to applaud my actions. It was so stressful and it was such a heavy burden to carry. It was truly freeing when I began to understand my wrong thinking and as God began to change my heart.
2. Seek after opportunities to meet the needs of others, in your home, in their home, and on the go.
How fun is it that hospitality can be shown ANYWHERE, not just in YOUR home! Romans 12:13 actually says to “seek out” and “eagerly pursue” ways to practice hospitality by contributing to the needs of others. I love this picture! As we go about our day, we are “seeking out”, “eagerly looking” for ways to be hospitable to people we know and don’t know.
Maybe someone at work needs encouragement or someone to listen to them, put aside work for a minute and offer your ear. Maybe a friend is going through a hard time, drop off their favorite drink or snack to let them know you are thinking about them. Maybe you’ve met a parent on your child’s sports team and you want to bless them by doing something special for them. Maybe, at the next practice bring them a bottle of water or snack, as a way to open the door to build that relationship. Maybe you offer to open your home to out-of-town guest who are in need of a place for a few days.
The opportunities are endless! Pray and ask God to help you to see ways you can show biblical hospitality anywhere you may find yourself.
3. Listen for “key words” in conversation that can trigger ideas on how you can show biblical hospitality.
It is easy sometimes to zone out or be thinking of what you are going to say next, while in a conversation with someone. But if we are wise, and place the other person first, truly listening to them, their words can lead us to ways we can serve them.
Here’s what I mean by that…if you are talking to someone and they are communicating that they are really having a hard time with something (let’s say balancing their schedule) that would be a trigger to us, creating a way to help them in someway, by meeting a need.
It’s easy to just offer, but another thing to offer a helpful solution to their need and act on the offer. I don’t mean forcing your help on them, but rather convincing them that you want to help by serving them in some way.
Romans 12:9-12 gives us such great advice on dealing with others. One thing that is mentioned is to give preference to one another in honor. So in our conversations, we can show honor to the other person by listening and praying for an opportunity to show biblical hospitality. Speaking from experience, this takes practice and diligence and can be achieved if we try (even though it’s hard).
There are so many more ways to show biblical hospitality than the things I’ve listed. The Bible is full of stories and ideas that we can learn from. There is also a wealth of books out there on the topic that can teach us. One book that I want to reference is Just Open the Door: How One Invitation Can Change a Generation
I enjoyed this book so much and learned a lot from Jen’s personal stories. I would highly recommend this book if you want to do further study on biblical hospitality.
She has also written a bible study, which I have not done, but I am sure it is so good. Just Open the Door – Bible Study Book: A Study of Biblical Hospitality
I always love learning from other people and hearing their ideas. Please send me your ideas on ways I can show biblical hospitality to the people around me.
