The Gospel Comes with a House Key
The Daily Grind (2|3)
The Basics of Hospitality
• Radically Ordinary Hospitality Works from Strengths and Interests
• Radically Ordinary Hospitality Looks Out for the Old People
• Radically Ordinary Hospitality Relocates to Neighborhoods Hit Hard by Drugs and Crime and Poverty
Pages 166-172
TOGETHER read the book (END READING AT: …it meets neighbors and makes them family.) and discuss the content below.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out (try to keep it brief).
James 2:15-14-17 (NIV) What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Proverbs 19:17 (NIV) Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.
Romans 15:1-2 (NIV) We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
Romans 14:19 (NIV) Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
The church needed meaning and purpose in order to serve in a neighborhood it didn’t understand.
God was blessing the simple hospitality efforts of my friend who was looking around and praying for the people there, gathering them in close, and sharing the Word of God.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
Reading the Bible together is intimate business, and one of the first questions that Hazel had was this: “If I disagree with everything you say, can I still talk?”
What is your response to that statement?
Are we creating space and community for people to disagree with us?
If the twelve people the Son of God hand-picked had disagreement amongst them - what does that mean for us? What picture of a Jesus-following community does it paint?
Relationships formed with the children forged a way forward. It also humbled church members to know in intimate detail how poverty causes children to suffer.
What is a practical way you can serve children in your life, no matter what season you are in?
Pause and Pray - ask the Lord to give you more grace for people who do not agree with you. An attitude to invite in - not build a wall up. Ask Him for opportunities to share grace and love with others - and when He does to give you peace and joy as you put it into practice.
EXTRA READING:
“Jesus died the victim of executioners with imperial power. There is an inescapable opposition between the life and death of Jesus and imperial power. To embrace and love the executed God is to be in resistance to empire. To be a follower of the executed Jesus of Nazareth is to venture down a road without having a place in the system of imperial control.”
- Mark L. Taylor, Professor of Theology and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary. (born 1951)