Freerange Friday: Hospitality and Curating Space

By Lilly Lewin

I believe that hospitality is the twenty first century evangelism.

How do we create spaces and opportunities to get to know people and help them get to know God?

Read Henri Nouwen’s quote and consider it. What speaks to you?

“Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. It is not to lead our neighbor into a corner where there are no alternatives left, but to open a wide spectrum of options for choice and commitment. It is not an educated intimidation with good books, good stories, and good works, but the liberation of fearful hearts so that words can find roots and bear ample fruit. It is not a method of making our God and our way into the criteria of happiness, but the opening of an opportunity to others to find their God and their way.
The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own song, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations.
Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the life style of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.”

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

What does true hospitality mean and look like in our day and age?

What songs do you need to sing? What dances do you need to dance? What do you need to do to truly express yourself and your life in and with Jesus and feel welcomed? Where do you feel safe being you? How can you help other people have spaces where they can sing, dance, create and be themselves and see Jesus in this process?

more on this soon!