Slides for Discussion Group on 3/13 - Role of Biblical Hospitality in the Formation of Missional Communities in Exurban America

1. The Role of Biblical Hospitality in the
Formation of Missional Communities in
Exurban America

2. The Paper
The Lifestyle
Work …Monks
Action Research
(Missional
Communities)
Word World
(Biblical (Exurban
Hospitality) America)

3. Why?
*Church in decline
*Nominal difference in cultural factors &
decision making habits of believers
&non-believers
*MissiologistsView of the suburbs/exurbs

5. Talmid(im)
The goal is not knowing what the teacher
knows but becoming what the teacher is.

6. Hospitality…
Vulnerability and Availability
71 Direct References in the Scriptures

9. 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.”

10. Hospitality…
Vulnerability and Availability
71 Direct References in the Scriptures
Literally means love of strangers

11. Ronald Heifitz…
Technical Change vs. Adaptive Change

13. Stranger
Guest
Friend

14. (Barbarian)
-------
Stranger
Guest
Friend
-------
(Family)

17. “Act Like You’ve Been
Out of the House!”

18. 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

19. “Let the poor men and strangers be acquainted with
your modest table, and with them Christ shall be your
guest.” (Jerome)

20. “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)

21. Antioch

22. Benedict
of Nursia

23. Patrick of Ireland
~
Fellowship
Integration
Presentation
Decision

24. Technical v Adaptive
People and Place
God’s Welcoming
New Operating System

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

26. 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).

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

29. The
Exurbs

30. 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)

31. 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, unscuffed
walls, and all the latest features such as observatories,
computer labs and batting cages. (Brooks 2004: 47)

32. 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.

33. 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

34. 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 1
One Day Of Rest/Free Day 4
Light Activity Days 22
Days That Are Just As Full
As The Week/Work Days 43

35. Research
Which of the following do you spend the most time on
during work week/school nights (Sunday-Thursday)?
Work 6
Family Activities/Commitments 29
Television
Sports
2
20 ?
Homework/Studies 10
Family Time 3

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. 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

39. 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.

40. Research
Is your immediate family living in this area (within 25 miles)?
Yes – 6
No – 14
Did you move away from your immediate and extended family during your
school aged years?
Yes – 17
No – 3
Have you ever lived in a town for 20 or more years?
Yes - 2
No - 18

41. 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%