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Reviews
BOOK REVIEW: Book urges more authentic hospitality Scott Endress, Dec 19, 2008
By Scott Endress Special Contributor
God’s Welcome: Hospitality for a Gospel-Hungry World Amy Oden Pilgrim Press, 2008 Paperback, 128 pages
Amy Oden’s new book, God’s Welcome, offers a biblical, theological and very readable reflection on how to open our lives and our churches to strangers.
Dr. Oden, a professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, doesn’t endorse the practice only because “radical hospitality” is a current buzzword for retooling stale churches, but because all people yearn to be welcomed. The need to belong and feel at home is one of the most powerful human hungers.
If we’re not careful, the author warns, we may adopt what she calls a “Wal-Mart” brand of hospitality: the kind that only looks good. Though most people appreciate the smiles and handshakes from greeters, good appearances alone can’t help us endure pain and difficulties.
Instead, God’s hospitality through Jesus Christ is connected to life in all of its fullness, its beauty and ugliness. Such hospitality gets into the mess of our lives, and speaks to the depth and duration of our compassion. It’s about welcoming people to a shared life and a common journey, not just to a building on a church campus.
It’s also a justice issue, because Christians are called to recognize that we too were once strangers and sojourners. The most authentic hospitality often comes from those who had a recent experience of being lost or unknown in the faith community. Those folks understand how important it is to create a space that is safe, free and welcoming.
Some people invite “mystery guests” to visit their churches on Sundays and give feedback about their experience. A better plan, Dr. Oden suggests, is for hospitality team members to put themselves in situations where they are the newcomers. Visit other congregations, she says, preferably of different denominations and outside your own neighborhood. Let that experience teach you what guests appreciate as well as what they don’t like.
Dr. Oden says she felt compelled to write God’s Welcome in part because Christians are increasingly seen as intolerant, judgmental and closed-minded. She invites us to nurture a spirit of openness and acceptance that we practice with everyone, not just other Christians.
It’s a timely book, supplemented with study questions in each chapter for groups, individuals, preachers and teachers.
The Rev. Endress is a pastor at Chapelwood UMC in Houston, Texas. A version of this review has appeared on his blog at www.clergyspirit.org.
