Hospitality At Home Menu

This is a menu - don’t try to eat it all! Pick one or two suggestions to try at home.

“True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person.” —Kathleen Norris

Printable menus are at bottom.

For Adults

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice
- Journal about the following questions:
  - How was hospitality modeled (or not modeled) in my family of origin?
  - What aspects of hospitality come easily to me? Which are more difficult?
  - How do I react to people seeing my house or seeing who I really am?
  - Do I find it more challenging to receive the hospitality of others or more challenging to show it to others?
- Read Ruth Haley Barton’s article Welcoming the Stranger, adapted from Life Together in Christ: Experiencing Transformation in Community.
  - Barton defines “inner hospitality” as “a spirit of openness and receptivity to those unlikely moments when the friendliness of a stranger or the strangeness of a friend causes our hearts to burn within us.”
  - Barton writes, “For some of us, welcoming the stranger will never come easy. But these days I am never able to encounter a stranger without wondering, ‘Is this the person through whom God is going to speak? Is this the stranger who is going to be Christ to me today?’ The practice of welcoming the stranger opens me to the presence of Christ in the most unexpected places.”

Main Course: Tasting the practice
- Watch Why You Should Talk to Strangers by Kio Stark on Ted.com, and then challenge yourself to talk with one stranger each day in the coming week.
- Or try a guided meditation to experience hospitality:
  - The Letter to the Hebrews (13:2) in the New Testament contains the advice, Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
  - Close your eyes. Breathe out three long, slow exhalations.
  - Hearing a knock on the door of your house, see yourself going quickly to answer it and, without hesitating, opening the door and inviting whoever or whatever is there to come in. Who is your guest? What is your guest doing and saying? Sense and feel how you are welcoming your guest, even if he or she is not expected or acceptable to you.
  - Breathe out three times. See yourself sitting at your dinner table with all the seats being filled by strangers — people and other beings. Eating your meal, know that you are entertaining angels. What happens and how do you feel? From: https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/alphabet/hospitality/personal-explorations

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life
- Think of something you attend (church, a class, story time at the library) that someone else might enjoy. Practice inviting a new friend or neighbor to go with you.
- Brainstorm a few other ways you could help to create an atmosphere of hospitality in your church, neighborhood, and other communities you’re a part of.

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice
- Read Chapter 6, “Hospitality: Welcoming What Comes” in The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress (available on Kindle)

For Youth

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice
- “Welcoming is about creating space in our lives for other people, and especially for ‘strangers.’ This means knowing how to be a grateful guest as well as a gracious host.” - From Way to Live: Christian Practices with Teens
- Reflect on your own experience:
  - Write about people you know who have a special knack for making people feel “at home.” What specific things do they do?
  - Do you have a place in your life where the welcome mat is always out for you? What is it about the place that says “Welcome, we’re glad you’re here”?
  - What’s the difference between tolerating someone and welcoming that person? Have you ever felt tolerated rather than truly welcomed?
Main Course: Tasting the practice
- Try going somewhere outside your comfort zone. For example, visit another church or attend the worship service of a religious tradition that is not your own.
- With your friends or cousins, research the origins of various greeting rituals (such as shaking hands and bowing) and expressions (such as namaste and aloha). Share these with each other and practice them together. Don’t forget to include new people in the ritual by teaching it to them. - From Way to Live: Christian Practices with Teens

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life
- Asked to identify the most important question in life, Albert Einstein said, "Is the universe a friendly place or not?" On a scale of 1 - 10, rank the universe's friendliness. Then journal about how your answer might improve your practice of hospitality [and vice versa]. - From Way to Live: Christian Practices with Teens
Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice
- “[Hospitality is] the open-hearted confidence of someone who knows that no matter what appears on their threshold, they can handle it.” - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress

For Kids

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice
- Have you ever experienced a “door” being closed on you by an individual or group? (A time when someone told you to “stay out,” and you couldn’t come in and join their group?) How did that make you feel?

Main Course: Tasting the practice
- Bring to mind a group of people or a type of person you don’t feel comfortable with. Draw a picture of yourself seated beside them at the banquet table with Jesus. Notice how welcoming he is toward everyone who is gathered there. — Adapted from Joyce Rupp in Boundless Compassion
- Role-play warm hospitality using stuffed animals. Pretend your animal is the host, and another animal is the guest. Invite the guest animal over. When it arrives, model how to welcome it warmly, do fun things together, take turns and share, have a meal together, and say a heartfelt “Come again!” when it’s time to go. From: https://new.crcna.org/FaithPracticesProject/hospitality/practicing-hospitality-family

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life
- Some kids feel energized by interacting with people, while others find it exhausting. It’s okay to start small. Smiling, offering your seat on the bus, and holding the door open for someone are all examples of simple but important everyday acts of hospitality. There will also be times when your ideas for hospitality mean asking your parents to help you welcome others, like setting another plate at the dinner table, or going an extra mile to drive a friend home. Adapted from: www.dwellcurriculum.org/home

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice
- Hospitality lies in our actions and our attitudes, not in how many resources we have to share.
- “[Hospitality is] the opportunity to make a neighbor out of a stranger.” - Daniel Homan and Loni Collins Pratt

For Families

Appetizer: Getting hungry for spiritual practice
- As a family, talk about how each of you has experienced hospitality:
  - Share stories about times when you felt welcomed and about people who have made you feel like family.
  - What helps you feel welcomed? Whom might you make space for in similar ways?
  - Have you ever felt or experienced the opposite of welcome? What was that like? From: www.dwellcurriculum.org/home

Main Course: Tasting the practice
- Brainstorm as a family:
  - How could we show hospitality to people we don’t know well, instead of just to friends and family?
  - What are some good ways to welcome someone new to our home? How can we show the love of Jesus to people who visit our home?
  - How can we show guests that they matter to us? (sharing, guests go first, etc.)
  - Do we want to have any “technology rules” when guests are visiting? What should they be? From: https://new.crcna.org/FaithPracticesProject/hospitality/practicing-hospitality-family

Dessert: Using the practice to sweeten my life
- You could serve as greeters at church, passing out bulletins and helping visitors make name tags. Or ask Pastor Chelsea if there’s a family who is new to the church who you could send a card to.
- You could invite single people to join you for your holiday meal at home.
- The best way to make new friends is by being a friend.
- Get to know each other more deeply by welcoming the thoughts and interests of the people you live with.

Digest: Absorbing the meaning of the practice
- “In families, [hospitality] means creating spaces where every family member’s unique interests, personal identity, opinions, and skills are not just tolerated but welcomed.” From: https://www.realkidsrealfaith.org/family-hospitality/
- “Raising a child is a constant stream of second guessing, always wondering who they’ll be today. This is why parenting is the ultimate act of hospitality.” - From The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress