WEEK 9 – October 11, 2016

PART 2: The Fruits of Hospitality

CONCLUSION: Embracing All People

STUDY NOTES

The Truth of Hospitality

A Relationship with the Truth

Roots: Practicing God’s Welcome

Fruits: Hospitality as a Way of Life

Discussion Questions:

1. In what ways does your congregation practice hospitality to strangers during and after worship? How can it do a better job?

2. “to embrace all people with God’ love and grace is not an aspect of the gospel – it is the gospel.” How does this statement confirm or contradict your understanding of the gospel (good news) of what God has done in Jesus Christ?

3. What can the “muscular hospitality” of Jesus teach us about performing ministry today? Where are the challenges for today’s church?

4. How could your congregation guide new members through a process that moves from belonging to believing to behaving?

5. Where do you see personal benefits in “practicing God’s welcome”? How is it both a gift and a challenge?

Action Plan:

Find a way to incorporate hospitality into the mission statement of your church and challenge each of your committees to find a practical way to become more welcoming in the year to come. Establish concrete expectations. For example, the worship committee might institute a “three-minute rule,” in which members seek out guests for the first three minutes after worship. The fellowship committee could establish monthly potluck dinners. The property committee could set the goal of building a welcome center outside the sanctuary. Make your goals creative and attainable.

WEEK 8 – October 4, 2016

PART 2: The Fruits of Hospitality

CHAPTER 8: Perceptions

STUDY NOTES

Best Practices: Inclusiveness

Don’t judge. Just don’t.

Remember the Bible’s gradual unfolding of God’s “chosen people” to include first some Israelites, then all Israelites, and them (under Jesus) all people, including those on the margins.

Be sensitive as you  balance the tension of exclusivity vs. diversity, staying true to the Christian witness while also opening your congregation to all people.

Discussion Questions:

1. Where do you see a focus on purity in congregation? What evidence can you find for acceptance of diversity?

2. “From beginning to end, the Bible is an account of an ever-changing relationship with God, containing new perceptions of God’s will for human life.” True or false? Discuss.

3. How would you define appropriate barriers to inclusion in your congregation? What are the standards for acceptable behavior? Do you see them changing?

4. Where does your church strike a balance between new understandings and traditional truths? Give examples.

5. What is the specific challenge of inclusiveness in your congregation? Where do you see opportunities for listening, learning, and growing in purity of love?

Action Plan:

Develop a partnership with a church of a different denomination, racial makeup, political leaning, or view on sexual orientation. Begin with a “pulpit exchange”, in which your pastor preaches to their congregation and their pastor preaches to yours.

Have a team of church members participate in worship at the other congregation and encourage then to send a team to you. Then invite the members of the other church to join you for a fellowship meal, with time for conversation around tables.

Encourage participants to share a brief story of what brought them to their church and what keeps them there.

Identify an outreach project that the two congregations can embark on together, with opportunities for members of both churches to work side-by-side so that strangers will become friends.

WEEK 7 – September 27, 2016

PART 2: The Fruits of Hospitality

CHAPTER 7: Outreach

STUDY NOTES

Best Practices: Don’t Curb Your Enthusiasm

      Enthusiasm is viral – if your church members show is, others will catch it.

Church members should be prepared to explain to strangers about what makes their congregation special.

Be creative about finding ways to reach out to your community – and talk about those ministries.

Best Practices: Outreach

 It is often easier to invite people to your home than to your church, making home-based outreach an excellent way to practice hospitality.

As a church, be sure you are expending as many resources toward outreach as you are toward preserving your building, your traditions, or your administration.

Plan your outreach based on the actual needs of your neighborhood and community, not just on what other congregations are doing.

Don’t feel you have to reinvent the wheel. One way that churches can practice outreach is by hosting meetings of established organizations such as AA that provide the ministry but need institutional support and a safe place to hold meetings.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why is home-based hospitality an excellent place to do out-reach?

2. What are some ways that your church might elevate religious mission above institutional maintenance and practice out-ward-focused hospitality?

3. How is your church using its building to serve a world in need? What more could it do in the area of outreach?

4. What would it mean to show hospitality in the following areas:

   1. home

   2. church

   3. workplace

   4. community?

5. In what ways does the practice of hospitality to outsiders lead to a stronger connection to Jesus and God?

Action Plan:

Gather a group of church members to discuss what the fruit of outreach should look like in your particular location and theological tradition. Realize that you cannot do everything. Choose three things that you would like to do in the n ext year. Pick a project that will challenge members to invite people to something that they are passionate about. Devise a program that will include home-based groups. Plan an out-reach effort that will serve the world around you in a new way and help you to make connections with your needy neighbors. Establish an outreach program that will involve gathering members and guests around tables for food and conversation,

WEEK 6 – September 20, 2016

PART 2: The Fruits of Hospitality

CHAPTER 6: Reconciliation

STUDY NOTES

Best Practices: Building Bridges

Consider holding an event at your church that will bring two very different groups together for reconciliation.

Join with members of another faith (not just a different congregation of your own faith) to do a service project together.

Avoid openly partisan sermons or messages that demonize or mock a particlar group of people or point of view.

Cosider partnering with local interaith religions.

Promoting reconciliation is at the top of Rick’s agenda – in fact, it is the first point in his P.E.A.A.C. Plan, an initiative designer to involve christiand in serving people in area of the greatest global needs. P.E.A.C.E. (shorthand for Promote reconciliatioin, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sic, Educate the next generation) has both local and global focal points.

In California, members of Saddleback participate in  a Christian-Muslim picnic every year, building bridges of relationship, and both Rick missions pastor Mike Constantz have gathered Muslims at the end of Ramadan to break the fast together.

Saddleback partners with African American churches in the city of Compton, California, to fix up houses and do work projects in communities.

Bridges are being built with Hispanic pastors in Southern California, and work is being done to keep young people out of gangs and in school – in Santa Ana, the drop-out rate is 80 percent among Hispanic youths.

In Rwanda, teams from Saddleback have partnered with church leaders, equipped pastors, and worked on the issue of reconciliation. “Saddleback has helped to bring unity to the Body of Christ in Rwanda” says Mike, “the greates unity in the past hundred years, according to a Rwandan leader”. Mike reports that the howing of the Jesus film – a 1979 docudrama about the life of Christ – in Rwandan prisons and communities has helped produce the fruit of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Discussion Questions:

1. Where are the opportunities in your church and community to connect with people different than yourself?

2. What approaches to conflict resolution exist in your congregation? How could you create gatherings for people to speak honestly and admit that they have behaved badly?

3. Where do bridges need to be built between estranged groups in your church and community? What would a “bridge event” look like, and how could it lead to reconciliation?

4. What happens when small groups gather for dialogue and participants focus on listening to one another instead of reacting to each other?

5. How is it true that the best path to reconciliation is through the stomach? What are the limits to this approach?

 Action Plan:

In your community, identify a group from a different faith or culture with which you feel the need for reconciliation. This could be a group of Muslims from a local mosque or a congregation of Christian immigrants who speak a different language. Invite them to  dialogue at your church on the topic of marriage or parenting (avoid theological or political issues), at least at first.) Provide refreshments and translators if necessary. Focust on listening to each other and look for ways to build bridges.

WEEK 5 – September 13, 2016

PART 1: The Roots of Hospitality

CHAPTER 5: Small Groups

STUDY NOTES

Best Practices: Creating Small Groups

Create core small groups within your congregation so  that individuals can make personal connections in intimate and honest gatherings.

To begin, consider developing small groups around a limited course offering, such as an eight-week class or a Lenten series. Then evaluate whether and how the small groups may wish to continue meeting.

Meet at least monthly, and preferably more often.

Devote time in each meeting to personal sharing and prayer for each other, as well as discussion of some assigned topic or reading.

Best Practices: Relational Ministry

Remember that any group or ministry you start in your church needs to be relational and not transactional.

Ask what you can do to help guests or neighbors, not what they can do for you in  terms of filling pews or expanding the church’s coffers.

Discussion Questions:

1. What opportunities exist in your congregation for older people to tell stories to younger people, so that “knowledge about how to live” is shared?

2. Can you describe an experience in a small group that  provided opportunities for friendship, community-building, Bible study, or spiritual growth?

3. Rick Warren says, “God wired us in such a way that we only get well in community.” True or false? Why?

4. How is Christian hospitality a matter of life and death?

5. What is the value of being relational in the life of the church. even if it does not lead to numerical church growth?

Action Plan:

Offer a five-week sermon series on Christian hospitality, covering the first five chapters of this book. Challenge the entire congregation to meet over the course of the series for small-group discussions of the topic, assuring them that they will be changed by the experience. Organize groups in  the church building as well as in private homes, on Sunday mornings and at various times throughout the week. Sen e-mails with suggested discussion questions  to your small-group leaders along with advance copies of your sermons. At the end of the series, evaluate the experience with your small-group leaders and talk about next steps.