Sometimes, life in the subirbs can prove challenging for one's soul. Dave Goetz, author of a new book called Death By Suburbs, offers up a list of how you might notice the suburbs are getting to you:
With all the sporting activities of your 2.5 kids and golden retriever, your next free Saturday morning is in 2012.
Your monthly Starbucks expense is almost as much as your monthly SUV payment.
As we start planning the next season of worship & community for SOS, we were drawn back to our calling to radical hospitality. The spirit of this challenge for us can be seen in this piece:
Let us seek to be faithfully combating the overwhelming Walmartization of Christianity by a vigorous and relentless practice of hospitality.
According to Henri Nouwen, hospitality is the creation of
"a space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead
of an enemy." In his book Reaching Out,
Nouwen reminds us that "hospitality" in the Bible reflects the
conditions in the biblical world where motels and hotels were not
available. In the Bible, God's people are taught to welcome the
stranger, the alien, the widow, and the orphan into our midst, because
God's people were once themselves strangers in a foreign land
(referring especially to the Israelites' enslavement in Egypt). Nouwen
says that such hospitality consists of these facets: 1. Free and friendly space - creating physical, emotional, and spiritual space for the newcomer to join us 2. Stranger becomes a guest - in that atmosphere of hospitality, the stranger is treated like a guest and potential friend 3. Guest protected - hospitality requires that we offer protection or "sanctuary" to the guest 4. Host gives gifts - the host welcomes the guest by providing the best gifts possible 5. Guest gives gifts - in that environment of hospitality, the guest often reciprocates and gives gifts to the host, too 6. Poverty of heart and mind - in order for us as hosts to receive
the "gifts" that our guests bring, we need an attitude which Nouwen
calls "poverty of heart and mind" - in other words, we have to believe
that we don 't know it all and have not experienced it all, but we are
receptive to learn from newcomers 7. All guests are important, gifted - in the environment of
hospitality, we discover that all guests are important and gifts, even
those we might least suspect 8. Acceptance, not hostility - Nouwen reminds us that hospitality is
based upon acceptance, not hostility, especially the kinds of subtle
hostility which makes fun of newcomers or puts the newcomer into
embarrassing situations 9. Compassion - hospitality is basically a sense of compassion, a realization that we are more alike than we are different 10. Confrontation, honesty - hospitality is not being a doormat to
the guest, it includes confronting one another in honesty, as well as
with compassion. 11. God as the ultimate Host - hospitality reminds us that we are all guests of God who is the ultimate Host who welcomes us
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