“Welcome home.” 

The words that were meant to convey warmth and belonging caused an eerie juxtaposition in my mind. I had heard these words many times without such a controversy in my soul. However, this time, the small expression called forth a response that I had not anticipated. 

It was 2017 and I was on an assignment for my Christian Witness & World Religions class.  We had been asked to pick a unique faith group and attend a worship service, and I had selected the closest mosque. 

Before now, I had visited several Muslim countries. I had experienced the very early morning prayer call. I had noticed the quietness of the streets on Fridays. I had stood outside the main mosque in Jordan to sketch and draw people for an art class. But I had never stepped inside a Muslim place of worship until now.

The words “welcome home” were energized with a warmth, a joy, and a sense of gravity. If I could have smelled these words, they would have been like the fresh aroma of Momma’s baked bread lingering in the air, calling me to the table to join in family fellowship. They were sprinkled and seasoned with a love that could only come from a lifelong friend, but I had never met the man.

As I had traveled to that mosque in East Lansing, I had never anticipated a welcome that would disarm me of all my prejudices. I could imagine that if I hadn’t had such a strong conviction for Adventism and a real, transformative experience with the Gospel, I might have returned one day. At the very least, the hospitable words broke through my apprehension and made me feel at peace in that place and as if I belonged during that Friday service. 

What about now?

I am new to the Berrien Springs community. Do I have that same sense of belonging when I attend Pioneer Memorial Church? Do I provide to others a sense that they are at home in my congregation?

After the Gospel presentation in the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans, Paul switches from building a theological structure that lifts up Jesus and His salvation, to helping the readers apply the practical gears of the Gospel in their lives. In Romans 12, Paul gives a list of more than a dozen ways by which the Gospel should move the machinery of our hearts in order to help us live out the good news of Christ. In verse 13, Paul counsels us to “seek to show hospitality” or, in other words, to pursue the showing of love to those that we don’t know.

As I think of all the places where we should show hospitality to others, inviting them to feel at home, churches should, perhaps, be the warmest places of all—places where our welcome thermostats are turned up high. 

Let’s challenge ourselves to make steps toward a sense of belonging and to invite others to belong with us.  Let’s seek to more robustly embrace the mission of the kingdom with the active community of Christ. 

Let’s answer both calls at once and make small group ministry—in the midst of our large congregation—one means by which we can seek to show hospitality.