Hospitality

⁸Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

1 Peter 4:8-9 (NIV)

For the next two days I will be away at the VA Synod Vocations Conference. It's where you learn about being a pastor. What you have to do, talk to people about what it's like and decide if it's something you really want to do. I went last year, and I'm going again this year. Last year was just to get a head start. This year it will hopefully be the first step on a new journey for me. Please pray for all those in attendance this week.

Since I'll be away again, I'm doing a series of three passages for the next three days. I was going to do three different passages on these three topics, but a single passage from 1 Peter 4 worked very well.

This past weekend I spent the weekend with Sarah Yucha's family. They were wonderful and gracious hosts. They fed us delicious food and helped us out in big ways and small. (See tomorrow's verse for more on that.) What struck me was how many families have opened up their homes to myself and others as part of the Kairos planning group process - and not just before Kairos, but after it. The Delaney household, and Dave's wife Nancy in particular is always so wonderful about us invading her house for half a week and then stealing her husband for another week after that. Jack French's family put us up last year and fed us blueberries until we burst (ok I ate most of them). My time there was one of the fondest memories I have of the 2008 Kairos week. This year Malinda Britt's family put us up and made us feel so welcome. Last year Justin Arnold's family and Mandy Fitzgerald's family shared the task of housing the planning group for a reunion. Their parents were so nice and glad to have us.

I mention all these families first because I am thankful for what they did for me and the other members of various planning groups they have housed. But I also mention it because every time I went into one of these houses I felt welcomed as a brother in Christ. I felt what Jesus talks about when he talks about welcoming people into your home. They didn't just open the door, but made us feel like we belonged. They took time out of their lives to get to know us and form relationships with us. They took time to have fellowship with us. These memories are some of the fondest I have of my past two Kairos, and I just wish that more people could share the experience.

My point? Fellowship is a wonderful experience - and it is not limited to Kairos or Winter Celebration or reunions or church narthexes. Fellowship is something you enjoy whenever you are with fellow Christians. Enjoy it. Seek it out. Offer it with joy. It will bring you and others so much more in return.

http://kairosverse.blogspot.com

Fellowship

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:3 (NIV)

When I talk to people about why they don't go to church, they often tell me something like, "Church is just a place. I don't need other people to believe in God." Usually this comes from people who were disillusioned by people in their church. somehow they were hurt, and they feel that their experience proves why churches are a bad thing. And they feel that they don't need anyone else, and so avoid churches altogether.

Our verse today talks about fellowship. We go to church for fellowship among other things. It's there that we can worship with others every week. It's there that we can be encouraged. It's there that we can have fellowship with God. That fellowship is worth a lot. In these days of online relationships - and I don't just mean dating - it is easy to feel there are other ways to get the needs of fellowship and companionship met without going to church.

The fact is that's not true. If you find a place in your local church you will find that you look forward to being there with the people and the fellowship. It isn't the same intensity as a youth event, but it is spiritually fulfilling in its own way. God gives us others to lean on and to support, like the lap sit game where everyone gets in a circle and sits on the lap of the person behind them. You are supported and support.

http://kairosverse.blogspot.com