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.

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