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It’s time for some change around here…Significant change. It’s time for the culture of this church to
evolve into an invitational culture.
“Invitational Culture” = A welcoming, alluring, provocative, enticing, hospitable community
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An invitational culture is one in which strangers are welcomed
An invitational culture is one in which those on the periphery of our lives come inside
An invitational culture is one in which the non-churched and under churched find community in
our lives and within these walls
An invitational culture is one in which those far from Jesus are invited to follow the one who
has revolutionized our lives.
It is time for us to transform from people who hide into people who seek.
Grace Church: Hide or Seek?
Week 1 – Why is an invitational culture so crucial today?
The emotional state of our neighbors - Chronic Anxiety
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our neighbors are emotionally exhausted
our neighbors are moving so quickly they don’t have time to process.
The relational state of our neighbors – Isolation
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our neighbors are experiencing a high rates of relationship formation & dissolution.
our neighbors crave intimacy but seem to avoid the trouble and pain of it
The mental state of our neighbors – Distracted
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in this frantic technological world our neighbors are experiencing the stress of continuous
partial attention
The religious state of our neighbors – Aimless
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your average neighbor is an aimless casual “Christian”
our neighbors believe happiness is more important than holiness
believe in a God who keeps a safe distance
more than half of all Americans have no commitment or connection to a church
The future state of our neighbors – Judgment
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theirs is a very uncertain eternal future
If Grace is to transform into a highly invitational culture then we must be moved by the state of our
neighbors, we must moved by our calling and we must be moved by a fresh wind of the Spirit.
This week we begin to answer the question – how? How will this cultural revolution happen here?
This week – We must invite our neighbors into our lives.
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Next week – We must invite our neighbors into this church community.
Last week – We must invite our neighbors to follow Jesus.
We must invite our neighbors into our lives.
 your neighbors will not experience personal, spiritual transformation if you maintain your
distance from them
 to get to Jesus they have to go through you
This is especially crucial today more than any time I can remember, because right now, in history, our
faith lacks credibility to many, many Americans.
Religion is not credible / The church is not credible / God is not credible
Reasons?
 Decades of casual, do-it-yourself, personalized religion has caught up with us.
o We have become Europe – watered down, shallow spirituality
 Too many Americans would tell you they’ve had bad experiences with the church that have
soured them on anything related to faith
 Add to all this a sharply polarized political culture that has confused and conflated faith and
ideology
The result: A credibility free fall in faith and institutional religion
Let me illustrate…
The only way we’ll be able to bring credibility to the message of Jesus is by inviting our neighbor into
our lives.
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people need to be close enough to those who have been redeemed to be able to understand
and trust redemption
faith will not make sense in the abstract but will resonate when they see it in action
Jesus will remain a mythical being until he is seen through the lives of his followers.
When you invite your neighbors into your life you become the living, breathing proof of the credibility
of the gospel of the Kingdom.
So then, how do we go about inviting neighbors into our lives?
There are two key practices that will begin to get your neighbors into your life:
1. If you want to invite your neighbors into your life then practice hospitality
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Apostle Peter (1 Peter 4:9)
Practice hospitality. Apostle Paul (Romans 12:13)
We ought to show hospitality. Apostle John (3 John 1:8)
You might be thinking – Hospitality? Seriously?
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Martha Stewart? Entertaining?
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Matching napkins and cucumber sandwiches?
Hospitality feels feminine and dainty and largely unnecessary.
“Christians view hospitality as a mildly pleasant activity if sufficient time is available” Christine Pohl,
Asbury seminary
Ah, and therein lies the problem…if sufficient time is available…well, there isn’t, there never is… not
for entertaining.
But what if hospitality was something much more than entertaining? What if were a matter of life and
death? In the 1st century it was.
Hospitality = caring for strangers
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In the 1st century there were no hotels or guest houses. If you were travelling or homeless and no
one offered you hospitality you then had to be exposed to the elements and criminals. It was
literally a matter of life and death.
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Hospitality was a moral and religious obligation
Hospitality was a way to pass on respect and value.
Hospitality was so important that if you did not offer it your reputation would be on the line.
Hospitality was the glue that created a network of human interdependence.
Hospitality was a way to administer justice to the marginalized and poor.
Hospitality was a one of the prime ways the gospel spread and it was the practice that launched
the first churches.
That view of hospitality is lost on us.
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we have reduced to mere entertaining
we have ignored it because who has time for such perceived frivolity
But we need to recapture the essential first nature of hospitality.
 Hospitality creates the space for the credibility of the gospel
When you invite your neighbors into your life you become the living, breathing proof of the credibility
of the gospel of the Kingdom.
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Hospitality is a metaphor of the essence of the good news – of welcoming grace and incarnation
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Hospitality is the key that opens the door to authentic community where our souls can be
changed…and where your neighbors can move from loneliness to relationship and from
shallowness to maturity.
“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a
friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change
can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed
by dividing lines.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out
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As we live and give witness to Jesus we are handing out seeds, not pearls, and seeds need soil in
which to germinate. A meal is soil just like that. It provides a relational context in which everything you
say and don’t say, feel or don’t feel, God’s word and snatches of gossip, gets assimilated along with
the food. Nothing is abstract or in general when you are eating a meal together.
Jesus didn’t drop pearls for people as clues to find their way to God. He ate meals with them. And
you can do just what Jesus did.
Eugene Peterson, the Pastor
2. If you want to invite your neighbors into your life then practice love
1 Thessalonians 2:8
Setting: Paul had visited Thessalonica roughly around 50 AD on one of his missionary journeys
where he stayed for a number of months. Later he wrote this letter…probably the earliest Christian
writing. In this letter he reflects on what happened in his first stay there…
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know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 We had previously suffered and been
insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite
of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are
we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the
gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. 5 You know we never used
flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed--God is our witness. 6 We were not looking for
praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to
you, 7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8 We loved you so
much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as
well, because you had become so dear to us. 9 Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and
hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the
gospel of God to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we
were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with
his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you
into his kingdom and glory. 13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the
word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is,
the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
Don’t miss this…Vs 13 – they received the word of God…they accepted it…because Paul gave
it credibility. How did he do that?
He loved them and shared his life with them. (Note again Vs 8)
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God
but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.
Amazingly tender words from a man many think was Type A
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we shared our (souls) Vs. 8
you were dear to us Vs. 8 – genuine affection
Vs 7 – that love was maternal – gentle and caring
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Vs. 11 – that love was paternal – encouraging and comforting
They became family and the result lent great credibility to the gospel…how could they not pay
attention to it and respond?
This is what the practice of love does…this is what the practice of hospitality does…it creates the
space for openness to the truth of the gospel of God.
When we love well…when we practice hospirlaity we personify Jesus. We put flesh and bones on the
God of the universe.
When we invite neighbors into our lives we mimic the open arms of Jesus and become the living,
breathing proof of the credibility of the gospel of the Kingdom
So clear your calendar, fire up your grill, get on the phone and invite someone into your life so they
can begin their journey to Jesus.