Hospitality:  An alternative to the current methodology for loving. Or as I understand it, a return to origin.
Hospitality shouldn't be an alternative, it should be the way.

I was first introduced to the concept of hospitality by a friend of mine who pastors in the area. He has been advocating for over a decade now for faith based organizations and service providers to accept the "beyond charity challenge". His sentiments resonate deeply with other brilliant minds such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Henry Nouwen.

Years ago when I began to learn about hospitality as an alternative model for providing social services I was too young and naive to comprehend its full implications. Since that time I've spent a great deal of energy immersing myself in literature, as well as working with and through organizations that use this paradigm of service. More directly, the past two years have been riddled with lessons as I attempt to wrap my head around what redemptive social action means not only for social service agencies, but the demand it poses to communities and... dare I say, myself.

I've become so entrenched in the possibilities of hospitality that I overlooked just how difficult it could be to create steps that teach folks how to use a new model... especially folks raised in a society grounded in efficiency and entitlement.  How can we change our models for service into a more fruit-bearing alternative for our community and the neighbors we serve?  As I've listened to my co-workers and other seasoned social service veterans there is one thing I have learned for sure... the only sustainable change must come by way of leadership, persistence, grace, passion, and dedication. 

As I walk through the halls at work day in and day out these are the words that haunt me: persistence, grace, passion, and dedication.  If I desire for our communities model for service to change, then I must be the among the first to exemplify it. And it is not just social service agencies that can benefit from enacting hospitality, but every individual within a neighborhood. There is much to learn about this eleven lettered word. Within it is so much to unpack, so much to be humbled by...

b.