Letter from Rev. Geoffrey Lentz

Dear Friends,

This coming Sunday the gospel lesson is from Luke 14:1-14. In this text, Jesus gives some lessons on hospitality. We often don’t think of hospitality as such a radical thing. We pride ourselves in the South for our exceptional hospitality. We forget that the Bible had more references to welcoming strangers than it does our neighbors. Hospitality is central to the gospel. Paul in Romans 15:7 says it best, “Welcome others as Christ has welcomed you.” In other words, Christians are hospitality people, because our God is a hospitality God. In Diana Butler Bass’s new book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, after hearing so many headlines about sagging church attendance in protestant mainline churches, she sought out several mainline churches that were thriving to tell their story. One of the main factors that was present in all of these church was radical hospitality.

That rings true in our situation. New members constantly tell me how welcoming our church is. As you know, First Church has been growing at an alarming pace. Attendance this summer has been record breaking. Last Sunday, we had 968 people in the pews. This is unheard of for the third Sunday in August. I believe that God is doing something exciting in the oldest Methodist church in Florida. One of the main factors of this growth is your hospitality to strangers. Because of the hospitality we offer, the United Methodist Church has recently designated us the status of a “Welcoming Church”. This branding means we participate in all of the recommended processes to welcome visitors.

If you see someone in church you don’t know, remember the way that Jesus Christ welcomed us into God’s family through the cross, the most radical act of hospitality in human history, and shake someone’s hand, invite someone to lunch, or take them to Sunday School. Welcome them into our family. Hospitality is not a trite act expressing pleasantries; it is evangelism; it is spreading the Kingdom of God.

Peace of Christ,

Geoffrey