Cultivating a Love of Hospitality

In Romans 12:13, Paul encourages the church at Rome to “contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”  Because of your generosity, Incarnation has money set aside to take care of the needs of the saints.  A new benevolence policy is in place to guide the church in using this money, and we are thankful that we have the means to take care of each other in times of need.  If you experience financial need (or if you know someone in town in financial need), please don’t hesitate to speak to the governance team (Connie Beekman, Elizabeth Ellwanger, Ken Fitchett, Elizabeth Hammon, and Ed Hardy) or staff (particularly Steven or Katherine) about the need.  We will guide you through the process.
 
In terms of hospitality, though, we need your help!  Early in the life of Incarnation, we enjoyed potlucks together every week, and later every other week, and then later once each month.  It was a wonderful time for people to get to know each other and learn to love each other.  We would continue to do this now, but because of coronavirus, we need to be more creative and less programmatic.  Basically, we need new ways of showing hospitality that arise organically in smaller settings.
 
The need to find new ways to show hospitality has arisen at the same time that the church is growing in size, which means that the need to “seek to show hospitality” is especially pressing.  We are faced with the fact that we cannot have the large group gatherings we would like to have, and there are new people to incorporate into the life of the church.
 
My encouragement for you all is to find safe ways to continue to grow in friendship and incorporate new people into the life of the church.  This starts with greeting each other on Sundays, but can extend to taking walks together, having outdoor meals, or getting together for coffee.  Be creative, don’t always get together with the same people, and if you stumble on a good solution, let others (including me!) know.  My prayer is that Incarnation is a church marked by the fact that no one gets overlooked, and all are taken care of by others.  One of our church’s strongest aspects is the way we have loved each other.  As we grow, we will have to keep remembering this, so that new people are always brought fully into the body!
 
In Christ,
Steven+

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