Extraordinary Hospitality | Carolyn Lacey
When I first picked up ‘Extraordinary Hospitality (for ordinary people)’, I misread the sub-title. Assuming it said, ‘Seven tips to welcome like Jesus’, I was expecting handy hints for budget-friendly meals and slow-cooking. Carolyn Lacey frames hospitality through a much wider lens than this. Instead of tips, she explores seven ways that we can welcome like Jesus. Our hospitality will be truly extraordinary if we welcome with generosity, compassion, humility, persistence, awareness, inclusivity, and a sacrificial heart. Each chapter explores how these characteristics of God’s welcome can reshape our welcome.
Lacey speaks of welcome far more often than hospitality. This deliberate redefining is just so helpful. Hospitality can feel narrow in its scope, limited to meals shared in a home by a gracious (if not frazzled!) host. Welcome, however, is a much broader concept. Suddenly it’s not about my home, my cooking, or my conversation skills. It’s actually not about me at all, but the stranger who needs my welcome.
I love this idea of hospitality as welcome because it both frees and challenges us. It’s freeing because there’s so many ways to welcome.
Throughout the book, Lacey offers both biblical and personal examples of what ‘welcome’ can look like for ordinary people in different circumstances - men and women, married and single, short on time or money, or rich in both.
Woven throughout the book is the challenge. Lacey constantly brings us back to the generous welcome of Jesus, a welcome that knows no limits. I was personally struck by her analysis of the parable of the Good Samaritan. She explains that when the expert in the law questioned Jesus about who counts as a neighbour, ‘he may as well have asked Who do I not have to love?’ Acknowledging our shared tendency to limit our love, Lacey gives us better questions to ask: ‘Who needs my welcome? Who do I have the opportunity to show generous hospitality to?’
This short book is easy to read and offers warm encouragement to all Christians to welcome others the way that God welcomes us. I’d especially recommend it for people who’ve always thought that hospitality is ‘not their thing’. As my family and I join a new church family next month, I’m excited to apply this fresh take on hospitality.
To coincide with our annual conference, EQUIP Picks are 10 great reads, chosen and reviewed by the EQUIP Women Team for women.
EQUIP21 Picks will be available for a limited time online via our ministry partner, Reformers Bookshop.
A percentage of the sales from books bought via the above link will support our CMS missionary, M.
Meet Louise Keun
Louise is a long-term member of the EQUIP family, having served on the organising team since 2004. She lives in North-West Sydney where she works as a primary teacher while raising four daughters alongside her husband, Dave.