Extraordinary Hospitality for Ordinary Christians


Book Description

Winner of the Best Book Awards and 1st Place Winner of the Selah Awards for Christian Life! Prepare your heart and home to serve not only family and friends, but neighbors and strangers too! Make any space a haven of discipleship, connection, and comfort. As Christians, we sometimes forget the power of an open door to a lost world. Using our homes to live out our faith in the true model of the Great Commission is challenging in our busy, over-scheduled lives. But having a home that is always open and available is key to living in community with others and being missional in our thinking. In this beautiful and inspiring book, wife, mom, and interior design enthusiast Victoria Duerstock offers simple and inspiring ways to prepare our hearts and homes to be open to friends, neighbors, and strangers. You don't need an immaculate or professionally decorated home to be hospitable. In fact, there is beauty in being honest with others about our lived-in spaces, and great value in being humble enough to live life together in the midst of imperfection. But it'll be a blessing to you and to your guests to create a space that reflects the beauty, peace, and joy of life in Christ. Whether you have a tiny apartment or a big old farmhouse, you can learn how to: Declutter common areas Bring hygge to your guest room (or even just to your couch, if that's all you've got!) Create a peaceful, welcoming atmosphere Schedule in regular housecleaning Prepare freezer meals for no-stress last minute dinners More importantly, be encouraged to have your heart in the right place, to engage in meaningful discussion with guests, and to take time to be a "Mary" in our works-driven "Martha" culture. Allow the Holy Spirit to overflow from your heart into your homes and community as you let your guard down and invite people into your lives.




Extraordinary Hospitality (for Ordinary People)


Book Description

How to offer Christian hospitality without becoming exhausted and overburdened. Generous hospitality is a significant way in which God works through our lives to bring life to others, yet many of us feel ill-equipped and overwhelmed at the prospect, especially if we don’t have big houses and we are not wonderful cooks! Carolyn Lacey encourages us to focus on the goal of hospitality, which is to reflect God’s welcoming heart, and shows us how we can all do that, regardless of our bank balance or living situation. She explores seven ways in which we can reflect God’s character in the way we welcome others into our homes and into our lives, and so point people ultimately to Christ. This practical and realistic book explores how to make generous hospitality part of everyday life without becoming exhausted and overburdened.




Making Room


Book Description

For most of church history, hospitality was central to Christian identity. Yet our generation knows little about this rich, life-giving practice.




Extraordinary Hospitality for Ordinary Christians


Book Description

Winner of the Best Book Awards and 1st Place Winner of the Selah Awards for Christian Life! Prepare your heart and home to serve not only family and friends, but neighbors and strangers too! Make any space a haven of discipleship, connection, and comfort. As Christians, we sometimes forget the power of an open door to a lost world. Using our homes to live out our faith in the true model of the Great Commission is challenging in our busy, over-scheduled lives. But having a home that is always open and available is key to living in community with others and being missional in our thinking. In this beautiful and inspiring book, wife, mom, and interior design enthusiast Victoria Duerstock offers simple and inspiring ways to prepare our hearts and homes to be open to friends, neighbors, and strangers. You don't need an immaculate or professionally decorated home to be hospitable. In fact, there is beauty in being honest with others about our lived-in spaces, and great value in being humble enough to live life together in the midst of imperfection. But it'll be a blessing to you and to your guests to create a space that reflects the beauty, peace, and joy of life in Christ. Whether you have a tiny apartment or a big old farmhouse, you can learn how to: Declutter common areas Bring hygge to your guest room (or even just to your couch, if that's all you've got!) Create a peaceful, welcoming atmosphere Schedule in regular housecleaning Prepare freezer meals for no-stress last minute dinners More importantly, be encouraged to have your heart in the right place, to engage in meaningful discussion with guests, and to take time to be a "Mary" in our works-driven "Martha" culture. Allow the Holy Spirit to overflow from your heart into your homes and community as you let your guard down and invite people into your lives.




The Gospel Comes with a House Key


Book Description

What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically. With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same "radical, ordinary hospitality" to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God's tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives—helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.




Ordinary


Book Description

Radical. Crazy. Transformative and restless. Every word we read these days seems to suggest there’s a “next-best-thing,” if only we would change our comfortable, compromising lives. In fact, the greatest fear most Christians have is boredom—the sense that they are missing out on the radical life Jesus promised. One thing is certain. No one wants to be “ordinary.” Yet pastor and author Michael Horton believes that our attempts to measure our spiritual growth by our experiences, constantly seeking after the next big breakthrough, have left many Christians disillusioned and disappointed. There’s nothing wrong with an energetic faith; the danger is that we can burn ourselves out on restless anxieties and unrealistic expectations. What’s needed is not another program or a fresh approach to spiritual growth; it’s a renewed appreciation for the commonplace. Far from a call to low expectations and passivity, Horton invites readers to recover their sense of joy in the ordinary. He provides a guide to a sustainable discipleship that happens over the long haul—not a quick fix that leaves readers empty with unfulfilled promises. Convicting and ultimately empowering, Ordinary is not a call to do less; it’s an invitation to experience the elusive joy of the ordinary Christian life.




The Simplest Way to Change the World


Book Description

How to make disciples using hospitality Deep down, every Christian wants to make a difference. But for many of us, the years come and go and we never do. The good news is: change can be as simple as opening your front door. The Simplest Way to Change the World is about biblical hospitality and its power for the gospel. Since people will sooner enter a living room than a church, hospitality is a natural and effective way to build relationships for Christ. You’ll learn: How the home can be a hub for community How hospitality leads to joy, purpose, and belonging How it grows families to love the things of God How it’s not about being the perfect host How to be hospitable regardless of your living space Hospitality is a beautiful legacy of the church, and a great way to make disciples. As you open your life up to others, you share in the very character of God and experience His joy. And you get to witness lives change—including your own. Includes 20+ creative ideas for hospitality, plus questions for small groups




Just Open the Door


Book Description

Hospitality is one of the best ways to live out the two greatest commandments: loving God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. But often we get caught up in perfecting our homes and conversations before we open our doors. Over 7 sessions, look to Jesus as your model for hospitality. Discover how He lived a life full of interruptions, yet always welcomed people and invited them to follow Him. Learn to replace cultural expectations with biblical hospitality to create a legacy of invitation and reflect Jesus through simple acts of service. Features: Leader helps to guide questions and discussions within small groups Personal study segments with homework to complete between 7 weeks of group sessions Interactive teaching videos, approximately 25-30 minutes per session, available on DVD and via digital download The Bible study book Thirty-three free study resources, including the books the author used in preparation for this study Promotional tools, including a sample chapter, poster, bulletin insert, PowerPoint slide, and more Benefits: Replace cultural expectations with biblical hospitality to create a legacy of invitation. Discover daily rhythms of kindness, generosity, and presence at home and on the go. Learn to view welcome as worship, and reflect Jesus through simple acts of service. Become a woman of influence through hidden hospitality. Create spaces of welcome in your heart, home, and beyond.




Jesus Outside the Lines


Book Description

Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today’s media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward—away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.




Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace


Book Description

A deeply personal introduction to the biblical theology and spirituality of Opus Dei by the bestselling Catholic author Scott Hahn. To conspiracy theorists, Opus Dei is a highly secretive and powerful international organization. To its members, however, Opus Dei is a spiritual path, a way of incorporating the teachings of Jesus into everyday life. In Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, Scott Hahn, a member of Opus Dei, describes the organization’s founding, its mission, and its profound influence on his life. Hahn recounts the invaluable part Opus Dei played in his conversion from Evangelical Christianity to Catholicism and explains why its teachings remain at the center of his life. Through stories about his job, his marriage, his role as a parent, and his community activities, Hahn shows how Opus Dei’s spirituality enriches the meaning of daily tasks and transforms ordinary relationships. He offers inspiring insights for reconciling spiritual and material goals, discussing topics ranging from ambition, workaholism, friendship, and sex, to the place of prayer and sacrifice in Christianity today. Engaging and enlightening, Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace is at once a moving personal story and an inspiring work of contemporary spirituality.