Welcome each other, just as Christ welcomed you.” (Romans 15:7)
From 2007, we started how to live purposefully individually since God has called us into a relationship with Him. It was then that we embarked on the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign. Following that, we told ourselves that we would live the lessons that we have learned by participating in the various bite-sized projects organized in 2008.
This year our entire church wants to take our study on purposeful living yet a step further i.e. to see how we can become a purposeful community. As such, we have planned to go through the 40 Days of Community campaign which will bring us together to take our place where God has planted us. Instead of remaining comfortable within the church, always sending others overseas to do the work of God, we want to come together on a journey of learning first to become a more welcoming and hospitable people.
Throughout Scripture, God always seems to appear on our doorstep as the “stranger.” God is right in front of us, and too often we miss Him. God comes to us as the neighborhood visitor in our worship services, the cashier checking us out at the supermarket, or the lonely co-worker nobody has befriended. God is all around us. So we want to become aware of the importance of hospitality and welcoming strangers on our Christian journey together. Will we welcome Him? Will we step out and show hospitality to strangers?
In the coming months and years, the leadership at Charis will begin to call the entire Charis family to this vision of hospitality, of living a life of welcome. Particularly, the sermons in the weeks to come will be on this subject.
The goal of the series is this: To help the entire Charis family reflect on how central the themes of welcome and hospitality are to the mission of God in the world, and to challenge us to grow in living lives of welcome.