global methodist

by

Friendly or Hospitable?

Author’s Note: This article was originally written for the April 2025 Newsletter for Palestine Methodist Church, Ball, LA. To view or receive an electronic copy of our newsletter, please follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/palgmc or send us an email to palgmc@gmail.com. You can receive a mailed copy of the newsletter by contacting us at (318) 640-9024 or contacting us at palgmc@gmail.com. Thank you for reading!

Before I even came to Palestine, I was told about how friendly this church is. I have already discovered for myself that you are one of the friendliest churches I have served. Being friendly is great, it is wonderful, it is necessary. But are we hospitable?

What is the difference between being friendly and being hospitable? Boy, I am glad you asked! Being friendly is building relationships with people we already know and love, i.e. friends and family. Hospitality is being welcoming to and building relationships with people we don’t know, i.e. strangers. Many churches are friendly, fewer are truly hospitable.

Why should we be hospitable and intentionally build relationships with people we don’t know? We are all children of God. What if we treated every person we met as a precious, valued, child of God? How might it change us? How might it change the world?

When we are hospitable, we never know with whom we might be interacting . The final chapter of the book of Hebrews is subtitled “Concluding Exhortations” in my Bible. It contains several short pieces of advice to the reader including this one in Hebrews 13:2 “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” When we show hospitality to strangers, we never know with whom we are interacting. What if we treated every stranger we met as an angel? How might it change us? How might it change the world?

How can we become a more hospitable (not just friendly) church? Again, I’m glad you asked and here’s a few ideas: (1) Practice the rule of ten. The rule of ten is that you greet everyone within ten feet of you, whether you have never met them or have known then for many years. Using the rule of ten almost assures that everyone is greeted at least once. (2) Practice the rule of three. Statistics say that guests are usually the first to leave, usually within the first three minutes. The rule of three states that you spend the first three minutes after service intentionally looking for guests before speaking to people you already know. (3) Be a first friend. A first friend intentionally watches for new guests, people attending for the first time, greets them, builds a relationship with them, maybe sits with them, introduces them to other people and invites them back to church.

Being friendly is a great start. It is not an ending point. Our call as followers of Jesus is to be hospitable and welcoming not only to people we know, but to strangers and people we don’t know. My prayer is that Palestine would not only be the friendliest church in the area, but also the most hospitable to any child of God who attends our services or walks in our doors.

In Christ’s Love,
Kevin D. Smith

by

U Turns Allowed

Aerial view of the entrance to Grace Methodist Church from Google Maps.

Grace Methodist Church in Ruston is near the northernmost city limit of the city of Ruston, on US 167/63, one of the major north-south thoroughfares in the state of Louisiana. After moving to Grace in July of 2021, I noticed many northbound cars would turn from the five lane road (two northbound lanes, center turn lane, and two southbound lanes) into our driveway. “Oh, that’s nice”, I thought, “I wonder who is coming to visit us at Grace?” But most of the cars would soon make a U turn, turn around, and head back to the south, hopefully to find the turn that they presumably missed. At first, I was a bit miffed that so many people would (a) miss the chance to visit us at Grace and (b) increase the traffic turning in our church. But as I thought about it further, what better place for a U turn than the church? After all, God has been in the U turn business for many years.

Think about all the lives that faith in God has turned around. The Bible gives us numerous examples. Abraham lied not once, but twice, (Genesis 12 and 20) about his wife being his sister and both times were nearly disastrous. David was an adulterer and murderer, yet a “man after God’s own heart”(Acts 13:2) and perhaps Israel’s greatest king. Then there was a fellow named Saul, who met Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) and experienced a conversion experience so life changing that he went from persecuting the followers of Jesus to one of the greatest evangelists the world has ever known. He went on to write twenty eight percent of the entire New Testament!* The list of unlikely people used by God could go on and on. God has a habit of using unworthy and unlikely people, people like you and me.

In Mark chapter 1, we meet a strange character who wore camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey by the name of John. Most of us know him as John the Baptist today. Because that’s what he was doing when we meet him in Mark! He was baptizing people in the Jordan river and telling them that one greater than he was coming. Mark even baptized Jesus himself! (Mark 1:9-11). After his baptism and temptation, Mark records Jesus’ first message in Mark 1:15 as “’The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”

The Greek word for “repent” in Mark 1:15 is metanoeite, the second person plural of the Greek verb metanoia. Meta means change (think of the English word metamorphosis) and noia means mind (think of the English word knowledge). Metonoia literally means to “change the mind.” It is the same word used in the military of the day to indicate an about face, a 180 degree turning around, a U turn.

So, if there is anywhere in the world that allows a U turn it should be the church. Repent (make a u turn) and believe was among Jesus’ first message. It is still true today. Repent and believe. Maybe you and I need to make a U turn in life. Maybe we need to turn away from some things and turn toward following Jesus. The good news is that U turns are always allowed for followers of Jesus Christ and in His church. And if you need to make a U turn on US 167 on the north side of Ruston, U turns for cars and lives are allowed at Grace Methodist Church in Ruston!

  1. https://www.alecsatin.com/how-much-of-the-new-testament-was-written-by-paul/ ↩︎