Imagine a church building. It's a sizeable structure centered in the middle of a large city. When you walk in off the street you encounter thousands of people taking shelter and living in the church building. You ask around to find out exactly what is going on and you notice that many of the people you meet are not South Africans, but from other countries in Africa. You hear of fights, stealing, even murder. You are shocked and begin to wonder, “Who would allow such atrocities?”
I recently attended a gathering called Amahoro (“shalom”), which was focused on reconciliation in a post-Colonial Africa. People gathered from all over Africa and around the world. It was an excellent time of building partnerships with others, who long to see Africa healed of the scars of Colonialism. With others, who would love to see the Church in Africa become truly African.
At the gathering, a Methodist pastor from Johannesburg spoke about his church's reaction to last year's xenophobic attacks on foreigners. He told how the Central Methodist Church became, and still operates as, a shelter for approximately 3000 refugees. He didn't give a glorified version of this massive endeavor, but spoke of the challenges and struggles of being “hospitable” to those in need.
When this pastor shared that there have been two murders in the church building I was shocked. My initial thought was that it is inappropriate for something like that to happen in a church building. Then I was struck by another thought. Would it be better if the murders would have happened in a cold, dark alley or someplace else in the city? In some other place where we, the Church, wouldn't have to be confronted by it?
As I continued to think about Central Methodist Church throughout the day, I thought about all the reasons I have for not doing something like they are doing. And stories of murder, well, that just goes to prove the point. But does it prove a point? Should we not give refuge to those in need because there are risks? Should the Church not do something radical while the world stands by and watches people murdering one another? In the newspaper there was a picture of a policeman, who stood by and watched a Zimbabwean burn to death. He was set alight by his “neighbors.”
Although I don't feel called to do what this Methodist pastor is doing, I do feel challenged by it. I know I can grow in the area of meeting the needs around me. I know that I can open my life and my heart to the poor, hurting and destitute. I know that our churches can be more responsive in a spirit of hospitality to those who are in desperate need.
In NieuCommunities we are reading Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. The author, Christine Pohl, lays out the history of hospitality, and the changes in our understanding and practice of hospitality. One reason hospitality has declined is that government and other specialized institutions have taken over filling these needs – generally in professional and non-personal ways. In essence, hospitality has been minimized in our local churches and relegated to our domestic and civic shperes of life.
Pohl writes, “With little attention to the church as a key site for hospitality, the institutional settings for Christian hospitality diminished and the understanding of hospitality as a significant dimension of church practice nearly disappeared.” Hopefully, with churches like Central Methodist leading the way, churches will begin to reclaim the transforming practice of Christian hospitality.
I recently attended a gathering called Amahoro (“shalom”), which was focused on reconciliation in a post-Colonial Africa. People gathered from all over Africa and around the world. It was an excellent time of building partnerships with others, who long to see Africa healed of the scars of Colonialism. With others, who would love to see the Church in Africa become truly African.
At the gathering, a Methodist pastor from Johannesburg spoke about his church's reaction to last year's xenophobic attacks on foreigners. He told how the Central Methodist Church became, and still operates as, a shelter for approximately 3000 refugees. He didn't give a glorified version of this massive endeavor, but spoke of the challenges and struggles of being “hospitable” to those in need.
When this pastor shared that there have been two murders in the church building I was shocked. My initial thought was that it is inappropriate for something like that to happen in a church building. Then I was struck by another thought. Would it be better if the murders would have happened in a cold, dark alley or someplace else in the city? In some other place where we, the Church, wouldn't have to be confronted by it?
As I continued to think about Central Methodist Church throughout the day, I thought about all the reasons I have for not doing something like they are doing. And stories of murder, well, that just goes to prove the point. But does it prove a point? Should we not give refuge to those in need because there are risks? Should the Church not do something radical while the world stands by and watches people murdering one another? In the newspaper there was a picture of a policeman, who stood by and watched a Zimbabwean burn to death. He was set alight by his “neighbors.”
Although I don't feel called to do what this Methodist pastor is doing, I do feel challenged by it. I know I can grow in the area of meeting the needs around me. I know that I can open my life and my heart to the poor, hurting and destitute. I know that our churches can be more responsive in a spirit of hospitality to those who are in desperate need.
In NieuCommunities we are reading Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. The author, Christine Pohl, lays out the history of hospitality, and the changes in our understanding and practice of hospitality. One reason hospitality has declined is that government and other specialized institutions have taken over filling these needs – generally in professional and non-personal ways. In essence, hospitality has been minimized in our local churches and relegated to our domestic and civic shperes of life.
Pohl writes, “With little attention to the church as a key site for hospitality, the institutional settings for Christian hospitality diminished and the understanding of hospitality as a significant dimension of church practice nearly disappeared.” Hopefully, with churches like Central Methodist leading the way, churches will begin to reclaim the transforming practice of Christian hospitality.
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