Understanding Hospitality

Being an introvert, I often find socializing and entertaining guests a struggle.  I often convince myself that I am not gifted in this area and it is ok to leave it to the more extroverted members of the group, while I focus on what I am good in. This module has challenge me to move out of my comfort zone to change my mindset in making our guests and visitors feel welcome.  I realize that I should extend hospitality not as a must-do action, but that it is the duty of a believer to extend hospitality, as taught in 1 Peter 4:9. Not only that, I must do it cheerfully and willingly, without grumbling. Through this module, I realized that hospitality is a duty of every believer as we are told to practice hospitality in Roman 12:13. Since this realization, I have started to make a conscious effort to step out of my comfort zone to connect with people in my group, regardless of whether they are strangers or people I know or am comfortable with.  

One idea I find useful in this module is that as a teacher and lecturer, I am often overly concerned that my students understand my lessons and whether they can apply it. This module helped me to recognize the importance of being hospitable to my students in their learning journey. From the readings and lectures in this class, I now understand that it is important to ensure that my students not only understand the lesson, but also develop an interest in or love for the topic. Knowing this, I will put in effort to allow my students to take their time to make connections  with the subject (like getting to know a friend) so that they can find meaning in what they are learning, rather than try to force the knowledge down their throats just to fulfill the lesson plans. 

One lesson, I will keep for life is the lecture on "propempo".  I never understood hospitality in the way that it was taught in class and how it was practiced in the New Testament. In the past, I gauged how good I was as a host based on how well I could take care of my guests during their visits. Now I know that hospitality begins the moment we receive the guest and ends only after we they have reached their "next destination". In the context of visitors in a cell group, the hospitality is not confined to cell meetings, but in church and even wherever we meet. This hospitality should be consistently extended to visitors until they are so comfortable with the body of believers that they no longer see themselves as outsiders. When they reach this stage, they would have reached their "next destination".