I’ve missed going to the movies. A big time movie in a big time theater will reset my brain when it’s on overload for summer season or any heavy season of ministry activity. Guaranteed. Attending the new Top Gun: Maverick movie was exactly what the doctor ordered for this gal’s mental health.

As soon as I saw the new movie on opening day, I wanted to see it again. The editing, cinematography, music, and sound were amazing. Even the second time around I was shifting from right to left in my seat as the jets did their maneuvers. Yeah, I’m that movie goer! I clap when good things happen, too.

A couple of weeks ago our lead staff set the fall kick-off plan for a ‘Basic Training’ sermon series with a focus on the Apostles’ Creed. As I watched the movie at the theater over Father’s Day with my honey, I was inspired to plan our fall kid’s ministry around the basic training for kids in the Lord’s Army. We’re even rolling out a new curriculum for Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Tuesday evening kid’s Bible studies. I’m breaking out the camo and the Flip Dictionary.

The motions for the traditional kid’s song all came back. 

I started thinking of paper airplane stations with good paper, origami plans and targets.

I thought of jet juice being iced water.

I thought of using directional traffic batons at the entrance with a helmet by Ambassador greeters.

I thought of a list of call names for kids to choose from. My call name would be “Bull” for a whole host of reasons.

I thought of army green tshirts for our team with this on the back in white ink and a masculine font….

On August 1, 2022 an elite team of servants were chosen representing the top one percent of its leaders. Its purpose was to make disciples of Jesus Christ to insure they love the Lord with their whole heart for their whole lives. 

They succeeded.

Today churches call it children’s ministry. The locals call it….. (with the McEachern Kids top gun logo on the front)

We’re riding into the danger zone of today’s culture and they need to be equipped with what they believe, what is truth, to live set apart even when it’s hard, unpopular, and as exiles in a foreign land. As followers of Jesus, we can do hard things with the help of the Holy Spirit. The hardest things! We were indeed created for such a time as this.

We’re raising up Daniels, Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos in Babylon. It’ll be a battle and we’re in the Lord’s Army.

My heart is pounding just thinking about it!

“Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” 2 Kings 22:1a, 2

We have developed some bad social habits over the last two years. We think we’re friendly, but we’re really just polite. We think we are welcoming to strangers, but only if they come to us, on our timetable, in our way, to our house, on our schedule, and with the least amount of discomfort on our part as possible. We think we ask questions for conversation, but it’s really an interview. 

We think we are engaging, when we are really exchanging content where my opinion is the best answer to all questions. When holding doors and accomplishing a checklist of tasks in a certain order are the epitome of satisfactory hospitality. We are setting the table for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of everyone else’s world, but it better be comfortable, convenient, and cost me nothing.

Enough of that!

Here’s the good news: We can learn the skills necessary to be a friend, make a friend, and live out the welcome of Jesus in this new world. It’s not a program, but a gentle reminder we grow in our faith better when we are in relationship with others in a healthy way. It’s personal. It’ll take humility to know I have something new to learn. It’ll be awkward. Really awkward! It’ll take energy. It’ll feel risky, be inconvenient and uncomfortable. I challenge you to make all your feelings and caution a matter of prayer and get over it. I believe our Lord has something better in mind and we’ve got the gift of the Holy Spirit to give us the courage and energy to make it happen.

Even the greatest of all introverts (those who do not get their energy from being around other people) can learn the skills necessary to make a friend-in-the-Lord. Even the greatest of all extroverts (those who do get energy from being around other people) need coaching and encouragement to notice social cues and hold a good, healthy, amazing conversation with confidence. If we intend to fulfill the Biblical command to make disciples of Jesus Christ, we’d better be ready to make some new friends.

Radical hospitality goes beyond the passive receiving guests warmly but rather an unexpected interest with people inside, but especially outside, the faith community. Bishop Robert Schnase writes, “Radical means ‘drastically different from ordinary practice, outside the normal,’ and so it provokes practices that exceed expectations, that go the second mile.” (from Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations)

This is the goal of offering Radical Hospitality Training (RHT) this summer at the church I serve. We are offering this training this summer, because every Thursday this June we can practice our RHT skills at Food Truck Church sponsored by McEachern Kids.

Food Truck Church is our Family VBS. Every Thursday in June, 5-8pm in our parking lot, 5-7pm on our campus with food truck, music, games, a Jesus teaching, prayer, a kid’s table (activity each week going along with our Jesus teaching), and an ice cream truck at the end. THEN 7:15-8pm we pop into a nearby neighborhood to be a ‘guest’ in a cul-de-sac for a sweet treat on us with the ice cream truck. RHT is practiced at each table for Food Truck Church AND RHT is practiced when we’re a guest off-campus being a good neighbor. No bait and switch of coming to our church. We go to McEachern Church and we’re neighbors and it’s hot, so let’s share some ice cream.

Promotion: All ages and stages are invited to one of three Radical Hospitality training sessions in the Children’s Welcome Center.  Learn to invite, engage, and offer an early sense of connection and belonging within the McEachern family and community.  Two more opportunities next Sunday at 1pm and Tuesday at 6:30 for kids, youth, and adults in the Children’s Welcome Center.  More than being friendly, but training in starting and continuing a conversation especially when it’s hard, risky, and awkward.

Program: After welcoming everyone we go around inviting everyone to share their name and something they’d like others to know about them. I quickly practice the conversation skills we’re about to cover so I can refer back to everyone in the room as I teach the skills.

I like to use a fill-in because it keeps me on track and hearing it, writing it, seeing it makes the information stickier. What’s in parentheses are my notes to further explain each point in story.

Radical Hospitality Training – June 2022

Be Fully Present

Listen for 3 NOTS (from North Point Community Church)
NOT in church (relocated, been planning to, we live in an area of the country that WANTS to go to church but they just can’t figure out how to make it happen)
NOT going well (grief, fear, struggle, relationships, loss, gain, job, lonely)
NOT prepared for (parenting, care giving, medical diagnosis, living alone)

Toss the conversation ball…speak briefly, then end with a question. (toss a ball to role play beginning with the youngest in the room)

Listen = Silent (same letters) – leave space in the conversation

Celeste Headlee’s TED Talk: 10 Ways to have a better conversation without getting bored, without offending, and walk away inspired speaks to the following list.

(Goal: a coherent, confident, connection through conversation with people you like, don’t like, disagree with, admire, typically run from. As Christians, what’s expected? Make it a matter of prayer to get over my own sensitivity, being right, and being self-conscious).

1.       Don’t multi-task (When the song “Taste and See” starts take your place at tables at food truck church; you’re fully present with who is sharing the table; don’t look at your phone or watch, but fully face the person you’re talking with)

2.       Don’t  pontificate (This is not a blog, nor a podium, it’s a table; assume you have something to learn; everyone is an expert at something….what about you? What could you talk about for 10 minutes with no prep, just not here?)

3.       Use open-ended questions  (What was that like?; What did you choose to eat? How did you hear about this?)

4.       Go with the flow (Let other distracting thoughts come and go)

5.       If you don’t know, say so (Be open to learn something new and interesting; ‘tell me more’)

6.       Don’t equate your experience with theirs. (It’s not the same; all experiences are personal; no one-up-man-ship)

7.       Try not to repeat yourself. (Assume they heard you and don’t want to go there; take the hint)

8.       Stay out of the weeds (Don’t worry about names, dates, time; resist having side conversations about the details)

9.     Listen (We’d rather talk 225 words/minute; but we can listen 500 words/minute)

10.   Be brief (Be interested rather than try to be interesting)

Be prepared to be amazed. Amazed at the creativity of our Creator God and the stories shared because someone feels safe, heard, and cared for. It’ll take practice because it’s awkward. It’s rarely intuitive because it’s risky. It’s expected so we resist becoming lukewarm. That is indeed radical, Christian, hospitality!

Are you up for the challenge to learn how, practice with, and work diligently as if you were the last disciple of Jesus? What’s the worse that could happen? What’s the best that could happen? What’s the last risky, awkward thing you did to make a new friend?

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16

Last week was the Annual Conference of the United Methodists of North Georgia. We met in person after meeting online for the last two years. I was invited to serve as an at-large lay delegate from my district. The theme for this year’s conference was “There’s a Place For You At the Table.”

In true children’s ministry fashion, we took on the task of providing a kid’s table in an innovative way.

The kid’s table was set for the holy habit of play, for snack, and for good conversation about the local church’s ministry with children and families. We set up a pop-up table where the folks were at the times when critical mass was guaranteed, just outside the Grand Hall (the room where official delegate business was handled) in the Atrium where there were round tables and where people gathered for conversation and food.

From 11:30am-2pm, the pop-up kid’s table was set for two days. Nothing formal, but intentionally organized to make space to chat Safe Sanctuary and Family Ministry. 

Otrio – if you can play tic-tac-toe, you already know how to play which makes this game able to be played well by a 3yo to a 100yo. Intergenerational play together with 2-4 people and much quicker to play than checkers or any other board game. We taught how to play, just like we teach about Jesus.

Puzzle Balls – if you know the concept of a Rubik’s Cube, anyone can push the colored balls into the matching rings. If our hands are busy, our minds are calm. We showed how to play, just like we model how to engage with anyone like Jesus.

Snack – Animal crackers on day 1, Goldfish on day 2 in individual snack bags. Maslow teaches that if we meet one’s physical needs, we can more easily be trusted to meet other basic needs. We fed the masses like Jesus. When the line for lunch food was so very long wrapping around the Atrium, we handed out snack bags with a smile to hold folks over as they waited to order their lunches. Coming from a place of generosity, we went where the people were and offered what we had.

Signage – Clear marking where we were set the table for many conversations about family ministry and Safe Sanctuary, current research, the great wave of incoming state residents from all over the world, hiring, healthy updates, changes, situations, shared events, what’s on the horizon in culture and how we can meet the needs of our backyard neighbors.  A pop-up table where people were offered a location where we could be found to chat making us easily accessible.

Take-aways – Buttons labeled with “Kid’s Table Alumni” for haven’t we ALL spent time at a kid’s table? May we remember the tables from which we came and return to disciple the littles. Wearing buttons at Annual Conference is a thing. A handful of squishy Jesus-es also made their way around in delightful places.

So many conversations. So much laughter. So much news. Lots of game play. AND we provided afternoon snack for those passing by on their way to conference with the sacred bread of kid’s tables: Goldfish and Animal Crackers.

In Bishop Robert Schnase’s updated book, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, he speaks of Radical Hospitality being an excellent expression of our love for others to make friends-in-the-Lord. When we exceed expectations to welcome and be welcomed. Not only do we set the table to welcome those who come to us to make a new friend, but we also intentionally become a guest where new friends can be made in our neighborhood, where people are.

“Radical means ‘drastically different from ordinary practice, outside the normal,’ and so it provokes practices that exceed expectations, that go the second mile that take welcoming the stranger to surprising, new levels.” At times it will feel risky, awkward, and uncomfortable, but oh the opportunities to reach the wandering and our hungry neighbors now.

What’s the riskiest thing you ever did to offer radical hospitality? And WHERE?

“And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more…” 1 Thessalonians 4:10