Abundant Life: Fellowship and Hospitality

Living the rich, abundant life Jesus has called us to includes spending time with other believers and loving our neighbors

Jesus’ words in John 10:10 regarding abundant life are definitely eternity-focused, but there’s also an element of that rich, full life that we are supposed to live out in the here and now. At The Bookery, one of the ways we’re convinced that is supposed to happen is through fellowship and hospitality.

If you’ve grown up in Christian circles (particularly in Flannery O’Connor’s Christ-haunted South) you make think of fellowship as church-wide dinners or potlucks. While fellowship may happen at such events, fellowship is more about being united with other believers around our shared love of Jesus and our love for one another. Hospitality is simply welcoming others into our lives and homes.

So, what might it look like to build fellowship and hospitality in our real-world, messy, busy lives?

1. We have to make both a priority. Fellowship is meeting with other believers, authentically sharing our lives and purposefully seeking to grow together. That might look like a monthly Bible study or it could look like meeting for brunch or coffee once a week to chat through the ups and downs of life. And like any muscle we want to grow or stretch, we have to “exercise” fellowship regularly. Same goes for hospitality. If we want our homes to be welcoming oases in a stressful world, we have consistently welcome people in. That may look like inviting neighbors over once a month, speaking with neighbors and community members as you work in your yard or sit on your front porch or helping to create regular neighborhood events.
   

2. We have to be authentic. True fellowship is built on truth. To truly engage with, encourage and walk with other believers through life’s ups and downs, we have to let our guards down and let others see the real us. That may be harder for some of us, but fellowship isn’t about people thinking your life is always going good. It’s letting them see the reality and having people who love you support you as you cling to Jesus in all the ups and downs. Hospitality is more about welcoming strangers in, but if we are choosing to practice hospitality out of a desire to allow those around us to see what it really looks like to follow Jesus, there has to be authenticity. It might mean your house is messy, the food is burned, your toddler has a meltdown. It absolutely means something won’t be “perfect” or look like the Southern Living cover. But it also helps people to experience what it looks like for an imperfect human to follow a perfect Savior. We will stumble, we will make mistakes, we will welcome people into dirty floors and questionable bathrooms—and we will invite them into our messy, imperfect lives.
   

3. We have to love others. Living in fellowship with others and welcoming people into our lives means that we’re going to face some difficult moments. Living in relationship with anyone has its messy moments. When we are authentic with each other, our “stuff” is going to show up, whether that’s in a small group fellowship of believers, a marriage or in the relationships you build within your neighborhood. Loving people can be hard—but loving people is exactly what we’re called to do as Christians. We must strive to be loving and forgiving, bearing with one another in love and more than anything, asking the Holy Spirit to guide our conversations and our interactions.

What steps will you take this month to build fellowship and hospitality into your life? Tell us in the comments!

Here are a few resources to consider as you delve more deeply into the topics of fellowship and hospitality:

• The Gospel Comes with a House Key Rosaria Butterfield

• We Will Feast, Kendall Vanderslice (this is more about the dinner church movement)

• Holy Hygge, Jamie Erickson

• Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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