{"id":3951,"date":"2017-10-02T21:39:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T21:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeyonleadership.brentwoodbaptistonline.com\/?p=3951"},"modified":"2017-10-02T21:39:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T21:39:01","slug":"hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship"},"content":{"rendered":"<address>By Paul Wilkinson<\/address>\n<p><strong>Hospitality is often the genesis of our discipleship!<\/strong> I was very arrogant and self-righteous when I graduated from seminary (now I\u2019m only arrogant; I\u2019ve shed the \u201cvery\u201d). I would get incredibly frustrated as I walked the halls of our church encountering discussions of college football, weather, and new restaurants tried the previous night. I\u2019d think to myself: <em>here\u2019s the one time a week in the one place a week where we can really let it rip with respect to talking about God and reveling in God . . . AND NOBODY DOES IT! <\/em>I would quickly write off people who tried to talk about things other than Bible and theology.<br \/>\nI misunderstood what it meant to disciple others. The chitchat wasn\u2019t a waste of time; rather, the chitchat was the gateway needed to meet the initial needs of the individuals <em>for the sake <\/em>of taking them deeper later. In short, the <strong>chitchat was discipleship, too<\/strong>; it was just the very initial stages.<br \/>\n<strong>Is your group warm and welcoming?<\/strong> Mine wasn\u2019t. People stuck because they wanted the doctrine but we didn\u2019t grow well in attendance, they didn\u2019t grow well spiritually, and we never had \u201ccommunity.\u201d I encourage you to model and champion for your group what it means to welcome a visitor into group.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be standing<\/strong> to receive them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Food <\/strong>makes a difference.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ask them<\/strong> about their lives <strong>if they\u2019re willing<\/strong> to share.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Introduce<\/strong> them to one or two others in your group.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wear nametags!<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Take a few core members<\/strong> of your group with you so they can see you do it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Empower them<\/strong> to be hospitable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Give visitors a reason to come back. People need the Bible teaching we offer. Often, they are not ready, or perhaps not willing, to receive it. May we be hospitable to receive them <em>for the sake <\/em>of helping them become who the Lord designed them to be.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Paul Wilkinson Hospitality is often the genesis of our discipleship! I was very arrogant and self-righteous when I graduated from seminary (now I\u2019m only arrogant; I\u2019ve shed the \u201cvery\u201d). I would get incredibly frustrated as I walked the halls of our church encountering discussions of college football, weather, and new restaurants tried the previous&#8230;","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship - Adults<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship - Adults\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Paul Wilkinson Hospitality is often the genesis of our discipleship! I was very arrogant and self-righteous when I graduated from seminary (now I\u2019m only arrogant; I\u2019ve shed the \u201cvery\u201d). I would get incredibly frustrated as I walked the halls of our church encountering discussions of college football, weather, and new restaurants tried the previous...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adults\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-02T21:39:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sbain\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sbain\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/\",\"name\":\"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship - Adults\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-02T21:39:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-02T21:39:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#\/schema\/person\/f32b0615e264717b4c0b7d9e126e9f92\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Uncategorized\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/category\/uncategorized\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/\",\"name\":\"Adults\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#\/schema\/person\/f32b0615e264717b4c0b7d9e126e9f92\",\"name\":\"sbain\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/195ab55a2b8f64c82d3b7183759309d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/195ab55a2b8f64c82d3b7183759309d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sbain\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/author\/sbain\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship - Adults","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship - Adults","og_description":"By Paul Wilkinson Hospitality is often the genesis of our discipleship! I was very arrogant and self-righteous when I graduated from seminary (now I\u2019m only arrogant; I\u2019ve shed the \u201cvery\u201d). I would get incredibly frustrated as I walked the halls of our church encountering discussions of college football, weather, and new restaurants tried the previous...","og_url":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/","og_site_name":"Adults","article_published_time":"2017-10-02T21:39:01+00:00","author":"sbain","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"sbain","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/","url":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/","name":"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship - Adults","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-10-02T21:39:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-02T21:39:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#\/schema\/person\/f32b0615e264717b4c0b7d9e126e9f92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/hospitality-as-the-beginning-of-discipleship\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Uncategorized","item":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/category\/uncategorized\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Hospitality as the Beginning of Discipleship"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#website","url":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/","name":"Adults","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#\/schema\/person\/f32b0615e264717b4c0b7d9e126e9f92","name":"sbain","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/195ab55a2b8f64c82d3b7183759309d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/195ab55a2b8f64c82d3b7183759309d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"sbain"},"url":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/author\/sbain\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadership.brentwoodbaptist.com\/adult-discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}