Hospitality, Worship, And Evangelism

Many churches give little thought to including the visitor and the stranger in their worship services. Familiar habits and stale worship forms can unintentially leave the outsider feeling unwelcome. This article attempts to correct this oversight by pointing out the sociological necessity of making the worship service accessible to all who attend. The way most congregations of the mainline churches treat strangers in public worship reminds me of the liberal couple in the Hepburn and Tracy movie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? They profess a commitment to welcome strangers but are shocked when strangers actually show up expecting hospitality. In the movie, Tracy plays the editor of a newspaper that under his guidance has taken very liberal stands on racism. He and his wife, played by Hepburn, have identified themselves with the civil rights movement. They are in all respects the ideal liberal couple. All this is fine until their daughter brings home to dinner a young, black man, play…