For the past two and half years I have been working to plant The Mills Church, a United Methodist New Faith Community in Rocky Mount, NC. In planting this church we knew our first goal was that we wanted to create a home, where there’s a place for everyone at the table. Recently that hope lent itself to the idea that we should be celebrating communion every week, because we can’t make space at the table if we don’t actually extend an invitation to the table.
When we receive communion we receive an outward sign of God’s inward grace. We receive an invitation to hope, an invitation to restoration, and invitation to be in the presence of our creator. In Matthew 7 we are reminded that when we seek after Jesus, we find Him. And when we knock the door is always opened.
It reminds me of our call to radical hospitality and love. What does it mean to have a door that is always open? At our church, we are creating a space that doesn’t just belong to us, but that belongs to our community. We want a space for dance lessons, art, engagement, and building relationships.
This passage from Matthew isn’t meant to imply that we always get what we want, but it does remind us that just as God has cared for us, so are we called to care for one another. So graceful hospitality, for our churches, means opening the door. It means not being afraid of our neighbors. It means making sure that our community has what it needs, to the best of our ability. This Lent, may our hearts be opened to answer the call of hospitality, and the desire to serve, more than to be served.
Rev. Laura Wittman serves as the pastor of The Mills Church in Rocky Mount, NC, and as the Coordinating Pastor of The UM Collective of the NC Conference.
Our theme for this year’s Lenten reflections is Graceful Hospitality. 2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the Ten Dollar Club, now known as the New Room Society. We give thanks for our Conference’s ongoing commitment to co-creating new places for new people to gather in communion with Jesus Christ and extending graceful hospitality to all of God’s children.