This post is part of my ongoing series on hospitality.
Today we’re talking about lots of different ways we can show hospitality to others!
In Practicing Hospitality, Ennis and Tatlock write:
Practicing hospitality can be experienced during every season of life. However, it may not always be implemented in the same manner. We may need to invite people for dessert rather than a full meal, or meet them for breakfast rather than lunch. Our commitment to hospitality should motivate us to be flexible and resourceful during each season of life.
Here is my list of ways to show hospitality that go beyond just having friends over for a dinner (the point isn’t to discount that, but to help you be creative in your particular season).
40+ “Unconventional” Ways of Showing Hospitality
- Host a ladies’ Bible study in your home
- Invite friends over for ice cream in your front/back porch, and ask them all to bring their favorite topping
- Host a potluck meal at a local park with several other families
- Take a meal to someone in need (illness, new baby, recent move, loss of a loved one, etc.)
- Invite someone out to eat at a restaurant
- Have a friend and her child(ren) over for a playdate
- Invite a friend to go strawberry/blueberry/apple picking with you
- Invite a visiting pastor/missionary to your church to stay at your home overnight
- Have some friends over for popcorn and a movie
- Invite another family over to make s’mores in the back yard
- Have some girlfriends over for dessert
- Have another couple over to play board/card games after your kids are in bed
- Offer to keep a friend’s children for her while she runs some errands
- Invite your church small group to meet in your home
- Have a “cook off” or “bake off” with a little friendly competition where your friends all bring their favorite chili or pizza or cake or… anything, really!
- Host a morning coffee group for other young moms
- In the holiday season, invite friends to come over and work on projects together (gift wrapping, addressing cards) while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate/cider
- Invite a college student or single adult from your church over for lunch after Sunday services
- Contact the foreign exchange student organization at your local college/university for a list of international students you might invite to your home for a meal
- Include widows in your family’s holiday celebrations and everyday life
- Encourage your older children’s friends to come over and/or spend the night
- Host a bridal/baby shower at your church or in your home
- Take a basket of breakfast and/or healthy snack foods to a friend who recently had a baby
- Have a group of teenagers from your church (and their un-churched friends) over for snacks/games
- Allow your home to be used for small church gatherings (new member classes, leadership dinners, etc.)
- As your kids get older and if you choose to homeschool, allow clubs (yearbook, chess club, newspaper) to meet in your home
- Invite your neighbors over for a potluck “block party”
- Host family birthday celebrations in your home instead of at a restaurant
- Take a meal to a shut-in or elderly friend (or even a few pieces of sliced watermelon)
- Participate in the hospitality ministry of your local church: greeting visitors, serving coffee or breakfast before services, writing notes to visitors, caring for the needs of the body, decorating the church, etc.
- Be welcoming to overnight guests and make their stay comfortable
- Invite new friends to join your family in specific holiday traditions: attending parades, watching fireworks, hunting for Easter eggs, decorating the Christmas tree, going caroling, etc.
- Host a cookie or soup exchange in the late fall
- Invite people to join you on a hike and a picnic
- Mail homemade goodies to a college student away at school
- Send breakfast foods (muffins, etc.) or desserts (cookies, etc.) to work with your husband to share with his coworkers
- Invite a friend over for a walk in your neighborhood
- Share part of your garden with a friend who doesn’t have the space to have a garden of her own
- Prepare cookies, ornaments, cards, and/or small gifts for the residents of a nursing home, then deliver the cards/gifts personally
- After moving into a new house, host an open house so friends can stop by for cookies and lemonade and see your new home
Pray about how God might use your hands and your home in showing biblical hospitality! Pray that He gives you creativity and intentionality to make it happen!
Feel free to leave a comment adding your own creative ideas to this list!
I love this list.I’m going to print it off and check off each one as I do it. Thanks for such a great series!
Great idea, Amanda!
Great list! It goes to show that hospitality is way more than just having people over for dinner.
Hope it’s helpful to you, Stephanie! I know it’s given me a lot of new ideas!
I really enjoyed looking at this series! Thanks for sharing and reminding me (even though I don’t have my own home) of the importance, beauty, joy, fun, and love in hospitality! It’s really about the authenticity; it’s not about the flair. We love having people over as a family, and always have, but it’s good to re-focus myself.
We’re a family of six, with us kids being 19, 18, 16, and 14yo. Something we did recently to bless another family with younger kids (four kids ages 12-6) was cook pizza and pack us kids over to their house. When we arrived, pizza in one arm and board games in the other, the parents drove to our house to spend the evening with Mum and Dad! I think everyone had a ball! I did. Obviously this was only possible because we knew the kids, we were old enough to babysit, Josh could drive us there and back, and we all pitched in to make it happen – but it was something different.
That’s a great idea, Jess! What a blessing you and your siblings were to that family!
I have been thinking through unconventional hospitality for months now. Being a new, single parent has lead me back to my parents’ home for a season and not being the woman of the house has left me wondering what my role is when displaying hospitality and/or being hostess. These are some great ideas that I can put in to practice. I love encouraging and investing in others through hospitality. Thank you for encouraging me with the ideas!!