From Refugees to Refuge

In Week 2 of Becoming Future Ready, Elder Tyler Kipper challenges Journey Church to move from being a church of refugees to becoming a church of refuge. A welcoming church is about much more than friendly greeters, good coffee, clean facilities, great worship, or creating an excellent Sunday experience. Those things are valuable, but biblical hospitality goes much deeper.

Throughout Scripture, believers are called to genuine love—to welcome strangers, make room for people outside our normal circles, open our homes and lives, serve people who cannot repay us, and ultimately point people toward Jesus Christ. The early Church did more than attend services together. They shared life, ate together, prayed together, cared for one another, and opened their homes so that strangers could become family.

The Church is not a business, and people are not customers. Our goal is not simply to create an experience that makes someone want to return. The goal is to love people faithfully, proclaim Christ, invite people into Christian community, and make disciples. Our methods can change, but the message cannot.

Biblical hospitality moves beyond the doors of the church and into our everyday lives. We are called to notice people, invite people, serve people, tell people about Jesus, and make disciples—becoming a church where strangers become friends, friends become family, and disciples go on to make other disciples.