Three Missional Lessons in Hospitality From a Cruise Ship Crew
1st Peter 4:9 says "Offer hospitality to one another..." The Greek for "hospitality" is philoxenia (philos=love; Xenos= strangers) It means "to love the stranger.
Every one of our churches expresses the desire to share that kind of hospitality with guests but often struggle to do so. Our family (Becky, Jennifer, Mike and I) experienced philoxenia first hand on a cruise of Alaska just a few weeks ago. While the cruise was totally enjoyable, I observed 3 lessons in missional behaviors and attitudes that churches and leaders could learn from.
1) The highest level of care needs to be expressed at the lowest level of the organization: I know there was a captain on our ship because the ship went the right direction, arrived at each port on time and didn't sink. But, I only saw the captain once while he was going up a flight of stairs. However, I saw Bennie our room steward and Lelik and Bramadi our table stewards several times each day. They were warm and friendly, and by the end of the first day they knew all of our names and engaged us in welcome conversation. They expressed care which was genuine. It would have done little good for Holland America Cruise Lines to advertise "we have the most caring captains on the high seas" if those members of the crew who actually worked with passengers were not caring. Even if such and advertisement were true, it wouldn't matter if those who interacted with passengers didn't do the job. We knew that a good captain was commanding the bridge because at every level of the ship's crew, from top to bottom, that level of care was expressed and experienced. By the end of the week, Bennie, Lelik and Bramadi were our good friends. Sometimes in our churches we expect our pastors to be the sole provider of care and everyone's friend. While that might work in a church of 100, it won't work in a church much larger. The world's friendliest pastor can't compensate for unfriendly ushers, greeters and regular church goers. He needs to model that caring and continually teach it to the people in his church.
2) No "insider" language on board: The crew on our ship was mostly Indonesian which means that their native language is Bahasa Indonesia (what we call Indonesian) and yet all spoke English to the mostly American and Australian passengers. Even when they were talking to each other, they did not speak Indonesian but English. I asked one of the crew members about this and he said that this is always done because they do not want a passenger to mistakenly think that crew members are talking them. He also said that "we are here for the passengers and not for ourselves." We could learn much in the church as we have a great deal of "insider" language and expressions.
Our announcements, acronyms and even worship forms often assume others know exactly what we are talking about, even bordering on giving the impression that we never expect a guest to come who doesn't already know "our language." Those of us in the church need to continually ask ourselves how the language, expressions, and lingo affect those who are our guests. We need to speak their language.
3) Substance and style are both vital to a guest's experience: Having a well prepared and delicious meal every night in the dining room on board was promised in all the promos we read before taking the cruise. Card tricks and math riddles (when our steward discovered Becky is a math whiz) every night made our meals memorable. We were made to feel like we were our Stewards "favorites". Having a clean room with made up beds each day was important, but the attention to detail, the towel animals made by our steward each night and the engaging conversation with our room steward made us feel special. One might say "what's so special about that?...that's how every passenger feels."
Exactly -- no one is missed. Every passenger experiences the same level of care. Both the substance of what one experiences on a cruise (safety, good food, exciting destinations, learning about new places and people) and the style (the friendly respect from crew members, the special touches to keep everything spotless, making you feel important) are both vital to the experience. However, if it were all style and the food was bad, we were late arriving at every port or the ship sank, none of the style would have mattered. If the substance was gotten right but the crew was unfriendly and the ship dirty, most people would not sail with that cruise line a second time.
In our churches, it is important to get substance (Biblically faithful theology, God honoring worship, correct division of Law and Gospel, Theology of the Cross) right while we pay close attention to style (appropriate worship forms, welcoming environment, effective discipling methods). It is all part of what guests and members experience.
Posts
3 comments:
the first part of your post got me excited in a good way. the second part got me excited in a bad way. When people walk into Lutheran churches in America, nearly all of them speak English. The connection you try to make between Indonesian and English does not fly when English speaking strangers attend an English speaking congregation. We have scripture based Lutheran lingo which simply does not translate well when we try to dumb it down. Lutheran lingo expresses ideas the world isn't used to hearing. The solution is not to avoid the lingo by only using worldly terms (that would require mind reading or considerable study of things other than the scriptures), but to recognize the lingo and teach what the lingo means (and why we use it), being aware most strangers (and some members) don't know what the lingo really means. Defining terms is crucial these days, especially when so many groups use the same terms but with different meanings. Same thing goes for the form of worship. We really need to retain the rites and ceremonies which deliver the Gospel, get over ourSelves so we can trust God to do what He says He does through His Word, and stop thinking we're smarter than Grandpa. Talk about disrespectful. My suggestion: speak Lutheranese and define what it means. It's powerful stuff. We should love the stranger by giving him the best we have to give. The best we have to give has been around a lot longer than any of us and will continue to exist even after we're gone.
I understand the frustration. But it is not unlike html code and wysiwyg software. With the former there is precision when one is fluent and only when one is fluent in the code. With the latter, one will undoubtedly create quirky sites revealing the lack of precision in the code. And yet, the quirky site communicates the essence of the message.
One of the differences between computer language and human language communicating the revealed message of the Living God is that His Spirit is working faith to understand the language, quirky or precise though it be. Apart from the Spirit working faith to hear, it doesn’t matter how precise or common the language is. That is the beauty of the Means of Grace.
So the issue is not avoiding the lingo. The issue is communicating the Gospel to people who don't know what propitiation means, even though God is conciliated and satisfied with them in Christ already and then praying that the Holy Spirit would open their ears to hear and their eyes to see.
Great job Paul.
Just a word of thanks (Terima kasih in Indonesian) for sharing your insights. As someone who worked in Indonesia (in local language Bible translation) and is now in a multi-ethnic church in the US, I appreciated seeing how your experience tied in with the missional nature of a local congregation.
I will keep an eye on your blog for more insights.
Post a Comment