From the very first paragraphs of Leslie Verner’s book Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness, I was hooked. A master storyteller, Verner weaves an intricate tapestry of personal stories and theological reflection around the topics of home, hospitality and community that will make you turn the page and long to read more. As I found myself immersed in an interconnected meshwork of hospitality from around the world, of invitations and open doors, I knew this book was tapping into something we, as western Christians, so very much need: a call to lift our eyes out of our own individualistic way of living, to rage against our self-induced loneliness and learn anew the uncomfortable, yet necessary practice of becoming a good neighbor.
Hospitality From East to West
In her travels from around the world, Leslie Verner has learned the power of being invited. Whether living in China or Chicago, her own pangs of loneliness began to heal and dissipate when welcomed into the lives of others, amidst the noise, the chaos, the dirty dishes and unclean floors. It is no accident that many of the people with whom she encounters are from the East – Indians and Persians, Chinese and Africans – where hospitality is often intrinsically understood. Her lessons of open doors come from being immersed in cultures that are communally-oriented and that understand, not just the beauty, but in fact the necessity of inviting others to journey through life’s everyday moments together – the joyous, the sorrowful and the mundane.
Invited, however, does not just create an interwoven fabric of tales around the world to intrigue and amaze. This gorgeous craftsmanship of cross-cultural community beckons us to step outside ourselves, to begin working through our own fears and confusions around hospitality and engage in the new. We need to take a long, hard look at our Western associations and assumptions about things like independence, our privatization of everything from home and transportation to do-it-yourself skills, and the walls we create so that it’s unnecessary for one human being to ever need or even ask anything of another in the course of our daily business. We are independent, we are self-sufficient, and we are lonely.
Hospitality & the American Christian
Perhaps the most unsettling narrative that Leslie Verner uncovers in Invited is how true this reality is for American Christians. She writes, “Some churches are being held captive by our individualistic Western culture. In the sea of a grand Christian theology that beckons us to die to ourselves, live for others, and welcome strangers, individualism is the silent, lethal undertow luring the North American church away from the shore of genuine community.” The individualism of Western philosophy is so pervasive in the church and in our Americanized faith that we have forgotten the value of community found in Scripture. We don’t gather with other saints outside of Sunday mornings and, even worse, we neglect to engage the person at church in the seat sitting next to us. Our enslavement to independence makes us blind to the ways we treat the body of Christ more as a country club with services rendered than as our spiritual and relational lifeline.
Leslie Verner draws us into her world of peoples and places, not for the sake of multiculturalism in and of itself, but because this is the way of Christ. She writes, “As a Middle Easterner, Jesus and his followers dwelled within a culture that highly valued community, hospitality and relationships. Hospitality was their default response to friends, guests, and strangers, not their extraordinary act of service. Community was built in, not sought out.” If this is the way of Christ, shouldn’t this be our way too?
Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness is a book for us all. It’s an invitation to practice holy hospitality in the everyday, to prioritize people and to open our doors. It’s time to create new spaces for the friend and the stranger alike and Leslie Verner is leading the way. Won’t you join her? Her book releases on August 13, 2019 and you can pre-order the book here.
In Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness, Leslie Verner masterfully weaves stories about hospitality that will make you turn the page and long to read more. Her book releases Aug 13. You can pre-order the book here. Click To Tweet
