During the fall of my senior year in college, I stood on the doorstep of a family I didn’t know. My girlfriend (now wife) and I had recently joined their local church and we’d been invited over for dinner. I was in a season of disenchantment with the church, and I showed up at their home with questions about God, the Bible, and the church’s relevance. The culture around me felt like it was shifting, and I was searching for a solid place to stand.
Somewhat reluctantly, I entered their home, and what I experienced was surprising: normalcy. We witnessed the beauty of their normal marriage and faithful, everyday parenting. We saw their four young children doing chores. We were brought into their routine of Bible reading and catechism memory, and they continued to invite us back again and again.
I was a student weary of performative Christianity, and I witnessed the messy, everyday ways one family lived out spiritual disciplines.
I was a college student weary of performative Christianity, and I witnessed the messy, everyday ways one family lived out their spiritual disciplines.
As I observed their normal life, God moved Christianity from theoretical to an experienced reality for me. I witnessed firsthand how Christ’s beauty reaches even the ordinary moments of family life.
Gospel Call to Hospitality
The call to hospitality isn’t an optional add-on within the Christian life but a command. It’s also ground zero for experiencing the gospel’s implications. When God draws people to himself, they’re brought into a community and a family. As Paul encourages us in Romans 15:7, we should “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed [us], for the glory of God.”
Jesus Christ, out of the overflow of his abundant love for his people, has welcomed us. Because of this good news, we can welcome one another. Here are two crucial ways church members can do this for college students.
1. Be unimpressive.
You can be impressive or known, but you can’t be both. College students long to be known, yet many succumb to the daily pressure to impress, and thus they sacrifice vulnerability. By letting students into your unimpressive, ordinary life, you’ll help them see the beauty and wonder of living with quiet faithfulness rather than fanfare or swagger. You’ll show them Christianity isn’t for those who have it all together but for those who don’t.
Show them they don’t have to be impressive around you. In a world where personas are precisely curated, university students desperately need to see that Christ welcomes them as they are—in their brokenness and weakness.
2. Invite students into what you’re already doing.
Many church members are intimidated by discipleship because they see it as another thing to add to their calendars. When Jesus called his first disciples, he called them “so that they might be with him” (Mark 3:14). It was only after they were with Jesus for three years that he sent them out to preach the gospel.
Students desperately need to see that Christ welcomes them as they are—in their brokenness and weakness.
Times of intentional teaching are important, but as Jesus did with his disciples, we should also call college students to walk with us during the events of our everyday lives. In disciplining your kids, responding to your spouse, and engaging with your friends, you’ll model for them how the gospel permeates everyday relationships.
One of my friends rarely changes the oil in his car without first inviting a college student to help him. Such moments model in real-time how a follower of Jesus responds to everyday challenges. Inviting students into such moments creates opportunities for organic and honest gospel conversations.
Think of something you already do—a trip to the grocery store, a meal with your family, or a chore you have planned—that you could invite a student to join in with. Being hospitable in this way invites students to do the same with others. It’s a way of fulfilling Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1).
Hospitality as Apologetic
Many college students today are rejecting and leaving a faith they’ve never truly been introduced to. Hospitality changed that trajectory for me. My peers were disillusioned and disenchanted, but I couldn’t resist the allure of what I witnessed in one family. Their hospitality was a stronger apologetic than any arguments would’ve been at the time. I saw too much to turn back.
Now I want the same to be a normative experience for college students in the local church. Brothers and sisters, joyfully practice hospitality. Welcome students as Christ welcomed you. When you do, many students will begin to see the local church as a place to experience the solid reality of God amid their shifting culture.