The Deacons have been reading and discussing the book Christianity for the Rest of Us, by Diana Butler Bass this year. At their recent retreat they focused on the chapter on hospitality. One of the exercises was to identify significant quotes and combine them into a �found poem.� We share these two found poems on hospitality.

Choices by Group I

Hospitality celebrates the freedom to be who we are.
Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer space where change can take place.
Christians imitate God�s welcome � they receive guests as Christ.
Hospitality changes both guest and host.
Hospitality can have a cost; it can be frightening.

Christian people, themselves wayfarers, welcome strangers into the heart of God�s transformational love.

Choices by Group II

An essential part of that early Christian teaching and fellowship was hospitality, a practice that awed even the Roman opponents of Jesus� first followers.
Hospitality is not an institution.
Hospitality is not a recruitment strategy.
Hospitality is not a program.
Hospitality is the heart of the Christian way of life.
Hospitality helps Christians imitate God�s welcome.
Hospitality can be frightening at times.
Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them a space where change can take place.
Hospitality changes both the host and the guest.

Welcoming strangers, welcoming love.