Here is my gigantic epiphany of the week:
So… at a regular old church a new person might go for three months straight and it’s not until the end of the three months that they are considered a newcomer and maybe someone will shake their hand or invite them over for dinner.  And it takes even longer, maybe even decades in some places to be considered an insider, to actually be entrusted to ‘do stuff’, and to move from the role of guest to host.
But if you’ve been coming to Church of the Beloved for three weeks or more you’re like instantly a charter member of this community.  I remember when Amy first showed up, we went out to coffee and she was like “I’m really interested in an Artist Way Group” and I was like “Okay!  You’re doing it.  I’ll put it on the website tonight.”  And Amy was like, “Don’t you want a background check or something first?”  If you show up, you are it… you are helping to lead this thing.

Now what I think happens in Church of the Beloved sometimes is that everyone feels new, everyone feels like a guest and no one feels like the host.  And what that then means is that everyone is looking around to see, “Where’s the host?  Where’s the one who will shake my hand?  Where’s the one who will invite me over to dinner?”, when in fact you are the host and that person who has the immense courage to slip in the door fifteen minutes after service has begun is your guest.  We are a young little community, and that means that if you’ve been here three or four times, you’re it.  There’s no member’s class, no special handshake to learn, no paperwork to sign… you’re it, you’re the community.  But that takes a major shift in our minds from the identity of a guest to the vocation of a host, because a host is completely opposite of a member.  Most churches are full of members and membership means that an organization exists to serve the member.  But a host is altogether different.  A host takes ownership of a place for the sake of showing hospitality to a guest.  A host exists to serve the guest.

Yet, we can only make that dramatic shift when we experience Christ’s hospitality in the Eucharist.  That is the transformational moment where Jesus says, “This is my table.  You are completely welcome.  Let me serve you.  It’s my pleasure.”  You experience this graceful Host and out of a belly full of gratefulness you want to host like your Host.