PDF The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our PostChristian World Rosaria Butterfield 9781433557866 Books
Download As PDF : The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our PostChristian World Rosaria Butterfield 9781433557866 Books
Winner of the 2019 Christianity Today Book Award in the Christian Living & Discipleship Category
"This book is going to shake us all up in the most wonderfully destabilizing way.†―Ray Ortlund, Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee
What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically.
With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same “radical, ordinary hospitality†to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God’s tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives―helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.
PDF The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our PostChristian World Rosaria Butterfield 9781433557866 Books
"My husband read this and I'm half way through it and this book is worth more than it's weight in gold! I am going to need to read it twice but it's already changing our lives and our family. Rosaria says, "I know I can't save anyone. Jesus alone saves, and all I do is show up. Show up we must." We have a neighborhood dinner this weekend and we haven't made it to one before but we'll be there this weekend... here we go! Thank you to Rosaria and her family for sharing their lives, knowledge, and wisdom with us through this book!"
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Tags : The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World [Rosaria Butterfield] on . Winner of the 2019 <em>Christianity Today</em> Book Award in the Christian Living Discipleship Category This book is going to shake us all up in the most wonderfully destabilizing way.†―Ray Ortlund,Rosaria Butterfield,The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World,Crossway,143355786X,Christian Life - General,Entertaining;Religious aspects;Christianity.,Hospitality - Religious aspects - Christianity,Hospitality;Religious aspects;Christianity.,Strangers - Religious aspects - Christianity,Strangers;Religious aspects;Christianity.,General Adult,Inspirational/Devotional - Christian,Non-Fiction,RELIGION / Christian Living / General,RELIGIOUS,Religion,Religion/Christian Theology - Ethics,Religion/Ethics,Religion/Theology
The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our PostChristian World Rosaria Butterfield 9781433557866 Books Reviews :
The Gospel Comes with a House Key Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our PostChristian World Rosaria Butterfield 9781433557866 Books Reviews
- *I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via #netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I have been looking forward to reading this book; first, because the author is one I’ve admired from afar ever since I read her first book, Confessions of an Unlikely Convert; second, because hospitality is a ministry dear to my heart. I had high expectations for this book; and sadly, it slightly disappoints. Perhaps I’m being nit picky and I apologize if I sound harsh, but I need to give my honest review. It is perplexing because though I do not love the book, I do not have a problem recommending it to others.
I’m not sure if this is promoted as such, but it is part memoir, part theology lesson, part christian living kind of book. Interwoven are the theological basis, biblical illustrations and personal story about hospitality. Mrs. Butterfield is a good writer and could very well be the most qualified to talk about hospitality, but I still find issues in the book that I cannot give it a 5-Star rating.
These issues are not theological in nature, so I can still in good conscience recommend the book. For sure, it is highly engaging, saturated with Scripture, and convicting to the core. I’ve had to stop several times to repent for past sins in the area of hospitality and pray for God’s grace to help me a better hostess.
I cried reading about her tumultuous relationship with her mother. I especially love that she encourages us to not idolize safety and security, something American Christians are obsessed with. We need to live our ordinary lives radically and one way we do that is through hospitality. Here are some favorite quotes
I know I can’t save anyone. Jesus alone saves, and all I do is show up. Show up we must.
Radically ordinary hospitality is this using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God. It brings glory to God, serves others, and lives out the gospel in word and deed.
Christians must learn to practice radically ordinary hospitality not only as the hosts of this world but, perhaps more importantly, as its despised guests. Let’s face it we have become unwelcome guests in this post-Christian world.
God calls us to make sacrifices that hurt so that others can be served and maybe even saved. We are called to die. Nothing less.
The job of an ally makes the cross lighter, not by erecting or supporting laws that oppose God’s law, but by being good company in the bearing of its weight.
Now for the disappointing parts...here are just a few
Perhaps this is unavoidable when writing a memoir, and I have a sensitivity to humble-bragging because of my own pride problems, but I find her constant use of her own personal triumphs in hospitality as a little irksome. I don’t want to judge her motives, but it gets old when I read one hospitable act by the author after another. She did use other people’s examples, but it’s mostly about her and her family’s sacrifice and good works. This is especially interesting because she talks highly of her husband who would not “tarnish by bragging about it (one’s coming to faith through their hospitality) on a blog post or on Facebook. Kent is a Christian man. Christian men do not steal glory from God. This is the kind of news that moves mountains, something to be addressed in the sacred moment of table fellowship.â€
Her schedule seems unmaintainable. Doing intentional ministry every day could exhaust even the most devoted Christian. As a minister’s wife, I understand that being in full-time ministry is a 24/7 kind of job, and opportunities to serve could come at any moment. But her way is to have something planned every day. Maybe these are assumed, but I ask her, When does she devote time alone with her husband? When does she foster one on one time with her kids? It is hard to imagine she has time for them just by reading about her schedule.
One of the characters she mentions in the book is Hank who starts as a grumpy neighbor and becomes a friend. Later on, it is found out he was leading a secret criminal life. I understand and admire the author’s compassion for her friend, but her intent focus on this made her question the fairness of his incarceration, made her forget his serious crimes that hurt a lot of people. His sins are somewhat downplayed. Yes, as a Christian, he has been forgiven, but he still has to face the consequences of his sins.
She quotes and uses as a good example a Catholic priest who “regarded hospitality as a spiritual movement, one that is possible only when loneliness finds its spiritual refreshment in solitude, when hostility resolves itself in hospitality, and when illusion is manifested in prayer.†This sounds mystical and, as an ex-Catholic, I seriously have an issue promoting any of them.
I found two typos principal when she meant principle, tails instead of tales. - I appreciate
1. When a book helps me interpret passages from Scripture that puzzle me. Rosaria did that in two instances in this book. (I won't give them away.)
2. When a book makes me want to read the Bible more. This one is one of those.
3. When a book so engages me that I can't put it down. Again, this was one of those.
4. When a book convicts as well as comforts me (i.e. it's full of the gospel). Ditto.
Bravo! - Butterfield’s most recent call-to-action is a memoriore-styled merger of her former two books (Openness Unhindered and the Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert) with a delicate and raw style that is unlike her other writings thus far because it more clearly is from a heart of honesty and humility. Honest and humble people are hard to not listen to. She opens wide her very personal experiences her mother’s deathbed conversion, her adoption-of-older-troubled-teens journeys, and the trauma of their house being robbed. It’s vulnerable. It’s preachy. It’s convicting. Rosaria knows that stories change us and the story she wants the American church to live in is one where our front doors are flung open because we want our messes out and others’ messes inside our homes. She reminds us that Jesus is never joking about authentic love. Jesus really can save anyone. Wounds really can be healed by day-in and day-out radically ordinary hospitality. Yes, this book espouses a type of hospitality not all are willing to enter into and she does come off as overbearing but it’s her story and her life.
*Pro tip, mine, not hers, Walmart is the easiest place to get housekey copies. - I stumbled upon this title while reading a review on The Gospel Coalition website and then again in World magazine. I have a 3 week old infant and so have lots of time sitting while feeding him.... Read this book in less than a week, it was so good! Very easy and enjoyable writing style. Extremely convicting. Great, practical examples of how you can incorporate radically ordinary hospitality into your life...and Biblically, why it's necessary.
- My husband read this and I'm half way through it and this book is worth more than it's weight in gold! I am going to need to read it twice but it's already changing our lives and our family. Rosaria says, "I know I can't save anyone. Jesus alone saves, and all I do is show up. Show up we must." We have a neighborhood dinner this weekend and we haven't made it to one before but we'll be there this weekend... here we go! Thank you to Rosaria and her family for sharing their lives, knowledge, and wisdom with us through this book!
- Hospitality is just the launching pad for Rosaria Butterfield. Much more than a women's "how to do" for hospitality, The Gospel Comes with a House Key is part biography, part theological, and a lot of stories that are real, raw, & redemptive. I couldn't put it down until I finished it.
- How can one bear fruit when only concerned with buying better stuff?
How does one reconcile a lavish (and yet paycheck to paycheck) lifestyle with the knowledge that people are suffering and dying from lack?
These are questions I've been asking myself for the past 5 years or so.
This book helps answer these questions.
Inspiring, absorbing and genuine, I think this is a must read. I'm recommending it to my friends and family.
