Author

Kevin Stewart

Date of Award

Spring 5-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Primary Advisor

Dr. Jonathan Camp

Secondary Advisor

Dr. Chris Flanders

Committee Reader

Dr. Carson Reed

Abstract

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project in which I led a team to develop a plan to cultivate the practice of missional hospitality for small groups at West Houston Church of Christ. I used missional theology as a framework to give shape to the practice of hospitality. The project team met for nine weeks in the fall of 2014. The team practiced lectio divina focused on Luke 10, participated in theological reflection on missional hospitality, and fulfilled assignments to practice missional hospitality. These activities helped form the group spiritually and informed the development of a plan to foster the practice of missional hospitality in small groups.

Three strategic groups will be targeted by the plan once it is implemented. Small group leaders will be trained in Sunday morning classes for twenty-six weeks out of each year in the practice of missional hospitality. New members will be recruited by attending an eight-week discovery class, which will model missional hospitality and teach the vision of West Houston. These new members will be formed into a new small group. The entire church will have the opportunity to participate in a four-week sermon series and four-week Sunday school class with an emphasis on missional hospitality. The series will be accompanied by a challenge to the congregation to practice missional hospitality by inviting guests to a meal.

The theological focus of this project can be duplicated by other churches desiring to become more missionally focused through the practice of missional hospitality. In addition, the plan derived by the group could be easily adapted to other contexts.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.