Have you ever walked into a gathering and been on the outside of a clique? I think we all have. As someone who has moved around the country a few times, I know what it feels like to leave behind my people, position and place and be the new person in town. I’ve observed welcoming people and cliquey people play out uniquely in a few different cultures, but the bottom line is that both are gospel issues. The way we welcome others is a mirror to show us how deeply the gospel has taken root in our hearts.

Before I trusted Christ in high school, I knew what it was like to be part of groups where someone besides God set the conditional standards for belonging. Experiencing the genuine love Christians had for each other was one of the ways God drew me to Himself, and it’s since given me a burden to create communities based on the unconditional love of Christ. Unfortunately, exclusivity is common in the church too, but it hurts those believers. We can’t experience the Biblical community God created us for if we have forgotten how Christ first welcomed us.

Romans 15:7 says, “Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Reaching out to others who are not our type, different than us, or outside of our comfort zones is a great way to reenact our salvation experience! We were once far off, but have been brought near by the blood of Christ, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! We have been adopted into God’s family because of what Jesus did for us, not because of anything we did or do for him now. As we include others in countercultral ways, this puts the gospel on display and brings God glory!

God called me to serve and lead women over the past two decades, and welcoming each other as sisters in Christ is something we need to talk about a lot so we don’t become inward focused. On our servant leadership teams, we often pray for women to experience a genuine welcome that mirrors the gospel, and we continually cast this vision for our gatherings. “We have an empty seat saved for you!” This isn’t a cute marketing ploy, this is a lifestyle of living out the gospel that begins on our knees in prayer, and its next stop is not an event, but our own kitchen tables.

Welcoming others is an act of worship, because it’s responding to the truth of who we were apart from Christ, and what He did for us! Who we invite or don’t invite to sit with us at our tables says a lot more about our communion with Christ than it does about our guests. We need to tell Jesus how grateful we are for his death and resurrection everyday, and ask him to give us eyes to see opportunities to welcome others at His table.

The holiday season is a wonderful time to open the table of our hearts and our homes to those who need it most. Not everyone has family around or a church to call home. This year, let’s make the most of every opportunity the Lord presents us with to practice radically, ordinary hospitality, as Rosaria Butterfield calls it in one of my favorite books on this topic, The Gospel Comes with a Housekey. May we be women who display the gospel by noticing those who need to be pulled in, and that we would welcome them, for the glory of God!

There is always an empty seat at our table! Join Agape Moms Middle TN and TJC Women tomorrow for Friendsgiving on Nov 17th at 6pm, we would love to welcome you! I know it takes courage to come to a big gathering, but we are praying God uses this invitation to encourage you to be part of our community.

*pics from hosting Friendsgiving in WA in 2019 and TN in 2022. I moved to both of these states knowing no one, but with an unshakable burden for the gospel. I hosted both of these Agape Moms dinners about 1.5 years after moving to each place. Prayerfully set your table, take small steps of obedience, and God will bring the people!

Laura DiLeonardi

Laura DiLeonardi is the founder of Agape Moms, a national network of missional communities for mothers that launched in 2016. Since early 2022, she’s served as the Director of Community at The Journey Church in Lebanon, TN where she oversees Life Groups, the Women’s Ministry and where she planted her third Agape Moms chapter. Laura is a writer, speaker and mobilizer for women of all ages to live on mission for Jesus in their everyday lives. She is married to her Moody Bible Institute sweetheart, Matt since 2009 and they have three kids, Jack, Selah and Lucy, and two fur babies, Bear and Lady. In her free time she enjoys hiking with the family, running, and good conversation over a cup of coffee. Laura's passion is seeing lives continually transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Welcoming Others is Gospel Fruit