Companionship’s Five Practices, Part 1: Hospitality

By Rev. Mark Stephenson 

Executive Director, Pathways to Promise

In the last blog, I gave an overview of Companionship, and promised to describe its five practices, which begin with hospitality.

When picturing hospitality, most of us see ourselves extending an invitation to our homes where we share a meal and conversation. As the first practice of Companionship, The Companionship Movement founder, Rev. Dr. Craig Rennebohm, envisions rest and refreshment flowing out of a much broader understanding of hospitality. At its heart, hospitality is a way of being present with another person. In his book, The Way of Companionship: Welcoming the Stranger, Rennebohm writes, 

"The practice of Hospitality is all about creating a space in which a person who may feel uncomfortable, wary, or fearful can feel safe and welcome. We seek to establish a space that is sacred in the personal sense, a space where we listen to the other person’s story and find the connection to our own. Within this space, each of us must feel safe to be who we are, to receive and accept each other without an ulterior motive and without passing judgment." 

Creating that safe space begins with treating the other person as worthy of respect, an equal whom we value as a fellow human being. We offer them the dignity of deciding whether and when they choose to interact with us. Hospitality never forces, but always invites, and that invitation might just include a cup of coffee and a bite to eat.