三个乐意接待的见证
“你何时见过藉着接待，将福音传给了非信徒（请给出具体例子）？”
以下是来自1. 谢肯德（Ken Sande），2. 唐·惠特尼（Donald Whitney），以及3. 唐睿安（Ryan Townsend）的回答。
1. 谢肯德（Ken Sande）
乐意接待的心能够引出救赎真理，这是我父亲能够悔改归主的关键。
我们教会有个年轻的丈夫，姑且称之为比尔，他丢了工作，而且好几个月都没找到合适的。当他家中积蓄耗尽，甚至可能会失去房子的时候，我们教会的执事前去探访，开展慈惠事工，帮他们家偿还房屋贷款，直到三个月后比尔找到工作为止。
几年之后，比尔因为婚姻问题离开妻子，搬到另外一个州。我们教会的长老发起了带他回家的辅导事工。他根本不想与家人和好，也很不情愿接受辅导。然而在一次关键性的谈话中他说，“我此刻想做的就是挂掉电话，永远不再联系你们所有的人。但是我没法忘记一个事实，当我失业的时候，是教会替我还了三个月的贷款。你们做了那么多来表达对我的爱，我实在没法挂你们的电话。”
最终我们把他劝回了家，并与妻子和好。他们今天还在一起，感谢神，让教会不仅仅帮助他们偿还贷款，也挽救了他们的家庭。
数年前，当我们劝这位丈夫回家的时候，我把大致情况讲给我父亲听，他那时还没有信主。他感到很惊奇，觉得我们教会真是关心这个家庭，不但支付账单，还维护婚姻。当我父亲最终信靠基督时（仅仅在他临终前三个小时），我心里非常明白，把他带向救主的部分原因正是他在祂教会中看见的爱。
2. 唐·惠特尼（Donald S. Whitney）
我从1981年到1995年在芝加哥郊区牧养一间教会。80年代的时候我就圣经中有关接待的经文作了一系列讲道。受该系列讲道影响的有一对担任接待的夫妇。知道关于接待的圣经真理后，他们开始在每周日的崇拜之后邀请人们去家里午餐。
通常，他们接近来到我们教会的某个家庭或某个人，特别是那些第一次来的。和门口的寥寥数语相比，餐间餐后的畅谈提供了许多讨论的机会，谈谈我们教会，上午的讲道，以及/或者特别是福音。他们的客人常常提到我们教会——由这对好客的夫妇所代表的——和他们去过的其他聚会不同，在那里几乎没有人和他们说话。这对夫妻的款待常常给国际学生带来深刻影响，他们中的许多人从未被邀请去一个美国家庭共餐。
如果第一次来的人没什么回应，这对夫妇就去找来过的人，然后是新成员。如果这些人都没空，他们就转向可能需要鼓励的长期成员，或是最近没有花时间与之团契的成员。
这些经历不仅仅打动了他们的客人，也改变了他们自己的生活。自我在那间教会以来，这对夫妇——如今在他们退休后的地方聚会——只要有时间，就会继续在周日接待客人用餐。仅仅出于一个简单的委身，在每周一顿的餐桌上多加几个盘子，持久关系就得到建立，团契生活得到发展，并且到今天，基督的爱已得到数百次的彰显。
3. 唐睿安（Ryan Townsend）
我记得作为一个新人时，听到别人提起史密斯家的接待事工。我们教会的这个九人家庭在每个周日邀请不同背景的人去他们家。这项事工不仅祝福了参加史密斯接待的个人，也成为我们教会组织中非常有名的一部分，它在亲情中鼓励我们，为会众和慕道友树立榜样，因为彼此相爱，显出我们是基督的门徒（约13:35）。当我还不是基督徒的时候，最喜欢的两件事就是和朋友聚餐和外出。然而基督徒的接待是我此前从未体验过的，这样的接待有明显的喜乐和满足，人们在家中服侍他人，满足他们的需要。这非常与众不同，它传扬了福音。
作为信徒，我们或许应当思想接待在传福音方面的能力，以及它给所有参与者带来的喜乐。当我们为了自己的益处和神的荣耀在爱中服侍他人时，待客之礼是基督徒和非基督徒都能立刻注意并体会到的。
Three Testimonies of Hospitality
“When have you seen acts of hospitality commend the gospel to outsiders (a concrete illustration)?”
Answers from Ken Sande, Donald Whitney, and Ryan Townsend
1. Ken Sande
Hospitality leading to redemptive discipline was a key to my father’s conversion.
A young husband in our church who I will call Bill lost his job and could not find work for several months. When his family’s savings were exhausted and they were in danger of losing their home, our deacons stepped in and exercised the ministry of hospitality and mercy by covering the mortgage payments until Bill found a job three months later.
Several years later, Bill left his wife due to marital problems and moved to another state. Our elders initiated a disciplinary process to bring him back to his family. He had no desire to reconcile with his family, and clearly did not want to submit to our discipline. Yet in one key conversation he said, “What I want to do right now is hang up this phone and never talk with you all again. But I can’t forget the fact that the church carried our mortgage for three months when I was out of work. I just can’t cut you off after all you’ve done to show your love for me.”
We eventually persuaded him to return home and reconcile with his wife. They are still together today, thanking God for a church that not only covered their mortgage but also helped to save their family.
Years ago, as we were working to bring this husband home, I shared a general description of the situation with my father, who was not a believer. He was fascinated that our church cared enough about this family to pay their bills and fight for their marriage. When my father eventually put his trust in Christ (just three hours before dying), there was no doubt in my mind that part of what drew him to the Savior was the love he had seen in his church.
2. Donald S. Whitney
I pastored a church in the suburbs of Chicago from 1981 to 1995. During the eighties I preached a lengthy series on biblical texts related to hospitality. Among those affected by these messages was a couple who served as greeters. As a result of encountering the biblical truth on hospitality, they began to invite people to their home for lunch each Sunday after worship.
Typically they approached one of the families or singles visiting our church, particularly those attending for the first time. The leisure to chat at length during and after a meal—in contrast to a brief conversation at the door—provided many opportunities to talk about our church, the sermon of the morning, and/or especially the gospel. Their guests often remarked about the difference between our church—represented to them by this one hospitable couple—and other congregations they’d visited where few, if any, spoke to them. This couple’s hospitality often had an indelible impact upon international students, many of whom had never been invited to eat in an American home.
If nothing worked out with first-time visitors, the couple sought out returning visitors, then new members. If none of these were available, they turned to long-time members who might be in need of encouragement, or to those with whom they’d not recently spent time in fellowship.
These experiences not only touched their guests, but changed their own lives as well. In the years since my time in this church, this couple—now in a church in the place where they retired—has continued the practice of welcoming guests around their Sunday dinner table whenever possible. Lasting relationships have been initiated, fellowship developed, and the love of Christ demonstrated now on hundreds of occasions because of one simple commitment to add a couple of extra plates to the table one meal per week.
3. Ryan Townsend
I remember being a new Christian and hearing about the hospitality ministry of the Smiths. This family of nine from our church would invite different folks of all backgrounds to their home regularly on Sundays. Not only did this ministry bless the individuals who were part of the Smith’s hospitality, it became a well-known part of the corporate fabric of our church, encouraging us in our familial love and modeling to members and visitors alike that we are Christ’s disciples because we love one another (John 13:35). Eating and hanging out with friends were two of my favorite things to do as a non-Christian. Christian hospitality, however, was something I had never experienced, where there was an evident joy and satisfaction in serving others and meeting their needs among one’s own home and family. This was different, and it commended the gospel.
As evangelicals, perhaps we should consider both the power of hospitality in commending the gospel and the joy it brings to all involved. The gift of hospitality is one that Christians and non-Christians alike will quickly notice and appreciate, as we serve others in love for our good and God’s glory.
翻译肢体：咸燕美
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