Amazing people who open their homes and live out hospitality. Challenges my introvert-ness. ( )

3.75 stars

This was a hard book to rate and review, because it was a little misleading, in my opinion. Supposedly, it’s about hospitality. However, the first half or so of the book is more about God’s design for sexuality and the way churches are to function. There’s a lot about church discipline in these pages. These things weren’t bad, but they were indirectly, instead of directly, related to hospitality and so I was frustrated for a good portion of the book.

However, when Butterfield does actually get around to talking about hospitality, specifically, and even when talking about what our relationships with God should look like, more generally, there are so many good points and quotes. I wrote down a couple pages’ worth, they were so good!

There were a few things here and there that rubbed me the wrong way, or that maybe I have a slightly different belief about than the author has, but the only things I feel worth mentioning are the cursing and the potential bragging.

When quoting others who used curse words, she included them in the book, which I found completely unnecessary. It would have been enough to state that someone cursed. No one needs to know the exact words these people used - they were irrelevant to the stories - and because we’re reading them, they’re entering our minds. It’s one thing to hear these words from real people we’re interacting with in our own personal lives, and it’s another thing to read them in a book, by a Christian, that could have been edited more thoughtfully but wasn’t.

And because she drew from her own life exclusively for the stories in this book, the tone frequently sounds a bit arrogant, like she’s doing nearly everything "best," or at least better than 99% of other, more sinful, Christians. Parts of it left a bad taste in my mouth, and I would have liked to hear more about hospitality she received, instead of primarily about all the good things she and her family do.

Actually, one more thing: She repeated the phrase "radically ordinary hospitality" so many times that if they were put into one place, would probably add up to a few pages. The repetition drove me nuts, but the phrasing did, too. "True hospitality" is more accurate and a lot less wordy!

Overall, though, there was a lot of good here. ( )

Rosaria's book is one of those stories that at first glance, seems impossibly exhausting. How could someone open their home to dozens of people each week, prepare food and worship together, and love seemingly unlovable people by giving away everything they have(including cars!)

The answer? It is impossibly exhausting, and Butterfield makes no qualms about the difficulties of true hospitality. But the payoff for such a life is the overwhelming joy that results; one that is rooted in the love that Christ has for us and what he has called us to live to all.

The challenge of such a book begs for a response for the reader; one that could possibly transform the way that you think about the space of your dinner table, strenuous family relationships(the chapter on her mother left me in tears), and the methhead next door. Reader beware. ( )

Basically the thesis of the book is, Christians should practice "radical ordinary hospitality." Which means befriending your neighbors, open your home to people in need, invite neighbors and anyone in need over to dinner, expect people coming over for food or coffee at any day of the week, prepare and send meals to people who are in need, foster parenting.....etc. The author and her family basically open up their home for neighborhood fellowship five evenings a week. They plan for this in their grocery budget, so their grocery budget is triple what the family itself would need. The author provided many vignettes of the people and family they reached out to over the years, as they practiced radical ordinary hospitality. She provided and discussed Bible passages that encourage Christians to do this. She tried to address concerns and questions about radical ordinary hospitality. It's not a very structured book; talking points are often repeated. But her stories stay with you. One of her points in the book was, in this day and age when there is much suspicion and hostility against Christianity, practicing radical ordinary hospitality is the best way for Christians to help the world receive the gospel. ( )

This was an absolutely fabulous, balanced book on putting into practice doctrines we already know but have failed to live out in our day to day. Rosaria Butterfield calls Christians to walk what they talk, to welcome in the stranger, the poor, the needy with no expectation of repayment, and to do it with a well cooked meal and table fellowship. She did an excellent job addressing where and how one should begin (start small), who is one's neighbor, and where the boundaries for hospitality actually are versus where our pride tells us they should be. She intersperses exposition and explanation with helpful anecdotes which color inside the lines she draws around hospitality, and each of these anecdotes paint the Butterfields in a human light- she shares both their successes and failures, their virtues and sins, painting the overall picture of God's hand in their lives through their humble home service. The book does not only focus on her efforts with neighbors, but shares how her husband and children join in hospitality, dispelling any notion that hospitality is the housewife's work. It shows how to rethink prayer in the spectrum of hospitality, and shares even the practical, "here's what my day looks like".
Reading the book can be daunting if you're not a pastor's wife who stays at home and homeschools multiple children. But I think even here she recognizes and addresses that insecurity. She advises to start small, do what you can, bring others into your life. I would highly recommend anyone read this book, even if you think you have hospitality done right. ( )