In May 2008, our entire church studied the importance of hospitality and welcoming strangers on our Christian journey together. At that point, for over a year we at Highland had been praying that God would make us into a more welcoming and hospitable people.

As we look throughout Scripture, God always seems to appear on our doorstep as the "stranger." God is right in front of us, and too often we miss Him. God comes to us as the neighborhood visitor in our worship services, the cashier checking us out at the supermarket, or the lonely co-worker nobody has befriended. God is all around us. Will we welcome Him? Will we step out and show hospitality to strangers?

In the coming months and years, the Highland Elders will begin to call the entire Highland family to this vision of hospitality, of living a life of welcome. Particularly, sermons for those four weeks of May were on this subject, and our Bible class teachers were encouraged to focus on this area as well.

The goal of the series is this: To help the entire Highland family reflect on how central the themes of welcome and hospitality are to the mission of God in the world, and to challenge us to grow in living lives of welcome.