In May, our entire church will be studying the importance of hospitality and welcoming strangers on our Christian journey together. For over a year now, Highland has 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 the four weeks of May will be on this subject and we have encouraged our Bible class teachers 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.