Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 646. Opening the Door for Christ “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 U ltimately, radical hospitality doesn’t just welcome people; it is the beginning of transformation. Mark Criss in Lansing suggests that radical hospitality goes beyond the temporal and introduces the eternal. He tells of a gentleman who stayed with his mission for 10 months. Upon leaving the program, the man told staff, “Whatever you do, don’t ever stop requiring chapel….Such teachings provide morality and a compass for our guests to be upright citizens.” Interestingly, this guest was an atheist and a sex offender. “Although I can’t profess that our atheist guest is now a Christian,” Mark says, “I can confidently profess that he was impacted by the Kingdom of God and witnessed genuine Christianity.” A process that begins with unconditional grace always points toward an open door to Christ. We share grace and love, we reach out to people with stellar service, we see beyond their appearance and behavior, we think and do things differently, and we extend kindness and compassion. Just solving the needs of others isn’t quite enough. It must be trans- forming both for our organizations and ourselves, as well as for the people we serve. Being radical is being relational because we know that our relationship with others is the path for all of us to grow closer to Christ. It is no acci- dent that successful transformation happens frequently when a relationship goes deeper. John Stott calls this “mutual burdensomeness”: “Sometimes I hear old people…say, ‘I don’t want to be a burden to anyone else. I’m happy to carry on living so long as I can look after myself, but as soon as I become a burden I would rather die.’ But this is wrong. We are all designed to be a burden to others. You are designed to be a burden to me and I am designed to be a burden to you…‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will ful- fill the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2).” Just one of many reasons to maintain our fel- lowship through AGRM is so that we know in our quest for radical hospitality, in our desire to do service differently and remain steadfast to God’s Word, we are not alone. Ĩ WWW.AGRM.ORG MARCH/APRIL 2017 15 Helen lives in Loveland, Colorado, and has been a writer, editor, and online content developer for more than 20 years. She is a part of the Langham Partnership USA communications team, and works as a consultant on communications for nonprofits and ministries with Cedarstone Partners. She can be reached at htgoody@gmail.com.