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Hospitality: The Convivial Mission of God
Americans have plenty of food and drink but have forgotten how to feast. Our poor love of God and neighbor is reflected in our aversion to the real-world cost, tedium, labor and inconveniences of being hospitable.
But, as the first host, God makes room for us, welcoming us, and inviting us into His life. Thus, wherever the church practices hospitality and festivity, the kingdom of God follows.
In this book, Mark Brians II and Drew A. Knowles Jr. call for a corporate return to the regular practice of biblical hospitality and festivity within the church. In an age of loneliness and isolation and food-porn, an age in which feasting and hospitality are largely absent from the human experience, we must be real-life, bread-breaking people.
But, as the first host, God makes room for us, welcoming us, and inviting us into His life. Thus, wherever the church practices hospitality and festivity, the kingdom of God follows.
In this book, Mark Brians II and Drew A. Knowles Jr. call for a corporate return to the regular practice of biblical hospitality and festivity within the church. In an age of loneliness and isolation and food-porn, an age in which feasting and hospitality are largely absent from the human experience, we must be real-life, bread-breaking people.
95 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 26, 2025
This is one of the most important books I've read so far this year. It brought together everything I thought I knew about hospitality and feasting and amplified that by 10. Also, it made me slightly uncomfortable to eat at Schlotzsky's. Lol
Overall, it was an excellent book and one that I will return to soon.
Overall, it was an excellent book and one that I will return to soon.
May 6, 2026
This book is revolutionary for only 97 pages of content and will easily move into a top 10 book for me, especially as a recommendation for others to read.
Why are some of the greatest moments in life spent eating food with your friends and/or family? Because we are designed and created by the God who is hospitable and welcomes us to His own table. Good food and joyful relationships with others is what it is, because God is who He is.
The most exciting element of this book is understanding how the liturgical elements of the Sunday service represents the hospitable Host who welcomes, forgives, transforms, and blesses His guests. He provides for us abundantly and refreshes us, and this is how we should in turn approach the world before us.
For those who struggle with liturgy feeling too formal on Sunday mornings, this hospitable understanding is a game changer. The joy of dining with God as our host and feasting with Him at His table, transforms us and prepares us to take that same hospitable attitude into a world that prefers loneliness and self-interest.
Why are some of the greatest moments in life spent eating food with your friends and/or family? Because we are designed and created by the God who is hospitable and welcomes us to His own table. Good food and joyful relationships with others is what it is, because God is who He is.
The most exciting element of this book is understanding how the liturgical elements of the Sunday service represents the hospitable Host who welcomes, forgives, transforms, and blesses His guests. He provides for us abundantly and refreshes us, and this is how we should in turn approach the world before us.
For those who struggle with liturgy feeling too formal on Sunday mornings, this hospitable understanding is a game changer. The joy of dining with God as our host and feasting with Him at His table, transforms us and prepares us to take that same hospitable attitude into a world that prefers loneliness and self-interest.
April 5, 2026
God has demonstrated hospitality towards us since the beginning of time. these authors trace how God has been hospitable through scripture beginning in Genesis, through Christ, and into heaven and the end of time. The idea of festival and hospitality is seen in the church calendar and traditions. They argue how we now are still called to be hospitable.
if you want to better understand how mission and hospitality are intertwined, these authors do a great job showing how these work together.
if you want to better understand how mission and hospitality are intertwined, these authors do a great job showing how these work together.
December 9, 2024
A convincing and comprehensive case for the efficacy of hospitality as the Christian response to the Cross. As Brians and Knowles summarized, "Liturgical hospitality restores the world."
June 5, 2025
Very good.
A reminder on hospitality in a world that is sadly greatly lacking in it.
A reminder on hospitality in a world that is sadly greatly lacking in it.
October 9, 2024
Y’all, this book has been my “car book” for the past few months, and it’s been a good one. While it took me far too long to read, I don’t regret it, in fact I think it worked better as a longer read. I could sit with the material for longer times. “Hospitality: The Convivial Mission of God” is a solid theology of the mission work of the act of hospitality.
It is broken into five chapters that delve into different parts of hospitality. Hospitality in the Old Covenant, Hospitality in Christ, Hospitality and Christian worship, Hospitality in the Church, and Good and Costly Hospitality. Each chapter had its strengths, and theological implications. This is not a “practical” book on hospitality— you won’t get insights into how to best clean, make a lovely dinner, or prep your kids for guests. Rather it’s a guide of how the church has been hospitable from the beginning, and why it’s still foundational for her and her mission to her work.
“Charity is good, but hospitality is better.”
“Christian worship is divine.”
“Having been consecrated, we commune. God has always desired to feast with us. And so Christian worship crescendo with a feast. It is a cold hospitality that does not offer food and drink, and God is no cold host.”
“Moreover, in the Eucharist, we feast with brothers and sisters, all around the globe, and throughout the generations– past, present, and future.”
“He [Jesus] is the Great Multiplier of offerings, and He works in us by the same Spirit, which means that every act of Christian hospitality, no matter how humble, has the potential to bear a disproportionate amount of fruit.”
Great stuff, would recommend.
It is broken into five chapters that delve into different parts of hospitality. Hospitality in the Old Covenant, Hospitality in Christ, Hospitality and Christian worship, Hospitality in the Church, and Good and Costly Hospitality. Each chapter had its strengths, and theological implications. This is not a “practical” book on hospitality— you won’t get insights into how to best clean, make a lovely dinner, or prep your kids for guests. Rather it’s a guide of how the church has been hospitable from the beginning, and why it’s still foundational for her and her mission to her work.
“Charity is good, but hospitality is better.”
“Christian worship is divine.”
“Having been consecrated, we commune. God has always desired to feast with us. And so Christian worship crescendo with a feast. It is a cold hospitality that does not offer food and drink, and God is no cold host.”
“Moreover, in the Eucharist, we feast with brothers and sisters, all around the globe, and throughout the generations– past, present, and future.”
“He [Jesus] is the Great Multiplier of offerings, and He works in us by the same Spirit, which means that every act of Christian hospitality, no matter how humble, has the potential to bear a disproportionate amount of fruit.”
Great stuff, would recommend.
February 25, 2025
Hospitality is always something I’ve struggled with, yet it’s arguably one of the most important disciplines of a Christian. Home is not a place to retreat, but to welcome in the poor and needy. This little book profoundly connects two ideas: hospitality and mission. The two are not opposed but unified in the God who prepares a heavenly feast for us who are infinitely poor and needy without Him. It’s in the feasting of ordinary life that we extend the grace of God to our neighbors! Loved this book!
“Eucharistic hospitality lives in the reality that this world ‘dies and rises again’ because the God who made it is the God who Himself died and rose again” (pg. 95)
“Eucharistic hospitality lives in the reality that this world ‘dies and rises again’ because the God who made it is the God who Himself died and rose again” (pg. 95)
January 12, 2025
Outstanding and should be read over again. “Mission” is often used in an ethereal and nebulous sense, but not in this little book. Our “mission” is convivial and has very tangible out working in this festal world God created. Our “mission” comes from the very heart of God and invites the world into our feast. Just so good.
September 28, 2024
Very good (especially when read thru a Lutheran lens). Great connection between worship (liturgy- Word and Sacrament) and mission. Let us evangelize and love our neighbor as God calls and loves us.
Worth reading.
Worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews