Who is the Guest and the Host…

As we wandered down a busy city centre shopping precinct we heard the booming voice “Repent and be saved!”

Edinburgh : Princes Street

I have to admit to moving towards the other side of the pavement to give this person a wide berth – many others were joining me.

There’s something known as the Guest and Host relationship. Revd Simon Sutcliffe has been a great proponent about the understanding for the church of the guest and host dynamics. When someone visits you at your place, there’s a fair degree of presumption that we both know who is the guest and who is the host on this occasion. We are greeted (possibly) at the door by the host, who welcomes us, possibly takes our coat, and asks us to sit down. Where we sit down might be directed by the host. We may be offered a drink, even a selection to choose from, and then we await that drink to be served.

As a guest we might ask about whether we take off our shoes as we enter their place, whether it’s ok to sit anywhere – who knew that was always ‘their’ chair?

What about in Church, or in a church setting outside of the church building?

Praying on the streets is a prime example. The church members are keen to pray for others, to possibly demonstrate their faith in prayer, but also so that people might be healed (we could discuss the theology at another time). However, who is the guest and who is the host here?

When we are in a Church building, the Guest might be the church people : they know where everything is, how the proceedings go etc. They know when to stand up, sit down, and where to find that Psalm in the myriad of books in the chair in front of them. I always wonder what it must be like when we say…

“let’s now pray the prayer Jesus taught us” and we then proceed to say the Lord’s prayer (Which one?). Is it really fair today to presume that everyone knows the Lord’s Prayer?

With church members on the Streets, the church members, in their enthusiasm, look possibly to become the Host in that area. They approach people and ask if they can pray with them. The Guests here are on their way shopping. They had no intention to go out and be prayed for. There’s a vital step missing here – we need to engage first, there needs to be a relationship before we walk up to them and ask whether they seek prayer.

As Simon Sutcliffe asks “What would happen, I wonder, if the church were to see itself as guest rather than host?
Where might we find ourselves?
Whose company would we be in?
and how would we respond in places where we don’t have ‘mastery’?
or to put it another way, what if the answer to the question ‘what kind of church do we want to be?’ is simply ‘to be a good guest.’”

Do we give enough time in our preparation for an ‘event’ to go out and to meet with others, to actually understand those who do not meet with us in Church?

If we were to be with others, in their circumstances, understand their concerns, allow them to engage with us, and us with them, perhaps we’d both see the Christ in both of us.