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The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World Kindle Edition
by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 372 ratings
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What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically.
With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same “radical, ordinary hospitality” to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God’s tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives—helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.
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Length: 224 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled
Audible book: Available Product details
File Size: 604 KB
Print Length: 224 pages
Publisher: Crossway (April 16, 2018)
Publication Date: April 15, 2018
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B079YB3GF8
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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Lending: Not Enabled
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,967 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#16 in Christian Evangelism (Kindle Store)
#12 in Theology (Kindle Store)
#11 in Christian Ethics (Kindle Store)
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Biography
Rosaria Butterfield was once a tenured professor of English who identified as a lesbian and worked to advance the cause of LGBT equality. After her conversion to Christ in 1999, she came to see the sinfulness of having any identity apart from Him.
Rosaria is married to Kent Butterfield, pastor of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham, and is a home-school mother, pastor's wife, author, and speaker. She is helping Christians to better understand their LGBT neighbors and loved ones so that we can lovingly look past labels of sexual identity and share the gospel effectively.
Author Website: www.RosariaButterfield.com
(Photo Credit: Jimmy Williams Photography)
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Top Reviews
KNB
3.0 out of 5 stars I recommend it, but have some issues with it.Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2018
Format: Hardcover
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via #netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I have been looking forward to reading this book; first, because the author is one I’ve admired from afar ever since I read her first book, Confessions of an Unlikely Convert; second, because hospitality is a ministry dear to my heart. I had high expectations for this book; and sadly, it slightly disappoints. Perhaps I’m being nit picky and I apologize if I sound harsh, but I need to give my honest review. It is perplexing because though I do not love the book, I do not have a problem recommending it to others.
I’m not sure if this is promoted as such, but it is part memoir, part theology lesson, part christian living kind of book. Interwoven are the theological basis, biblical illustrations and personal story about hospitality. Mrs. Butterfield is a good writer and could very well be the most qualified to talk about hospitality, but I still find issues in the book that I cannot give it a 5-Star rating.
These issues are not theological in nature, so I can still in good conscience recommend the book. For sure, it is highly engaging, saturated with Scripture, and convicting to the core. I’ve had to stop several times to repent for past sins in the area of hospitality and pray for God’s grace to help me a better hostess.
I cried reading about her tumultuous relationship with her mother. I especially love that she encourages us to not idolize safety and security, something American Christians are obsessed with. We need to live our ordinary lives radically and one way we do that is through hospitality. Here are some favorite quotes:
I know I can’t save anyone. Jesus alone saves, and all I do is show up. Show up we must.
Radically ordinary hospitality is this: using your Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors, and neighbors family of God. It brings glory to God, serves others, and lives out the gospel in word and deed.
Christians must learn to practice radically ordinary hospitality not only as the hosts of this world but, perhaps more importantly, as its despised guests. Let’s face it: we have become unwelcome guests in this post-Christian world.
God calls us to make sacrifices that hurt so that others can be served and maybe even saved. We are called to die. Nothing less.
The job of an ally makes the cross lighter, not by erecting or supporting laws that oppose God’s law, but by being good company in the bearing of its weight.
Now for the disappointing parts...here are just a few:
Perhaps this is unavoidable when writing a memoir, and I have a sensitivity to humble-bragging because of my own pride problems, but I find her constant use of her own personal triumphs in hospitality as a little irksome. I don’t want to judge her motives, but it gets old when I read one hospitable act by the author after another. She did use other people’s examples, but it’s mostly about her and her family’s sacrifice and good works. This is especially interesting because she talks highly of her husband who would not “tarnish by bragging about it (one’s coming to faith through their hospitality) on a blog post or on Facebook. Kent is a Christian man. Christian men do not steal glory from God. This is the kind of news that moves mountains, something to be addressed in the sacred moment of table fellowship.”
Her schedule seems unmaintainable. Doing intentional ministry every day could exhaust even the most devoted Christian. As a minister’s wife, I understand that being in full-time ministry is a 24/7 kind of job, and opportunities to serve could come at any moment. But her way is to have something planned every day. Maybe these are assumed, but I ask her, When does she devote time alone with her husband? When does she foster one on one time with her kids? It is hard to imagine she has time for them just by reading about her schedule.
One of the characters she mentions in the book is Hank who starts as a grumpy neighbor and becomes a friend. Later on, it is found out he was leading a secret criminal life. I understand and admire the author’s compassion for her friend, but her intent focus on this made her question the fairness of his incarceration, made her forget his serious crimes that hurt a lot of people. His sins are somewhat downplayed. Yes, as a Christian, he has been forgiven, but he still has to face the consequences of his sins.
She quotes and uses as a good example a Catholic priest who “regarded hospitality as a spiritual movement, one that is possible only when loneliness finds its spiritual refreshment in solitude, when hostility resolves itself in hospitality, and when illusion is manifested in prayer.” This sounds mystical and, as an ex-Catholic, I seriously have an issue promoting any of them.
I found two typos: principal when she meant principle, tails instead of tales.
213 people found this helpful
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Jim
1.0 out of 5 stars More about, "Social Justice" and "Critical Theory" than hospitality.Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2018
Format: Audible Audiobook
Firstly, I must say that I have enjoyed a couple of lectures given by Rosaria regarding her conversion story and the response to Revoice, but I didn't find this book helpful, and, far worse, I think it may be harmful. There are at least three reasons for that.
* Also, I didn't make it through the entire book, as I couldn't stomach any more, so my review is based on the reading of about a 1/3 of it.
First, she is far too political, and her politics are Leftist. Her theology, for the most part, is conservative, but she uses Progressive Liberal terms and phrases so much that it made it unpalatable to a Social Conservative.
Second, there is no structure to the book. It's simply a hodgepodge of personal stories that are more fit to be made into a series of Hallmark Movies than they are instructive in improving one's hospitality.
Thirdly, and worst of all, the communal way of life she puts forth as normative, especially for Christians, ignores the advice of Proverbs 25:17, "Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you."
There is no way that people should feel the need to live with their doors open to their entire neighborhood, and there is no biblical mandate to do so. Rosaria comes very close to binding the consciences of her readers with extra-biblical laws of her own making, and that's not only not helpful to the cause of the gospel, it's harmful to it.
Rosaria may have repented of her sexual sin, but she hasn't repented of her Neo-Marxism/Critical Theory, which she is spreading though books just like this one.
94 people found this helpful
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Lawson
5.0 out of 5 stars I appreciate: 1. When a book helps me ...Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I appreciate:
1. When a book helps me interpret passages from Scripture that puzzle me. Rosaria did that in two instances in this book. (I won't give them away.)
2. When a book makes me want to read the Bible more. This one is one of those.
3. When a book so engages me that I can't put it down. Again, this was one of those.
4. When a book convicts as well as comforts me (i.e. it's full of the gospel). Ditto.
Bravo!
69 people found this helpful
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Studentbookfan
4.0 out of 5 stars Memoir and Call-to-actionReviewed in the United States on April 22, 2018
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Butterfield’s most recent call-to-action is a memoriore-styled merger of her former two books (Openness Unhindered and the Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert) with a delicate and raw style that is unlike her other writings thus far because it more clearly is from a heart of honesty and humility. Honest and humble people are hard to not listen to. She opens wide her very personal experiences: her mother’s deathbed conversion, her adoption-of-older-troubled-teens journeys, and the trauma of their house being robbed. It’s vulnerable. It’s preachy. It’s convicting. Rosaria knows that stories change us and the story she wants the American church to live in is one where our front doors are flung open because we want our messes out and others’ messes inside our homes. She reminds us that Jesus is never joking about authentic love. Jesus really can save anyone. Wounds really can be healed by day-in and day-out radically ordinary hospitality. Yes, this book espouses a type of hospitality not all are willing to enter into and she does come off as overbearing but it’s her story and her life.
*Pro tip, mine, not hers, Walmart is the easiest place to get housekey copies.
49 people found this helpful
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FutureDr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommendedReviewed in the United States on April 21, 2018
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I stumbled upon this title while reading a review on The Gospel Coalition website and then again in World magazine. I have a 3 week old infant and so have lots of time sitting while feeding him.... Read this book in less than a week, it was so good! Very easy and enjoyable writing style. Extremely convicting. Great, practical examples of how you can incorporate radically ordinary hospitality into your life...and Biblically, why it's necessary.
37 people found this helpful
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D. Williamson
5.0 out of 5 stars Love your NeighbourReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2019
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Hospitality. What do we know about that?
As Christians we have a tendency to think of hospitality as having our fellow believers home for a cup of coffee and a chat. While this is good, there is certainly much more to hospitality.
The author of this book was won to Christ through hospitality and has sought to practice it in her married life in many ways.
I felt the book was a necessary wake up call, and included some helpful practical advice for a ministry of hospitality to our neighbours.
My one caveat is that I find the author comes across as quite judgmental of others. She speaks against this, and yet demonstrates it at times. This meant that the audiobook grated once or twice on me. However, the central thesis of the book is certainly Biblical, and Butterfield has a wonderful ability to tell a story. I was certainly spiritually enriched by this book. Recommended.
2 people found this helpful
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Alastair Kinnaird
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on evangelism I have ever readReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Too often writing and teaching on evangelism is complicated or reductionist. Often there is a heavy focus on apologetics and it can all seem quite daunting. This book is simple yet profound. Be salt and light amongst your neighbours - whoever they are, whatever their background, whatever their beliefs. Love them for who they are, with the knowledge there is a loving God who longs to know them and change them. Be a safe person, provide a safe environment for people to be themselves, for them to share their secrets and longings and hurts.
Every Christian can do this. You don't need to have done a course of apologetics, have a masters in Theology or know everything about other religions or worldviews. Every Christian has the love of God as part of their DNA and they can open their lives and homes and share that with those around them. Rosaria Butterfield shows us how this can be done and the wonderful, world changing impact that can have.
Thankyou for writing this book and I pray that this gets into the hands of as many Christians as possible.
One person found this helpful
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PJ Bradley MTh
5.0 out of 5 stars The presence of God rests in our homesReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Reorientates thinking to the importance of cultivating friendships in our homes. Challenge to those who suffer from "meetingitis" to share their lives by opening up their homes and their hearts
One person found this helpful
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Carrie Mackenzie
5.0 out of 5 stars Very thought provoking and encouraging book.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2019
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
A great book! Well written and very thought provoking about how christian hospitality looks......in action! A really good read!
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D.Armstrong
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite authors!Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book and found it very challenging!
One person found this helpful
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