The Ministry of Christian Invitation

Putting God's love into action. ▪ Welcome guests who attend church on Sundays or Wednesdays. Invite one of them to share a meal with you. ▪ Learn the names of the people you come in contact with each day: the clerks at the store, bank or post office. ▪ Take time to have conversations with people in your neighborhood. Plan a cookout with them. ▪ Provide transportation for a new American family to attend church or go to the grocery store. ▪ Host a holiday meal for someone new to our church or new to our country.

Contacts ▪ Assoc Pastor, Invitation— Ralph Starling ▪ Divorce Recovery— Geri & Robin Hale-Cooper ▪ Culture of Hospitality— Michael Lipford ▪ Internationals— Millie & Reid Flinn ▪ New Americans— Warren Pierce & Julie Pierce ▪ Ushers & Greeters— Wally & Fran Hudgins ▪ Pastor, Deaf & Minister, Recreation— Buddy Burgess ▪ Recreation Admin Asst— Robin Hendricks

"The central task of ministry is the formation of a community
with an alternative liberated imagination
that has the courage and freedom to act
in a different vision and different perception of reality."
- Walter Bruggleman


Our objective in the Ministry of Christian Invitation is to assist Christ-followers at Richmond’s First Baptist Church
in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond by practicing radical hospitality to the people Jesus loves.
 

Welcome to the Ministry of Christian Invitation! This Ministry has everything to do with how we practice ‘Christian’ hospitality----it is the way we demonstrate love to others in our homes, neighborhoods, churches, workplaces, schools, cities, and in our world. ‘Christian hospitality’ has to do with loving the people Jesus’ loves’---especially those who are strangers. It is a ‘radical’ way of living and loving. This way of love is best exemplified by practicing ‘radical hospitality’.

Writer Lonni Collins Pratt describes it this way: “The phrase radical hospitality refers to the activities and desires that inspire individuals and communities to welcome those who are unlike themselves. Rather than viewing any person in terms of how they benefit us, radical hospitality means accepting the person with no thought of personal benefit. ...To become hospitable means finding ways to welcome the marginalized, forgotten, and misunderstood among us.” Obviously, practicing this kind of hospitality is not for lazy people!

Marjorie Thompson, popular author in the area of spiritual formation says, “The remarkable explosion of Christianity in the first century was due not only to the proclamation of the gospel, but to the extraordinary quality of Christian hospitality.” At Richmond’s First Baptist Church we are trying to practice Christian hospitality. We are seeking to love the people Jesus loves. We desire to do what Benedict of Nursia told his Christian brothers and sisters back in the sixth century: “See Christ in others. Be Christ to others.” If we could ‘see Christ in others (the good in them)’, and, secondly, if we could practice “being Christ to others”, then maybe we could help God bring a little bit of the kingdom of Heaven to our homes, neighborhoods, and to our own city of Richmond, Virginia.

The Ministry of Christian Invitation is practicing Christian hospitality in some of the following areas of ministry:

• Welcoming the Newcomer (guests and visitors) who attend our worship services, activities, and special gatherings at Richmond’s First Baptist Church (Hospitality Team).

• Welcoming those to our community who are experiencing brokenness and the challenge of separation and divorce (Divorce Recovery Ministry).

• Welcoming are our new American friends (refugees from other countries---New American Ministry).

• Welcoming international students who come here to live and study at our universities (International Student Ministry).

Newcomer’s Gatherings

Join other newcomers attending Richmond’s First Baptist Church as we journey toward spiritual and emotional maturity in Christ. This is a great way to get connected with other newcomers and discover the heart of what it means to be in Christian community.  

Newcomer’s Lenten Group

The Way of Forgiveness
Mondays, February 13-April 2 (8 sessions)
Meets at the home of Ralph Starling
(For information call 804-358-5458 ext.134)

Few would claim it is an easy matter to learn to forgive those who have wounded us or to be reconciled to our enemies. The demands of Christian discipleship are challenging, to say the least. Jesus asks nothing short of complete conversion of life--a transformation of mind, heart, and action that reveals ever more fully the beauty and wholeness of his own life in us. This is what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ.  

Newcomer’s Spring Group

The Way of Blessedness
Mondays, April 30-June 25 (8 sessions)
Meets at the home of Ralph Starling
(For information contact 804-358-5458 ext.134)

The Way of Blessedness explores Jesus’ first teachings from the Sermon on the Mount commonly referred to as the Beatitudes. These teachings hold within them the key to realizing God’s joy-filled intent for us--to live the soul-deep gladness and satisfaction of our faith. As we move forward on this journey, we trust that you will discover for yourself and as a group how the way of blessedness calls us into the very life of God’s kingdom.  

Newcomer’s Fall Group (8 sessions)

The Way of Grace
Mondays, October 22-December 10 (8 sessions)
Meets at the home of Ralph Starling
(For information contact 804-358-5458 ext.134)

In this series we will explore ‘the way of grace’ in our lives through the lens of eight encounters between Jesus and various persons described in John’s gospel. In countless ways our our human journeys share common ground, even while the particular path and story of each person is utterly unique. God’s grace comes to us in the distinctive shape of our personal histories, needs, and possibilities. Yet diving grace also reveals the depths of what we share across all boundaries of time and space.  

Visit Ralph Starling's blog...