Leslie Verner - Invited: The Power of Hospitality in an Age of Loneliness

Verner debuts with an impassioned plea for people to open their doors and invite neighbors and strangers into their homes and lives. In an age when political leaders seek to build walls, she writes, it is necessary to reinforce the common, human bonds of community. Verner declares hospitality both a habit and a command, as its a theme and practice found throughout the Bible.... Hospitality, she maintains, is not about Instagrammable perfection but about displaying vulnerability and satisfying hunger for community. Helpful supplemental material includes discussion questions, a short reading list, and tips for practices of welcome. Verners persuasive message to become a good neighbor will appeal to Christians and general readers alike.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Insightful, accessible, and engaging to its core, Invited is the nudge we need to fling open the door and let the crumbs fall where they may. Through vulnerable storytelling, Leslie Verner whittles the panic from our thoughts on hospitality, reminding us weve never been more equipped to connect than we are right now.

SHANNAN MARTIN , author of Falling Free and The Ministry of Ordinary Places

Hospitality is such a powerful space where we get to practice giving and receiving, entering into mutuality and communion. Leslie Verner has experienced this larger hospitalitya belonging to the larger human family. In the pages of Invited , she has brought some of that wisdom and goodness to us.

IDELETTE MCVICKER , founder of SheLoves

In Invited , Leslie Verner peels back the assumptions about what makes a good, safe, and hospitable life.... An invitation to move away from the isolating individualism of the American Dream and move toward a life full of community, no matter where we are planted.

D. L. MAYFIELD , author of The Myth of the American Dream

The exact message the church needs to hear today. Through personal narrative and compelling truth, Leslie Verner invites us into her story, stretching us to reevaluate the way we live and engage others in our own.

MICHELLE FERRIGNO WARREN , author of The Power of Proximity

Hospitality is far more than an open home. It is a way of life, the embodying of welcome in relationships and across cultures. Leslie Verners Invited is both an invitation to recognize our own hunger for community and a call to offer it to those around us. As you read, youll be inspired to lean into deeper, ever more authentic hospitality.

RACHEL PIEH JONES , author of Stronger Than Death

I shudder at the word hospitality because it has been weaponized in Christian circles, especially for women. I wondered if Invited was another veiled shame message pointing out how I was failing yet again. It is not; instead, Leslie Verner breathes on the embers of connection we all long for, offering hope and examples of how you can invite others into your real life and forge life-giving relationships.

AMY YOUNG , author of Looming Transitions

Love usurps fear in kingdom living, Leslie Verner writes, and I grab my pen to star the line. As our world quakes with polarization, division, and loneliness, thischoosing love over fearis how we begin to mend the fault lines. In warm, welcoming prose, Invited offers us a glimpse of Gods unshakable kingdom, where all are welcomeand makes it a little easier for us to imagine becoming a part of it.

AMY PETERSON , author of Where Goodness Still Grows and Dangerous Territory

Herald Press
PO Box 866, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803
www.HeraldPress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Verner, Leslie, author.
Title: Invited : the power of hospitality in an age of loneliness / Leslie Verner.
Description: Harrisonburg : Herald Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical
references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019008234|
ISBN 9781513804835 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781513804842 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: HospitalityReligious aspectsChristianity.
Classification: LCC BV4647.H67 V47 2019 | DDC 241/.671dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019008234

INVITED

2019 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia 22803. 800-245-7894.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019008234
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-5138-0433-0 (paperback);
978-1-5138-0434-7 (hardcover); 978-1-5138-0435-4 (ebook)
Printed in United States of America
Cover and interior design by Merrill Miller
Cover image adapted from art by pridumala/Getty Images/iStockphoto

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form, by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the copyright owners.

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from New Revised Standard Version Bible , copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission.
All rights reserved.

23 22 21 20 1910 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Elijah, Adeline, and Isaiah, my littlest guests.
And to Adam, my home.

P eople say hospitality is about making guests feel at home, but most of what I know about hospitality I learned as a stranger far from home. Many cultures of the world have an intrinsic understanding of hospitality unfamiliar to those of us from countries typically considered to be in the West. My conclusions for this book arose out of my graduate studies, traveling and living abroad, and having international students live with my family in the United States.

Instead of a didactic how to book, Invited offers stories that reframe and perhaps even redefine hospitality. Less about entertaining and more about becoming a good neighbor, this book explores the power of a simple invitation.

My goal in writing this is to delve deeperin relationship with God and the people around us, in understanding our resistance to hosting and being hosted, and in grasping courage to cultivate community wherever we are in the world.

I changed the names of most of the people in this book out of respect for their privacy. Also, because of the books nature as partial memoir, I reconstructed dialogue, descriptions, and events as accurately as I remember them or as recorded in my journals. Some parts of these stories previously appeared on my own blog, Scraping Raisins , or as articles for SheLoves Magazine .

When I use a phrase like we in the West or speak of Western culture, Im primarily referring to white people who have some heritage or association with Europe and whose majority culture is of European descent. And yet Western assumptions are not limited to white people but also include people of many racial and ethnic backgrounds who live in Western countries. Living in a place influences our behavior, thoughts, and daily practices, so anyone who has lived for any period of time in a Western country is effectively influenced by Western thought. I know that living in China poured a tiny bit of Eastern culture into me.