Sharing the Gospel Through Hospitality

On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Sharing the Gospel Through Hospitality,” we’re sharing Dr. Rosaria Butterfield’s dramatic conversion testimony.

Rosaria was professor of English and queer theory at Syracuse University in New York and lived proudly as a lesbian, a feminist, and an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights. In 1999, she took leave from her professorship to research a book she intended to write as a rebuke of religion from a lesbian feminist point of view. Over that time, most of the Christians she met used the Bible as a weapon to win arguments against her.

One couple didn’t.

Ken and Floy Smith, a local pastor and his wife, used the Bible to deepen their conversations with her. They approached their relationship with Dr. Butterfield with what she calls “radically ordinary hospitality.”

They invited her into their home.

They talked with her instead of at her.

They treated her with unconditional love and respect – as their friend, not as a project.

They invested in her.

They brought God’s grace to her.

They valued her as a person, not as a potential convert to the Christian faith.

Yet, convert she did. With joy and gratitude to God.

Dr. Butterfield believes “radically ordinary hospitality” is a powerful way to live out one of Christ’s greatest commissions for each of us: to introduce people to Christ (Mark 16:15). She says, “If we’re going to be agents of grace, then we need to get close enough to put the hand of the stranger into the hand of the Savior.”

Hear Dr. Butterfield share her story and answer questions from our live studio audience on your local radio station, online, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or on our free phone app.

Think of somebody in your life who seems so beyond God’s reach that they could never come to Christ. Pray for them. Then tune in to our program and be inspired by what God can do.

Dr. Butterfield’s book The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in our Post-Christian World. It’s available for a gift of any amount. Click here for more information or give us a call at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459). If you can’t afford it, we’ll find a way to get it to you.