5 Step [Youth] Hospitality Plan
Thanks to CYMT’s Stephen Ingram for this Great Idea/Free Resource.
Stephen Ingram’s 5 Step Hospitality Plan is exactly what it purports to be: a 5-Step plan that outlines, ‘How to Make Your Students the Front Line of Welcome in Your Ministry’.
Noting the number of biblical references to hospitality and current declines in participation and membership in all age groups, Ingram sites hospitality as a key element to any and all Christian gatherings and communities.
However, Ingram writes, ‘The problem is that we (youth ministers) get paid to be hospitable. This diminishes our initial credibility as we meet and agree new students. Our regular youth, however, are not saddled with this burden and have the potential to be the greatest agents for welcoming and hospitality in our ministry.”
The 5 Step Plan includes:
- The Welcome
- The Intro
- The Explanation
- The Exchange
- The Follow Up
Invite your adults and young adults to participate in the training, especially if they might be greeters, ushers, or regular participants in social justice or other outward focused ministries.
Ingram’s five steps will be helpful for training any age-group. You might expand the training event to include reading Andrew Zirschky, PhD’s preceding post, Christian Hospitality Is not Hilton Hospitality.
Expand on these five steps with Trauma Recovery Training, or simply learning more about being a Trauma Informed Church.
Find additional resources for training around Outreach & Hospitality in our lib guide, including Trauma Informed Hospitality.
Find Ingram’s 5 Step Plan here.
This 5 Step Training is extremely basic and easy to remember, yet knowing the steps will undoubtedly impact folx’ experience of both offering hospitality and receiving it.
