Sue Donaldson | Hospitality, More Than Entertainment

Sue Donaldson | Hospitality, More Than Entertainment | 143

Sue Donaldson | Hospitality, More Than Entertainment

Speaker, author, Sue Donaldson and her husband, Mark, live in San Luis Obispo, California.

Sue taught high school English, part of the time in Brazil with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

She and her husband, Mark, have raised 3 daughters who keep them at the bank and on their knees.

Sue loves connecting people to one another, to God, and to His Word, and has been speaking for the last 20 years or so with long pauses for babies, diapers and soccer pasta parties.

She blogs at WelcomeHeart: Knowing and Showing the Heart of God and hosts a weekly podcast: Make it Count: Living a Legacy Life.

Sue Donaldson joins Amber to discuss why she practices hospitality, why hospitality is more than simply entertaining and how extending an invitation is an opportunity to show people Jesus.

Questions Sue and Amber Discuss:

(2:48) Share a little of your faith journey with us. When did you come to know Jesus?
(6:18) Did you grow up in a home where hospitality was modeled consistently? What was that like?
(10:45) Have you always enjoyed hosting people in your home?
(15:20) How can someone who was not raised in a hospitable home begin to break that chain of “un-grace”?
(28:52) What are some of the most common fears or misunderstandings you hear people share when it comes to welcoming people into their home?
(43:57) How can God use our questions more than our answers?
(46:12) What are some crucial differences between hospitality and entertaining?

Quotes to Remember:

“As I got older, I heard people refer to my mother as the hospitality queen.”

“She was a people gatherer. There was never a stranger that Betty Moore met and I am afraid much to my children chagrin that I am the same way.”

“You’re there to serve…We focus on the guests.”

“It’s hard to break into a Christian church family when you don’t have a family of your own.”

“Why aren’t they inviting me over, because if my mother were here, she would have invited me over and that was just my mindset. So what I had to do was invite them first.”

“You do hospitality to serve Jesus, but you also make friends and build your own community.”

“A lot of people say, ‘Well, you do that because you’re an extrovert.’ And I go, ‘No, I did it because I was desperate.'”

“Loneliness is the world’s disease.”

“Pray for a hospitable heart.”

“If we feel like we’re being dragged along by the Holy Spirit we need to ask for a heart of willingness.”

“Start small, you just invite one person.”

“God’s job is to save people. Our job is to invite people to our tables, and perhaps for the first time they will meet Jesus.”

“It’s God’s motivation that gets me to do all sorts of hard things.”

“I do conversation starters at almost every gathering…It’s almost like you don’t have to be responsible for being everybody’s best friend.”

“I love to be a networker, but for God’s sake not to make me popular.”

“I always have two questions. The first question is to make them feel comfortable talking….and the second question is to engage their heart.”

“I can’t save anybody, but I can introduce them to the One who sees them and that’s what hospitality is. It’s not showing off my matching napkins or placemats or fresh flowers.”

“The biblical definition of hospitality is welcoming strangers.”

“Most people think hospitality, even Christians, is getting together with a bunch of your best friends.”

“If you want to do simple hospitality write down 10 things you feel like you have to do and cut the list in half. Save your soul and your family’s soul by doing it simpler.”