Hospitality is a Thermostat
In Terry A. Smith’s delightful book The Hospitable Leader, he shares this remarkable insight:
A hospitable leader creates home wherever he or she is. Many of us lead in inhospitable places. We must be thermostats, not thermometers. We must set the temperature for success. Artist and mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan reminds us that “some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful.” Hospitable leaders bring the beauty of home to even the most inhospitable places.
The hospitable leader is a thermostat. While a thermometer reads the environment of the room, a thermostat sets the environment of the room.
In the same way, our hospitality teams can set the environment of our services. Cold, unfriendly, and inattentive greeters often lead to a cold room. But warm, engaging, and helpful greeters can warm up the space and remove obstacles that would keep people from hearing the gospel.
This Sunday, don’t just react to the ambient temperature. Set it. Lead out in it. Be the thermostat.
