The Gospel Comes with a House Key

Butterfield (The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert), author, pastor’s wife, and homeschooling mother, encourages a “radical ordinary hospitality” in her fun and useful latest. Butterfield believes readers should use their “Christian home in a daily way that seeks to make strangers neighbors and neighbors family of God.” The Bible calls Christians to welcome criminals and outcasts, she writes, not only like-minded friends. She shares anecdotes about and functional steps toward practicing hospitality, such as helping a reclusive neighbor find his lost pit bull (and writing letters to the same neighbor when he lands in prison for running a methamphetamine lab) and singing psalms to her dying mother. She details her prayers, what she cooks (rice and beans, a simple meal that can easily feed large groups that gather in her home on the fly), and her adventures in foster parenting. Well versed in theology, Butterfield speaks on sin, repentance, and sanctification, and applies these biblical concepts to hot topic issues such as gender inequality. Butterfield strikes the right balance of doctrine and personal narrative in this paean to the welcoming home. (Apr.)