In the Shelter of the Most High

In the Shelter of

THE Most High A HOSTEL MINISTRY WHERE CHRIST OPENS THE DOOR TO STRANGERS

BY STEPHANIE S. SMITH

If the 2-foot tall “JESUS” sign on the wall didn’t

Shelter Jordan hostel is tucked between charming canals in the scenic Jordan district, near the historic Anne Frank House.

Shelter City sits right at the edge of the red-light district, a peculiar neighborhood where each day guests walk between prostitution alleys and Scripture murals, traversing the range of human wreckage and redemption.

At check-in guests are informed that staff members are two things: believers and volunteers.This immediately sparks questions.What do these Christians really live like? What could possibly cause them to travel from all over the globe to work at a hostel without pay? Suddenly guests are curious. And the Christ-followers have an audience.

The mission of the hostel ministry is articulated in Experiencing God’s Shelter:The Story of the Shelter Youth Hostels (edited by Hans Frinsel, Oogstpublicaties, 2000): “It is our prayer that the lives of our staff show such a Christ-like faith,

already give it away, the smell of fried bananas and jingle of a tambourine might tip you off that the Shelter City hostel is not your typical red-light district joint. It is Open-Mic Night at the hostel. While half a block away tourists wander Amsterdam’s streets under the red glow of brothel windows, the hostel guests enjoy an evening of quality entertainment: slightly off-key Beatles covers, ping-pong matches, and harmonica numbers. The café is bright with candlelight, and its walls are lined with people; a troupe of Scottish Girl Scouts sits at one table and Somali refugees at another. It doesn’t matter what language performers speak, because everyone can enjoy the music.

Shelter City is one of two Christian youth hostels in the heart of Amsterdam run by the Youth Hostel Ministry, which hosts over 30,000 people from 130 countries every year.The

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THE HEART OF HOSPITALITY

so others will be drawn to this contagious faith, ask questions, and want what we have found to be The Way,The Truth, and The Life.”

Hostel guests travel to Amsterdam for different reasons, whether students backpacking through Europe, refugees fleeing injustice in their home country, or tourists pursuing sex and drugs.There are guests like Jason, an Australian who makes his living working on organic strawberry farms across Europe; Megan, a film graduate from NYU traveling solo through Europe fresh after her commencement; and Sarah, running from an abusive relationship back home in Italy. Humanity in all its glorious diversity finds a home at the Shelter City hostel.

The shelter ministry arose in the early 1970s to meet the needs of nomadic hippies passing through Amsterdam. In this iconic city of tolerance, visited by many for its legalized prostitution, loose drug regulations, and homosexual embrace, the shelter positioned itself to be a light. But the ministry was more of an outflow than a strategy. Guests were offered a warm bed and a free breakfast served by Christian volunteer staff who began every shift praying together for Christ to shine through their actions. Their vision was hospitality: offering travelers a safe place to rest and be renewed in their physical journeys as well as their spiritual journeys.

In Reaching Out, Henri Nouwen writes,“If there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality.” More than domestic duty or entertainment, hospitality is the practical outworking of a deep theological undercurrent in Scripture: God’s heart for the stranger. Regarded in the same group as the fatherless and the widow, the stranger receives God’s special protection as one in need (Ps. 146:9, Deut. 10:18). Salvation itself is an expression of divine hospitality, as estranged sinners are welcomed into the Father’s generous grace.Translated into ministry context, hospitality is the creation of “a free and fearless space,” as Nouwen says, where strangers are received as friends and where redemption may transpire.

The shelter hostels are designed to encourage restful lingering, encountering others, and conversing. The café is open all day for guests to snack, play board games, or read a book from the shelter library. Guests play the piano next to the traditional door-sized Dutch window or sit with their coffee under the shade of the grapevine trellis in the courtyard.The ambiance is unassuming and offers a level of homey comfort that makes it possible for guests to share their stories. It is a rare environment in which a simple question such as, “So what brings you to Amsterdam?” may result in a two-hour conversation between strangers.

Relationships: The context for redemption If you were to meet Jon today, you would notice his tattoos — the Greek letters Alpha and Omega on each wrist representing a passage from Revelation 21: “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment … and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

But when Jon first came to the shelter, he protested morning devotions.

A university student from Ireland, Jon was a cleaner, a guest who can stay free for up to one month in exchange for hostel chores.Yet the cleaning arrangement is more than chores; it is an intentional ministry to share the love of Christ. Cleaners are often travelers looking for a cheap place to stay or who have run out of money on the road. And since they eat, work, rest, and participate in devotions with staff members, they quickly become part of the shelter family.

Jon had many friends among the shelter staff but did not accept their spiritual beliefs. But after a few weeks of spending time with Christians, his interest in the gospel seemed to grow. The character of John the Baptist fascinated him, and he resonated with the fierce edge of Christ’s holi-

At Shelter City’s Open-Mic Night, guests enjoy a wide range of talents and languages.

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ness as he smashed moneychangers’ tables in the temple. Jon had a spiritual perceptiveness that was striking in one who openly rejected Jesus. One night, while out sailing with friends from the shelter, Jon decided he could live no longer without Christ as his Savior. Before leaving Amsterdam, Jon was baptized at his request in the North Sea, then returned to Dublin where he now leads a Christian group at his university.

“These people did not just fly thousands of miles from all over the globe to serve fries or pancakes,” Jon says about the shelter volunteers. “They came because of love. They came because they love people, not because they want to force their beliefs on you, but because they want to serve you.That’s part of what makes this place so special.”

SHELTER FOR THE STRANGER In addition to homeless people, victims of domestic abuse, and prostituted women, the shelter hostels also have a special ministry to refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere. These guests are sponsored by charity organizations to stay in the hostels until they can attend a hearing with the Dutch government to determine if they can stay in the Netherlands.

Lori Hansell, 22, is a current staff member at Shelter Jordan who has a burden for the refugee guests. “Each one carries such heavy stories; many of them are fleeing for their lives,” she explains, “One guest from Afghanistan had his brother killed by the Taliban, and then they were after him. One Iraqi guest was almost killed five times by the Mafia before he escaped. Most of these people are around my age.”

Because the refugee guests are waiting for word of their hearing, they spend most of their time at the hostel, where staff members can get to know them. The language barrier inspires creativity in relationship-building, so staff members and guests play cards together, share a pot of tea, or make crafts.

The hostel also hosts an extensive collection of Bibles in many different languages, and guests are always excited to find their home language in a foreign place.

“I have spent a lot of time this past month with one Iranian couple, Amir and Rasa,”* Hansell says, describing a couple who had to cut ties with their family in Iran for their family’s safety. “Amir and Rasa attended the Bible discussions at the hostel, started reading the Persian Bible we have in the café, went to church with us and got involved in an Iranian small group,” Hansell says. One night, moved by the truth of the gospel and the lives of staff around them who demonstrated it, they decided to give their lives to Christ.

The very next day, the couple was notified that the charity organization would no longer cover their expenses to stay at the hostel.“I am reminded that coming to Christ doesn’t make

Hostel guests find good food for the body and the soul.

life easy,” Hansell says, “but in him we have hope that goes deeper than things of this world.”

USHERING THE WORLD INTO GOD’S PRESENCE In Practicing Theology, theologian Reinhard Hütter charges the church to practice “both a reflection and an extension of God’s own hospitality — God’s sharing of the love of the triune life with those who are dust.” Not only has Creator God, the Ultimate Host, provided mankind with all things necessary for life, but he has invited humanity into the majesty of his presence. And the shelter team is committed to inviting guests into the same experience they have been given. With its unique ministry to travelers, the shelter hosts a sacred intersection where the presence of the Savior converges with the world that walks through its doors every day. N Visit YouthHostelMinistry.org to learn more.

Stephanie S. Smith is a freelance writer and publicist for Moody Publishers. Having served a summer at the Shelter City hostel for her senior internship at Moody Bible Institute, she enjoys exploring the relationship between hospitality and theology. *Names changed for security reasons

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KINGDOM ETHICS D A V I D P. G U S H E E

Ethical Evangelism As a lost, seeking, 16-year-old, I was won to Christ in 1978 by men and women in the Southern Baptist tradition who had been schooled on a relentless “soul-winning” vision.

I literally wandered into a Southern Baptist church one Friday afternoon that summer, looking for something but not knowing exactly what. I knew the church only vaguely as the religious home of my girlfriend, who was on vacation with her family at the time. I had never attended a service there.

The church stood at the brow of a hill overlooking the local mall. I remember that I went to the mall that day to consider the possibility of joining a health club there that offered the promise of shaping my pear-like body into something better. Deterred by the monthly fee, I walked out of the mall and noticed the little church up the hill. Moved by a force I did not understand, I walked into the church that Friday afternoon.

By Monday night I was sitting in my 1972 Buick Skylark in the church parking lot saying a heartfelt “sinner’s prayer.”

However much some weary evangelicals may scoff at the theology and technique of the old sinner’s prayer, it certainly worked for me that night. I confessed what I now knew to be true — I was indeed a lost, confused sinner who needed Jesus Christ. I accepted him as my “Savior and Lord,” who would take my sins away and direct my life henceforth.

I opened my eyes and knew that my life was now headed in a very different direction. Joy flooded my soul.

The conversion took. I began to go to church every time the doors were open.

I gulped Scripture like water in the desert.

I was still woefully immature, and I fell regularly. But my immaturity and sins were met with grace and forgiveness, for which I will always be grateful.

As a new Christian, I was fed the same kind of soul-winning emphasis that had shaped those who “witnessed” to me and led me to Christ. I was taught to look at every relationship with a non-Christian as a potential evangelistic opportunity. I made a list in my new KJV Bible of friends who needed Christ. I still have that Bible and that immortal list of teenage names.

This evangelistic hunger was central to my youth minister. His approach could be prone to excesses, which I discovered

The centrality of the kingdom of God in Jesus’ preaching has reshaped my understanding of evangelism. through an event whose meaning I understood only in retrospect. In preparation for an October youth retreat the minister asked me to help him prepare a tape that could be used for evangelistic purposes at the retreat. The tape mixed our yelling, screaming, moaning voices as we pretended to burn in hell. I am not making this up. He then subjected the youth to this tape on a retreat whose subject turned out to be hell. The hope was to scare people into accepting Christ. I am now ashamed that I had anything to do with this.

It is pretty clear to me that both my (former) Southern Baptist Convention

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and my (current) Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are not producing the kind of “soul-winning” spirit on which I was spiritually weaned.The more conservative SBC still speaks a soul-winning rhetoric, but its declining baptisms reflect the reality that this vision simply does not resonate the way it once did.The more moderate CBF still talks about evangelism, but its people also appear to do little of it.

The entire context for evangelism in this culture has changed.The old message that verbal confession of Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation — which is understood to mean forgiveness of personal sins and entrance into heaven/escape from burning in hell — bumps up against dissatisfaction from within the church and disdain from without. It strikes many Christians as a truncation of a broader or more loving vision of the biblical message and many non-Christians as a species of primitive religious intolerance.

My own discovery of the centrality of the kingdom of God in Jesus’ preaching has reshaped my understanding of evangelism. I am in some ways still that teenager who was brought to Christ by an evangelist prepared to witness. I also am prepared to witness explicitly to my faith in Christ. But the story I tell is a different one now. I believe that God was in Christ reclaiming this broken world for his divine reign. I believe that God seeks the reclamation of the entire world from sin and not just souls from hell, and that God looks not just for believers but for kingdom coworkers. But I still believe that a Christian must at any time be ready to tell that good news, not only in deeds but also in words, without manipulation or coercion but in gracious love. Q David P. Gushee is director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, where he is also a professor of Christian ethics. His twelfth book, Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul, was just released by Mercer University Press.