Book Review: Radical Welcome

Once a church has declared itself Open & Affirming and begun living into that commitment to affirmation, welcome, and inclusion, the question is: Where next?

The answer, it turns out, is Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation by Stephanie Spellers.

Radical Welcome is an insightful, readable, honest book describing the hope, challenge and promise of welcoming The Other.

Rev. Spellers defines radical welcome as “a fundamental spiritual practice, one that combines the universal Christian ministry of welcome and hospitality with a clear awareness of power and patterns of inclusion and exclusion.”

Radical welcome moves beyond the assimilation of most of our invitations and church growth strategies and invites The Other to join with us and challenge us to grow spiritually in our welcome. Spellers speaks theologically about radical welcome as living a life of incarnation, allowing ourselves be transformed by our welcome of The Other.

Spellers gives theologically solid yet concrete and practical guidance in the practice of radical welcome, acknowledging the hard work ahead, the fears to be understood and conquered, and the vision and gospel commitment necessary to build a community of radical welcome.