New cafe aims to welcome everyone

Deep hospitality is more than just a coffee out with friends. It’s rare to find this kind of genuine hospitality when people seem so busy with other things. Hospitality that is not done to people as if they were a project but with people. People who matter. People who are unique.

It’s living our lives in a way that shows strangers are welcome, not a threat. There is time and space to listen, to empathise, perhaps even to lament. Just like Jesus did. He had time for people from all backgrounds and lifestyles.

When you offer hospitality, your guest will bring something you couldn’t have brought yourself. We are incomplete without them.

Stability means being part of a community where you don’t have to earn your place. You belong. You are included no matter what.

Stability frees us from the pressure to market our best selves, to have to live in perpetual anxiety, to pretend or to mask.

Receiving a genuine welcome: finding a community is a rare and special discovery.

We have been thinking about this a lot as we get ready to open a new quirky community café in the grounds of St Luke’s Church in Greetham Street, just to the east of the city centre.

The Café will be called the Host Café, and is located next to the Host Co Working Space at St Luke’s where people already come to work and form a welcoming community.

The Host is inspired by the idea that God is the ultimate Host. There is always space at His table. He invites you and I to share our table too.

So we invite you to come along, with no strings attached, just as you are. Enjoy great coffee and the warmest of welcomes whether you are a student, a local worker, a visitor the city centre or part of the local community.

The Host Café opens on March 18. You are so welcome. We look forward to seeing you there.