Preaching can motivate a congregation to show hospitality towards strangers, creating a culture of love, kindness, and care for others. This thesis illustrates how preaching becomes a tool that lifts the benefits and values of living in a community when a ministry of hospitality prevails among the congregants. Frank Thomas espouses this theory, upon which my thesis is based, in They Like To Never Quit Praisin' God: The Role of Celebration in Preaching. In this work, Thomas affirms the "role of preaching is designed to celebrate, to help people experience the assurance of grace (the Good News)... which over-records the tapes of fear, hatred, prejudice, unforgiveness, anxiety, etc., and strengthens the tapes of hope, trust, love, hospitality, forgiveness, etc., by reaching the core belief with the gospel." The author stresses the relationship between celebration in preaching and its motivation to move people to change their attitudes and behaviors in a positive way. Elizabeth R. Geitz promotes the hospitality theory guiding this thesis in Entertaining Angels: Hospitality Programs for the Caring Church. Geitz argues, "When we receive another in the name of Christ and believe in mutual listening for the word of God, we will be surprised again and again by the many angels God sends our way." The author found the relationship between Abraham reaching out to the angel and being blessed comparable to our reaching out to strangers and receiving the benefits of the promises they are bringing with them as gifts to the host. The congregational listeners verified the validity of this finding through both an analysis of their experience in the practice of hospitality and through feedback on the eight sermons preached during the three years.
