The opening keynote for the Third Biennial Remnant Mission Retreat, Lake Dallas, October 13, 2026
Welcome and thanks for being here. We call our gathering The Remnant Mission Retreat. The Remnant approach to mission is rooted in Martin Thornton’s Remnant concept. The Remnant approach holds that the mission of the church should begin with the spiritual formation of the most committed people. As the Remnant is formed in the faith, the life of Christ that grows in each person and the community naturally moves outward into mission. Mission is, simply, bearing witness to and sharing our life in Christ. Without a vibrant spiritual life in the Remnant at the center of the church, the church has nothing to bear witness to, nothing to share.
The Centrality of the Remnant
The word Remnant is usually misunderstood. The common error is to think that the faithful “old guard” is the Remnant. They are not. The attitude of the “old guard” guard is often a combination of nostalgia for the past combined with anger at the world. They view mission as restoring what was lost in order to fix something out there. This is not our mission. Neither is the Remnant the younger cultural warriors or theological zealots. These also tend to locate the problem in others. They are often concerned about being right above all else. Being right and winning arguments is not our mission. People become part of the Remnant when they are willing to embrace a life of prayer and focus on their own sins rather than everyone else’s.
One thing must be made clear. We will love and minister to the old guard, the younger zealots, and every church member. The Remnant approach does not ignore everyone else. It is a matter of where ministry effort is focused. In the Remnant approach, the focus of ministry is first and foremost on living the church’s life of prayer in community with the goal of growth in virtue. It focuses on how God is changing us, not on how we want others to change. Ministry effort is disproportionately focused on those who are serious about their prayer and are willing to focus on their own spiritual growth.
The missionary impact of the Remnant is vicarious. The Remnant is the healthy presence at the center of the organism. The Remnant acts from love and principal. They do not react to provocation and temptation. They have a leavening impact on the church. As Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches" (Matt. 13:31-32). The Remnant is the true witness to the world. They make faith attractive in the best missionary sense of that word.
If the center of the church’s ministry is not the life of prayer aimed at moral progress and emotional and spiritual maturity, and if the priest does not organize the church around those who want to pray and grow spiritually, the church is not following the Remnant approach.
It takes an intentional and persistent effort to reorient ministry around the Remnant approach. We accomplished this at St. Matthew’s Church with what we call our Pastoral Ministry Program. This is a series of year-long classes in which people learn how to live a life of prayer, and learn what spiritual progress and emotional health look like. Our ministry has been rooted in this approach for about eleven years. We have been intentional and persistent in this reorientation. It has produced substantial fruit. We are a completely different church than we were a decade ago. Now, having resigned as rector to devote my time to the work of mission as a bishop, I am happy to talk with you about what is necessary to work on this reorientation in your setting if you are interested.
The Remnant approach stands in contrast with an approach to ministry that is focused on mere teaching. Teaching focuses on cognitive truth, knowing about God. Formation through prayer focuses on experiential knowledge, knowing God. Theology is the test and explanation of our experience, but the experience of union with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is the goal.
Rooting Ministry in Spiritual Direction
It is possible to know theology, but not live in relationship with God. It is possible for a church to stand for the truth, but not produce the fruits of the Spirit in its members. Mere credal orthodoxy is not the true test of our faith. Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The theologically hyper-orthodox church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 was in danger of ceasing to be a church because, as the Risen and Glorified Christ said to them, “You have left your first love.”
The approach to ministry focused on knowing God through prayer is rooted in spiritual direction. We do not merely teach people the truth. We coach them in their lives of prayer. We help them to understand how God is present and at work in their lives. We focus on developing their spiritual gifts. We help them understand how they are called to serve Christ and his church. We change them from religious consumers to participants in ministry.
There is a hunger in our time for the experiential knowledge of God, and for connection to a community in which people know and love each other and find meaning and purpose in worship and service. There is not a great hunger for participation in churches with nostalgia for the past or churches whose main characteristic is anger about the current state of the world.
About now, you might be thinking, “Isn’t this retreat about hospitality.” Yes it is. However, biblical hospitality can only be built upon the solid foundation of a vibrant and growing spiritual life in a church. Biblical hospitality is the fruit of a church’s life of prayer. Through prayer, we grow in our relationship with God and with each other. God welcomes us into a relationship with himself by grace. Then, we welcome each other and develop relationships in the church by grace. Then, we welcome the stranger as one who bears the image of Christ, or who might be an angel visiting us unawares.
Apart from rootedness in the spiritual life, hospitality will digress into sales and marketing. The main danger is to frame hospitality in terms of attracting new people to our churches. We will focus on how to be nice to people and how to put on good social events. Now, we certainly don’t want to be mean to people and have crappy events. But biblical hospitality is rooted in more than a desire for church growth. It is the natural and organic sharing of life in Christ. It is an organic process. It is not a mere program.
Life in Christ has a necessary social dimension. From the very beginning of the church the Eucharist was complemented by the “agape,” the meal the community shared together. Act 2:46 says, “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:46). Prayer created a joyful communal life that was experienced socially.
There is something defective in a church’s life of prayer if it does not create a joyful communal life that is expressed in joyful gatherings that the church members want to attend. Life in Christ should produce hospitality.
Today’s Mission Setting
An important point must be noted here. Our mission setting is different than the mission setting of the founders of the Continuing Church. Church in the twentieth century was a more atomized experience. It was something you went to on Sunday based on background or preference. A substantial portion of the population attended regularly. The social life of the church was not necessarily a big part of church life. People tended to connect in clubs, organizations, and other spaces. They would expect church to be a sixty to ninety minutes of worship and teaching, according to preference, followed by a bad cup of coffee and pastries, after which they would go on to the thing they really wanted to do on Sunday.
Many of our churches are still “marketing” their church product to the religious consumer that characterized twentieth century America. But that era has passed. The seekers of our time want a deeper connection to God and to others. They will be more likely to connect to your church if there are social spaces in which people are welcomed and in which people can connect deeply with others.
Let’s talk about what it means to welcome people. Biblical hospitality welcomes people as those who bear the image of Christ, not just as potential pledging units. The Son of God welcomes us into union with the Father, so we welcome others into our communities “in Christ.”
There is a crucial contrast between hospitality and marketing. Churches that are selling their product typically give visitors a pamphlet or brochure that explains what the church believes in. Churches that welcome the image of Christ in others want visitors to tell us about them. What is your name? What are your questions? Would you like to meet for coffee and talk about them? There is, of course, nothing wrong with having material that explains the faith. However, many of our churches publish answers to the questions the church wants to answer rather than the questions the visitor and seeker are really asking. Biblical hospitality listens before it talks.
Seekers whose primary concern is theology have already read our websites and already know what we believe before they come. Beneath the protective veneer of their theological arguments, they are really looking for someone to take an interest in them.
Let us look briefly at two biblical truths that are a foundation for biblical hospitality. Romans 15:7 says, “Receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.” Biblical hospitality is a sharing of grace. We are called to welcome each other in the body of Christ in a spirit of forbearance and forgiveness because God welcomes us by grace and his continuing forbearance and forgiveness.
It is notable that the New Testament teaching about hospitality says nothing about how to welcome visitors—except when James warns us against partiality based on social status. The New Testament speaks primarily about how members of a church receive each other. The teaching is corrective. St. Paul was addressing the problem that the Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome did not always “receive one another as Christ had received them.” Thus, the first movement in biblical hospitality in our churches is to counter our natural animosities. “Receive one another as Christ has received you” means to practice hospitality towards those we find hardest to like and love. The Remnant is the vanguard. They make the effort to get to know the people in church that they do not naturally like. It is easy for church members to receive their friends and like-minded people. One mission problem is that members within a cliquey group are friendly to each other but impenetrable to anyone from outside—unless the outsider makes the effort to sit at their table!
This highlights the essential connection between biblical hospitality and our lives of prayer and formation. The labor of love, by which we intentionally welcome those we would not naturally welcome, is not possible without our own living experience of being welcomed by Christ in our most unattractive and unlovable state. We cannot give what we have not received.
The caustic divisions in our church have not typically resulted from essential issues of theology or practice. They have resulted from spiritually immature leaders whose actions were rooted in their own unresolved wounds and reactivity rather than in their experience of grace and spiritual maturity. The only cure for this ailment is to cultivate spiritually mature communities in which the members learn to share their experience of grace with those in their community they find most difficult to love. This begins with the Remnant and will spread from there.
Reorienting Around Biblical Hospitality
Let me say a few words about how to create a gathering rooted in biblical hospitality. Most churches approach it the wrong way. They decide to create an event, then they plan the event, then they recruit volunteers, then they struggle to generate enthusiasm for it. The event ends up being more trouble than it is worth. To reorient around biblical hospitality, hospitality must begin with the Remnant. The group that is committed to praying and growing together typically also enjoys being together. The Remnant says, “What do we want to do together?” Then the Remnant gathers for a joyful meal or other activity and invites others to participate in it. In the beginning, not many others may come, but it does not matter because the Remnant will enjoy being together and their joy will be slowly contagious.
The Remnant must intentionally make space for visitors. The renewal of a church may begin with the Remnant, but it will grow into a new community. This is, incidentally, the way God has always done it. The church itself was the Remnant of first century Judaism that was serious about following Jeus as the Messiah. The Remnant will practice biblical hospitality. When others come, they will make the effort to talk with them. Remnant gatherings reflect the Remnant’s joy and are attractive. As social events are oriented around this joyful and welcoming approach, people will be drawn to them.
In short, don’t try to get the whole church to put on or attend events that many of the members do not want to attend or help with. Build hospitality spaces around the Remnant: The group that wants to be there, wants to do life together, and wants to share their life with others. Make those spaces porous and accessible to all who want to come. Invite seekers and friends. An event that expresses biblical hospitality will be joyful and expansive. Those who come will want to be there. It is better to have a small event that reflects these themes than to attempt a larger, all church event that reflects the bad attitudes of those who are not the Remnant.
Here is an essential point of Remnant theology. You cannot change grumpy people into joyous hospitable people by telling them that is what they should do and browbeating them about it. Grumpy and joyless. What you can do is cultivate a Remnant of people that enjoys praying together and being together. You can cultivate genuine hospitality and communal joy in this Remnant. You can create social gatherings around this Remnant.
This leads to a second biblical truth about hospitality. The Bible does not command us to welcome the stranger because the stranger might join our churches and tithe. The Bible commands us to welcome the stranger because he or she bears the image of God and might be an angel. As Hebrews says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Heb. 13:2).
Overcoming Hospitality Issues
Our church has had issues with hospitality. I can share a couple of my own experiences. About ten years ago, my youngest son was playing a basketball tournament in an unnamed city. On Sunday, my wife and I went to Mass at the nearest Continuing Church. I dressed like a normal person. Mass was lovely. But neither upon arrival nor at our departure did not any clergyman or member of the congregation even bother to even say hi. It was sort of strange.
More recently I was traveling in another area of the country. I found the nearest continuing church to attend on Sunday. Again, the liturgy was lovely. However, again, neither upon arrival nor as I was departing did anyone say hi or ask why I was there, and I was dressed like a bishop. This time I took it upon myself to be hospitable. I introduced myself to a few people and struck up conversations. But if I had simply walked out slowly to my car after Mass, I would have achieved my destination unabated.
I have heard stories where people were greeted in our churches in a manner that was more like a job interview. What kind of Anglican church do you attend? Why are you here? What are you intentions? This is not unique to traditional Anglicans. There is another story of a woman who visited a Roman church. A member asked her which church she normally attended. She said she was Anglican. The interviewer, probably hearing “Episcopalian,” said. “Oh, you guys hate babies.”
Christ Calls Us to Hospitality
Now, we might observe that these are not good practices for church growth. But that would be the wrong observation. The right observation is this: If Christ visits us in the form of a visitor or stranger, why would we ignore him or interrogate him? We should not ignore the image of God in those who visit. Nor should we greet a potential angelic visitor with probing questions about intent. If we learn to see visitors and strangers as divine visitors, if we realize that we will be held accountable by God for how we welcome them, this will change our approach to visitors. As Jesus said, “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me.”
We cannot practice biblical hospitality with visitors unless we are really interested in getting to know people because we value them. We cannot value them unless we have learned through our own formation to see the image of God in them.
In summary, the practice of biblical hospitality begins with a commitment of the church to the life of prayer rooted in the spiritual formation of the Remnant in our communities. The Remnant’s formation will grow into internal hospitality, receiving one another as Christ receives us; then it will lead us to receive the stranger as a bearer of God’s image or an angel.
We will expand on these themes at this retreat. We will hear about what is going on in some of our churches. We will hear about the practice of spiritual direction. We hear about the importance of administration and website appearance to the practice of hospitality. We hope to provide opportunities for discussion about the particular challenges you face in your setting.
Again, thanks for coming! I look forward to our time together.
