[LIVE BLOG] Radical Hospitality Panel

1:21
Radical Hospitality
Bjorn Peterson (The 99 Collective)
Chagall Room

Transformational leadership revolves around the idea of who we are as informed by the Gospel. Radical Hospitality aims to give something concrete to the "accompaniment" lens presented by Pr. Rafael Malpica-Padilla.

What leads to feeling welcome? Concepts like "compassion, acceptance, at ease, happiness, humbled, heard, and understood".

What leads to feeling unwelcome? Concepts like "excluded, uncomfortable, shunned, hurt, difficult, isolated, ignored, unseen, and unimportant".

Often when we feel unwelcome, the person doing it did not intend it. Out of love, sometimes we go and make a mess of things. Some ministries leave people unknown and hurt. A model for thinking in terms of Radical Hospitality is comprised of Values, Capacity, Equity Areas, which provide "a way to be" as we try to love.

Accompaniment Values: Mutuality, Inclusivity, Vulnerability, Empowerment, Sustainability. These values start to create a way of being, but how do you put them into practice? Decision-Making, Resource-Sharing, Story-Telling, Network-Building, Expertise-Recognizing. We must remember "nothing changes till it changes". In other words these values look nice, but until they are put into practice they are toothless.

Traditional hospitality maintains a power imbalance - I give to you, I have this to share with you. It's one way and not sought. Radical Hospitality values gives a way of being when we are in our equity areas. Any time we make a decision about the way to do things, we privilege a certain set of people who think that way.

Some questions to consider:
Decision-Making: Who makes the decisions? Who sets the agenda? What ways of making decisions are used or not used?

Resource-Sharing: Do we create hierarchies of gifts?

Story-Telling: Whose story is untold? What gates kept closed to story-telling? What kinds of story-telling are allowed?

Network-Building: Who gets to network? What access issues stand in the way? Who do we believe is worthy of our relationships?

Expertise-Recognizing: Who is an expert? How is someone designated an expert? What ways of knowing are privileged (i.e. mind or heart or body)?

Expanding Our Capacities: Empathy Skills (e.g. silence), Asset Based Thinking, System Thinking (e.g. connect the dots, connect all the separate issues, otherwise make decisions in isolation), Formation Disciplines (e.g. prayer, dancing, etc).