Typologies of congregational hospitality to strangers: A Q methodology study in Indonesian churches

Abstract

Christian congregations in Indonesia have been receiving more and more migrants, religious others and socially marginal people, but there was little empirical knowledge of how church leadership has conceived of the concept of hospitality to strangers. Hospitality has profound theological meaning and social danger in a pluralistic and precarious environment. This study aimed to establish and define typologies of congregational hospitality to strangers among leaders of the Gereja Masehi Injili di Minahasa (GMIM) in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, and determine its theological and missional implications. This study used Q methodology to develop a 48-statement Q-sample of hospitality based on biblical, ecclesial and ecclesiological material. Forty-eight GMIM leaders were asked to complete Q-sorts on a −5 +5 grid and were interviewed briefly post-sort. Shared viewpoints were derived and interpreted by using a by-person factor analysis with Varimax rotation. Three coherent factors were identified: inclusive, cautious and boundary-keeping and discipleship-oriented transformative hospitality. These typologies revealed divergent patterns of welcome, selectivity and boundary-shaping, as well as tensions between compassion and protection, charity and reciprocity, and programme continuity and structural change. The article reveals that the leaders of GMIM have worked with an implicit and opposite theology of hospitality, which informed the posture of their mission in a Muslim-majority democracy.
Contribution: The mapping of these typologies and their application to world and African theological discourse has made this study an addition to empirical practical theology and a model for creating and training leaders, ecclesial self-reflection and the creation of more coherent and hospitable practices in Indonesian churches.