Is RiverStone truly a welcoming church, and what would it take to be one? Working through a wide sweep of Scripture, this message defines welcome as genuine hospitality — being approachable, warm, and glad to receive the stranger, remembering that a stranger is only a stranger the first time you meet them. Matthew 25 sharpens the stakes: how we receive the hungry, the sick, and the outsider is how we receive Christ Himself. Welcome also means creating real places to belong, since 1 Peter 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 teach that every person carries gifts meant to be used in the body, and it means embracing diversity of race, background, income, dress, and opinion rather than settling for what Billy Graham called the most segregated hour in America. Because anyone in Christ is a new creation, the invitation stands open to all.