There is a business that bakes between 65,000 and 75,000 chocolate chip cookies every day (or roughly 25 million each year). What makes this unusual is the fact that this business is not a food company nor in the food industry. Rather, it's in the hospitality industry.

Back in 1986, DoubleTree hotels started leaving cookies in rooms as part of their turndown service. About ten years later they moved them to the front desk, and made them available to people at the time of check in.

"A warm chocolate chip cookie can't solve everything, but it can bring a moment of comfort and happiness," says senior vice president, Shawn McAteer.

So why do they do this?

For starters, it's a nice gesture that communicates to customers that they are expecting them and want them to feel welcome. It's also a way to turn first time customers into return customers by giving them a great experience. But it goes even further as surveys show that about 1/3 of DoubleTree customers tell someone else about their cookie experience - that's 25,000 "shares" each day! Supposedly that's the reason that DoubleTree spends less on advertising that any other major hotel chain - they have a better plan.

Recently I was listening to a podcast where the person interviewed was talking about ways churches can reach more people. His answer? Hospitality. But of course - we don't often think about it, but the church is in the hospitality business.

In Romans 12 Paul writes:
Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

The writer of Hebrews shares:
 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have  shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 

Peter says this:

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

And the Apostle John adds this:
We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

We should be the best at valuing people, at caring for people, at helping people. Hospitality should be a core value of the church and its members. So the question comes, what would happen if each of us made it a point to show hospitality at church, especially to guests? After all, we do want them to return. And how great would it be if a guest shared their WCC experience story with someone else?

That doesn't mean we need to bake cookies (if you would like to try the DoubleTree recipe, here is a link). Besides, we have doughnuts. But it does mean that we should be expecting guests, that we need to reach out to them and be friendly, that we need to be looking for ways to help them, and that we give them an experience that they might want to talk about with others.

Just remember - there is more at stake than a hotel room.  We're talking about eternity.  Sure we want them to return the next Sunday, but we also want to add them to the family!  God's family - and the WCC family!