Open home: Dr. Jackson on the importance of hospitality

PHC’s Professor of Biology, Dr. Mike Jackson, explained why hospitality is central Christian community—and to Patrick Henry College. The Jackson family was particularly drawn to PHC because of the community. While many faculty and staff members participate in student events, few have made the same effort to connect with the student body as the Jacksons. 

Dr. Jackson, the chair of the Department of Applied Liberal Arts, is a recent addition to the faculty at PHC, but he and his family have wasted no time getting plugged into the PHC community. The entire family often attends sporting events, recitals, plays, and other traditional campus events. In fact,  Jackson is a regular star player of Ultimate Frisbee on Frisbee Fridays.

What makes the Jacksons stand out is their commitment to hospitality. The Jacksons recently opened their home to students for their family classic: The Sing Thing. Students bring their instruments, voices, and hearts of praise to the Jackson home for snacks, fellowship, and music.

While moving near campus, the Jacksons even made the ability to host students a serious factor while house-hunting, and settled on a home that made events like the Sing Thing possible. 

Jackson wanted to dispel the myth that you have to have everything in your home all perfectly put together to be hospitable. “You need to be willing to slightly embarrass yourself by opening up your home,” Dr. Jackson said, “there is always vulnerability in service.” The Jacksons know that their lives are not going to be perfect and ready for display, but they invite people in anyway. For Jackson, it’s not about showing off your house to people or giving them the perfect dining experience; it’s about the relationships.”

According to Jackson, “The core of hospitality is inviting someone to share a part of your life.” For this reason, he encourages students to practice hospitality, even if they don’t exactly have a home to open to others. Students should invite each other into their lives in a way that makes sense for them. “Invite someone on a walk around the Farris Wheel or to Panera.” Ultimately, hospitality should characterize any Christian community, and Dr. Jackson wants to make sure his family is a contributing part of that community.

It hasn’t just been one way either. Jackson also made it clear that the student body has immensely blessed his family as well. They have had students babysit for their children, and a group of students even helped build a fence on their property over the summer.

It is this kind of Christian community that sets Patrick Henry College apart, and Jackson hopes that students will continue to be inspired to carry that spirit of hospitality through the rest of their lives, when they may be able to bless others as they have been so richly blessed.  

Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.