Radical hospitality

Helene Chou

With the medals tallied and the tourists home, the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, British Columbia may have captured the world’s attention, but it was the friendliness and generosity of thousands of volunteers that won the hearts of international athletes and guests. More Than Gold (MTG), a network of the Christian faith community, is one of the many groups that recruited and trained thousands of volunteers for the games. During the first three days of events, MTG served more than 160,000 cups of hot drinks to locals and visitors on the street.

“It’s about radical hospitality,” says Karen Reed, executive director of MTG. “Whether we are serving free coffee to people waiting in lines, or offering directions and free maps to guests looking for Olympic events, we want everyone to feel generously served.”

As an expression of “radical hospitality,” some church members have even opened their homes offering housing to Olympic travelers. Many churches have made their facilities available as meeting places for rest, relaxation and prayer.

The MTG theme and logo carry on a tradition that dates back to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. It was developed by the Southern Baptist Convention in association with the International Sports Coalition, a non-profit organization mandated to coordinate the volunteer efforts of the faith community.