Sing For Your Supper!

Our church doesn't do hospitality.
I mean there isn't a tradition of inviting each other for meals at our homes in this church. It doesn't even do fellowship lunches (potlucks) very often. It DOES have small groups and I think that must satisfy people's need for friendship, but Jamie and I can't get to the small groups so we feel kind of semi-detached from the members of our church.

But the Bible seems to value hospitality highly. In Acts 2 the description of the new church lists eating together in each other's homes as one of the features of that thriving church to which God added numbers daily.

The other problem is that all of the events, courses, groups here in this church seem to separate families in the evening. There is an Evangelism course going on at the moment. It starts at 8.00pm and the pastor told us all to 'get babysitters' and come because it was so important. My blood pressure rose at that point. Firstly, my mission field is my teenage children and how can I minister to and mentor them when I am out in the evening at evangelism courses and so on? And secondly, I do wish churches would organise their events so parents don't need to be separated from their children all the time!

We've tried to solve this by inviting families to our home for meals as often as we can. It's tricky though, because hospitality is NOT my gift. {g} I get stressed easily and fret about everything, the food, the state of the kitchen floor, the fact that we don't have any matching dishes etc etc.

Since we've been in the Worship Team, we've worked hard to encourage and mentor new musicians and bring new singers into the team which has now doubled in size. This time last year we invited all the worship team and their families for tea one Sunday. And yesterday, we had something I (I think?) invented, called, Sing For Your Supper.

The idea was the musicians and their families were invited to our house for a simple meal of soups, bread and fruit and while they were here they had to sing a song to the assembled company. It went really well. I am so thankful!

We had:
chicken noodle soup
spicy black bean soup
lentil and vegetable soup
with:
wholewheat bread,
sundried tomato and parmesan bread
malted mixed grain bread
all of the above was home-made
with:
fresh slices of pineapple, watermelon, grapes, satsumas etc.

People seemed so grateful to come straight from a week at work and not have to cook for their families, the mums especially! (Grace, Jack and I had done it all!) The ones with little kids came early and the older people without kids, who worked late, came later, but they all seemed to coincide at one point!

The songs we heard ranged from:
the theme tune to Fireman Sam (by a toddler) to the Lament of Orpheus from Orpheus and Euridice (by a lady who's a professional opera singer!) One song was a group event. It was some sort of African gathering song with parts which we were all taught! We had no idea what we were singing (it was in an African language) but it was beautiful and atmospheric! Guitars and our out of tune piano were played. Singers ranged in age from 2 years old to mid 60's.

I am so grateful that God planted this idea in my head. We had some great fellowship. The focus was not on the food or my floors. (My stress-point!) It was where it should be, on each other, through the songs.

If anyone would like to borrow this idea, please do!
I want to encourage you to be hospitable!
Even if it is not your gift!{g}