Fruitful Words

“Christian hospitality is a matter of obedience to God.”

(I will give the proper attribution once I find out who said that.)

What do you think?

Hospitality Homework for last week was to invite someone over for a meal.

Tuesday night my guest showed up along with the torrential rain that has inundated northern California.

Problem - I thought our meal was for Thursday and I was in the midst of writing two papers due for Wednesday. One of the papers was on communication! Good thing my prof didn’t know that in reality I flunked that test.

Afterwards I thought about how I could’ve handled it better. My house was astrew with books, papers and projects. Not much food of the healthy kind was available. But I could’ve taken us to a nearby restaurant, since I needed to eat as well.

On Sunday we finally had a meal together: Chicken Tortilla Soup, oranges, Best Ever Muffins (which weren’t) and water. No salad because the fixings were yuck. Despite all this, we had a tasty meal and fun time.

My guest even asked for the soup recipe; which could be renamed as dump soup. So here it is as given to me by Lori.

Dump the following in a soup pan and heat until warm:

• 1 can (12.5 oz) chunk chicken breast
• 1 can (15 oz.) of black beans
• 1 can (15 oz.) of kernel corn
• 2 can s(15 oz. each) of chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups salsa

Serve over tortillas and top with shredded cheese, avocado slices, sour cream and olives.

If you have more time, money and a sensitive palate you could try this version that tastes like it came from Applebee’s. Truth be told, I prefer the one that tastes like it came from Lori’s.

What are some of your hospitality goofs? Favorite dump meals?

P.S. A good dump cake recipe is here. Read the 7th comment for the actual recipe.

Sunday nights I attend a hospitality group with (9-1 adults and scads of kids. This 4 week small group, led by John & Shula, will help us to understand and then to better implement hospiality in our own spheres of influence.

We start out with a potluck dinner and lots of talking.

• John then leads in a lecture/discussion on some aspect of hospitality.
• The evening progresses to dessert, coffee, and more talk.
• Sometimes we have homework assignments to fulfill during the week.
• When we get to the lecture/discussion portion of the evening, the kiddos and a babysitter go to another room and have some fun more suited to their ages.

I am attending this group for 4 reasons . . .

1.  To get me back into the entertaining/hospitality mode . . . .  In July of 2006 I felt like hospitality had taken a backseat far too long. Read here for more. Despite some valiant attempts (here, here and here) I didn’t get past the writing stage. John & Shula are great examples of showing hospitality. Nothing like learning this from the “masters.”
2. To eat a meal with people . . . .  As a single I eat most of my meals alone. The exceptions are my evening seminary classes and when my nieces/sista invite me over.
3. To get to know others better .. . . You can’t get to know others on Sunday mornings at church  - too much going on.
4. To observe group communication for a paper I have to write . . . . This observation has made me sensitive to what is working well in this group. And there is plenty.

Eventual Outcome of Group

The typical Dinners for 6 has been suggested. But an even better idea was suggested.

Form a Sunday hospitality group - Couples, singles and families would sign up (maybe once a quarter) to invite others to share the Sunday afternoon meal with them after Church. This could be at a restaurant, park or at the host’s home. Really the ideas are endless.

We are just at the beginning stages of brainstorming and it is exciting. It is also exciting to “work” with John, Shula and their kids in this hospitality experiment at CNC.

 What do you think? Any ideas? Suggestions? What’s worked at your church?

Passover is Tuesday, April 3rd. Obviously it is a very important holiday for the Jews. It  also has high significance for Christians as well.  Would you like to know why? Celebrate its beauty? 

We are collecting a list of host homes who would be open to offering this celebration to our CNC family. Each host home can choose the night (first week in April) that best suits them.

• If interested, please let me know. Tell me which night and how many people you can invite.

• If you are interested in leading or attending, please let me know that as well.

More information will be in upcoming bulletins and on this blog.

Help! I have got to get “family-style” cooking out of my head. I’ve learned that for some food, I just don’t want lots of leftovers. So over the weekend I searched high (on the internet) and low (actual books) for recipes for one or two people.

Below is my menu. Some of the recipes* are below. Some recipes I’ll post after I’ve tried them or give you an update. For more Menu ideas check out I’m An Organizing Junkie. 

• Monday: Baked potato with beans, broccoli, ham, and cheese; green salad
• Tuesday: Crockpot chicken* and applesauce.
• Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs (meatballs are frozen from several weeks ago); salad.
• Thursday: Minestrone soup and biscuits for two. (I’ll let you know how this turns out.)
• Friday: Shepherds Pie
• Satuday: Chicken and Veggies in a foil packet.*
• Sunday: Leftovers.

(more…)

10:45 a.m., during the second service in Room 4.

This will be a chance for us to visit with one another.
Coffee, tea, juice and bagels will be served along with our conversation.

Call Susan if you’d like to help or have any questions,

Don’t you think this could be fun?!!

Something’s growing at CNC.

It’s easy to create.
It’s bubbling with life.
And it’s meant to be shared.

It’s Friendship Bread. Also known as Amish Friendship Bread and Herman bread.

According to Wikipedia, Amish Friendship Bread, “is the chain letter of the baking world [or like zucchini from summer gardens]. The idea is very simple: a friend gives you a cup of yeast culture (also known as “starter”) and a copy of instructions. Following the instructions, you add sugar, flour and milk and it rises.”

“Eventually, you end up with 4 cups of the starter. You use one to make bread, keep one to start a new cycle and give two to your friends. Each of your friends also gets a copy of the instructions for what to do with the yeast starter. The latter part makes it somewhat like a chain letter.”

The idea is simple: use some, keep some and give some away. A recipe like this can quickly get out-of-hand and that’s what Women’s Ministry is proposing. In fact, let’s see how out of hand we can get. And how quickly we can do it.

Pass it on
Do you think it’s possible for every woman of the church to receive starter? All those on the mailing list? Wouldn’t this be a fun way to connect with others? An unusual way to build community? Let’s see if we can pass it on to all the Family by the end of October.

“Hello, my name is Susan. It’s good to see you at church today. I’d like to give you a little something. It’s a Friendship muffin, (aha, you didn’t know you could make muffins with it, did you?), a bag of starter and a recipe to make your own muffins or loaf of bread.”“When you’ve made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called “friendship bread”.[1]

It’s a cookbook. Women’s Ministry is collecting recipes for an all-church cookbook.

So while you’re passing out samples and starter, how about passing out reminders to submit recipes (need them by August 15) and reserve a copy of the cookbook. Hardcopy forms are on the Secret Sister bookshelf; an electronic form can be received by e-mailing cncwomensministry@yahoo.com.

Be sure to grow and pass on the starter you receive. Even better yet, why don’t you start your own chain? The recipe for the starter and bread is in a separate post. When you’ve passed it on, please let me know by commenting here or click on Cookbook and comment on the post titled – Friendship Bread - Pass It On.

Let’s see how long it does take us to pass it on to all the CNC community.

Maybe at CNC we could call it Community Bread. ‘Cuz that’s what we’re doing with our sharing – building community. That’s what we’re doing with our cookbook – building community. That’s what Pastor will be preaching on – building community.

Why? Because Community Matters in the short-haul, long-haul and in Eternity.

[1] http://www.armchair.com/recipe/bake002.html

Hospitality has been the theme of my life lately. Words, advice, situations, Bible reading, and stories I come across all seem to relate to this theme. So I did some intentional internet research and found an article by Richard Krekcir that deals with Implementing Hospitality.

For the whole article go to In Thy Word Website. Type in hospitality in the Search for _________ on this Website button. Click Go. You will see 33 hits. It is the first article. Sorry, despite four tries, I wasn’t able to link directly to the article.

I will divide this article into smaller parts. I will post successive parts after I’ve digested the previous one. Please share your comments and learning with me as we go along.

Part 1

Key Passages on Hospitality are below.

The links are to Biblegateway.com and include the verses in three translations: NIV, Amplified and NLT. While there you can also click on the commnetary link to get more information.

Matthew 25: 34-43

Luke 10:30-37

Acts 4:32

Romans 12:13

I Timothy 5:10

Hebrews 13:2

I Peter 4:7-11 - These are the verses that started my hospitality journey.

3 John 1:5-8

I look forward to seeing what you learn.

“To be honest I’ve got over the ‘house isn’t tidy’ … I think it’s linked to pride … and recently the battle between the need to see friends has won over the house pride curse,” said See-through faith under the post “Hospitality Field Trip Refreshes and Teaches.”

I can see how pride can be a deterrent to hospitality. Maybe this is part of the Martha mentality.

But when is messy too messy to have people over?

On one hand, When my home gets to a certain level of “lived in” and someone comes over, I am embarrassed that I let the house get so bad. I am definitely distracted. Maybe this is pride.

On the other hand, if I pop over to someone else’s home and it’s lived in, that doesn’t bother me.

And if I may borrow another hand, there is a neighbor, J, I used to visit* often in the late afternoon. Her home was always picked up and it was restful to be there.** Because it was tidy I didn’t feel like I was intruding or coming at a bad time. J made me feel like I was the most important thing on her to-do list.

Maybe that’s part of the definition of hospitality.

I’ve always wanted to have that kind of home. I’ve always wanted to give my guests that kind of special attention.

As you can see I have too many hands and not much of a conclusion.

What is your take on the messy/tidy/pride issue? How do you feel towards it as the hostess? As the guest?

* This was when I lived in a small village in England.
** J and I had children of similar ages and it really was restful. I wonder if J remembers it that way?

My friend Lorna* emailed me her comment on hospitality. She doesn’t have a blog and I don’t know how (yet) to let people without blogs leave a message. Any ideas or help from y’all?

Susan,

I enjoyed reading your blog entry about hospitality. I also realized something.

Going to someone’s home for a visit or meal can be refreshing! I stayed home from E & R’s house last Friday night because I was tired. I also had the opportunity to go to J & M’s house on the same day.

What if the Lord was providing a real opportunity for me to be refreshed?! I just never thought that way before.

Thanks!
Have a good day.
Love, Lorna

* Lorna gave me permission to use her name. Otherwise I will just use the person’s first initial.