The Two Soups Challenge - Step 2: Find Something To Do

 "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had"

Acts 4:32

Now that you've found your friend the next step is this...

  find something to do together. 

This can quite literally be anything...

Walk your dogs

Pick your kids up from school

Go to the gym (hats off to ya!)

Have tea together...or lunch

Do your shopping together

Read the Bible together

Clean the house together

whatever...

The key to this step is to pick something that you both already do every week. So for example, you both eat food, more than once a day, everyday. What if you were to eat some of that food together one of the days you were already planning on eating it?

Dogs need walking (I'm told, I only have rabbits and, while you can buy rabbit leads, I'm not that kinda gal...), what if you were to walk your dogs at the same time, in the same place one of the days you were already planning on walking your dogs? 

The same goes for absolutely anything you regularly do in your week. Just do it together. Perhaps you're already doing this...which makes you guys Ginger Rogers this week...well done!

Now there's a key point to remember in this step...

You both have to commit to doing this thing, even if it is a thing you already do together. It might seem silly to say to one another "Hey want to walk the dogs to today?" even though you've been doing that every day for the last 10 years, but what's important in this step is that this activity now becomes an intentional better community activity, one which you consciously committed to doing. 

 So making this into a 'thing', making it intentional and a named part of your week's plans is an important step. It's also a really helpful step if one of you has never done much hospitality, er, community, before or if this is something that is extra to your normal busy schedule, because this shows that this small everyday thing is going to be a priority, not just a regular joy in your week.

Why is this important, you might well ask? The early church did almost everything together, it sounds exhausting to my introverted mind, but there it is all over the book of Acts. They ate together, sang together, went to prison together, you name it, in everything they did someone else was with them...at least one person. Only a few of the first Christians were tasked with doing out of the ordinary evangelism like preaching on the steps of the temple, most of the other three thousand strong church was just bumbling about with each other, telling off their children, walking their dogs and eating their tea...all together. It sounds so ordinary when you think about it. So average. So boring. But then I did say that better community isn't that scary when you boil it down.

A couple of pointers...

If you're feeling brave and are eating a meal together once a week, then don't panic, just decide to eat something really easy - pasta in some kind of sauce and garlic bread, or something you can whack in the slow cooker and then eat with bread, or just order a take away, I mean let's get this party started! -  Pick your food and then split it between you, one bring the pasta and sauce, the other the bread...it's that simple. 

If you're shopping together, grab a coffee as well...this is supposed to be fun!

And if you're going to the gym...I can't help you, no one can...