The Two Soups Challenge

"We should not stop meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another"

Hebrew 10v25

Recently I've been reading more articles and books on hospitality and quite frankly, it's scared the pants off me! Even as someone who others think is crazy when it comes to the use of our home, the number of people in it and number of days of the week this happens, I met my match in some of these woman who, hand on heart, I'm starting to feel need their heads looking at. We all have our hospitality limits.

But all this extreme hospitality-ing did get me thinking...if these people scare me to death, then my friend - who loves me but thinks I'm a nutter when it comes to hospitality - has got no chance. Reading about those Extreme Hosts when you're just struggling to cook for one is deflating to say the least. And if I wanted to take up any kind of extreme sport, like ironing for example, I wouldn't sit with my mountain of fresh but creased laundry and watch videos of the Extreme Ironing World Championship Final (this is an actual thing...I'll put the link at the end!). I'd start with a step-by-step how-to guide. I'd ask someone who had been ironing a little longer than I had for some tips. I'd start with just a few items of clothes and see how it went. And so maybe we should try and apply this principle to the most extreme of sports in the Christian world, Hospitality?

So here it is... The Two Soups Challenge...

I'll give you 5 easy, step-by-step challenges over the next 5 weeks and if you don't think you've felt any spiritual benefit from doing them after 2 months, then you can shut your door and we never have to speak about the 'H' word again...

Now wait, wait, wait.... before you run for the door let's just talk about this for a minute...

We've said before, the mention of the 'H' word does 1 of 2 things to us; either it sends (most of) us running for cover, OR we think "I simply cannot do any more than I am". Both of these are justified feelings but let me push back on them both. 

For those who want to run for cover let me say that honestly and truly it really doesn't have to make you feel this way. Chances are you feel like this because you've had a bad experience of hospitality, perhaps first hand or through the same traumatic books I've just read. 

If you already feel pushed to capacity, that's ok, think of this challenge as a way to be more intentional and stream-lined in your week, this may help you feel less stressed and more supported in reaching out to others, maybe it will help you be the most effective you can be in your gospel community, evangelising the lost and encouraging your sisters. We all need help with this, and if you're feeling like you just can't do any more then you need to train, encourage and persuade some other people to help you out, maybe this will do that?

Well done for  keeping listening, even if it was with one eye on the exit door!

The reason I say all this is because if Jesus calls us to be hospitable then there must, MUST be some benefit in it, other than the stress of it all reducing our waistlines. We've gone over why the bible tells us to be hospitable in previous posts, so I'll just sum them up here... 

we are told to practice hospitality in the bible as Christians because it brings God glory. 

Glory either by bring those that don't know Him to salvation OR glory by making His children more like Christ. 

Let me start this challenge by also promising that I won't even use the word HOSPITALITY. That's it, last time I'm saying it out loud. Instead lets just call it BETTER COMMUNITY. In this post covid world we live in, community is messed up. Some of us have better community as a result of the pandemic, but most of us, really don't and that's particularly true outside of the church. Mental health is on the rise, unemployment is on the rise, loneliness is on the rise, family breakdown is...you guessed it, on the rise. We, the church, are the place for those who are lost to come and be part of a family. 

Now, I will make no apology that this challenge will cost you. The best challenges do - those ironers didn't get where they are today without some cost involved, their sanity for one - so it will require sacrifice on your part, maybe in money, maybe in time, maybe in both but I promise it won't be so painful it'll make you want to cry like I did after I read those books. And I can whole-heartedly say that I really do think it'll be worth it, I really do think you'll find you can see Jesus more clearly, understand grace better, and that the gospel will be more real for you every day.  God wasn't daft when he invented the church and told us to not stop meeting together, to bear one another's burdens and to pray for one another. He knew we needed it. He knew this was where the lost would find Him and His children would become more like Him. The church is a community, the best community, because Jesus is at the centre of it and it isn't just limited to our church building and the meetings that happen there. It's taken with us when we shut the doors, press the alarm and lock to gates to the church building at the end of the day. It already comes home with us, so you're already half way there!

So...here we go, I'm going to do this Challenge too by the way, just in case you think I'm sat here typing away and laughing. I've thrown the gauntlet down, tossed my hat into the ring and nailed my colours to the mast. Come with me... I dare you...!

P.S. this is absolutely worth a watch!

Extreme Ironing World Championships - Final