iRetire4Him Show 156: Why Your Living Room Might Be Your Greatest Ministry This Year

Jim Brangenberg: You've tuned into iWork4Him.

Martha Brangenberg: Wait a minute, you've tuned into iRetire4Him.

Jim Brangenberg: Okay. Okay. Okay. No fighting here.

Martha Brangenberg: You've tuned into a joint iWork4Him/ iRetire4Him New Year's special. We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to inspire every believer in the workplace - and retired - to recognize God's work in their lives, whether they're getting paid or not.

Jim Brangenberg: Happy New Year. There's power in gathering when people gather together outside of their workplace and in a home. There's an amazing transformation that takes place. Hairs let down and ties are loosened and comfy sweatshirts are dawned, or that ugly New Year's sweater comes out of the closet. We encourage every one of you to listen to the challenge of today's show, a short one for sure, and let God transform your New Year's celebration into something that is a little more iWork4Him style.

Martha, even though it's just another day, a New Year's celebration is something special, isn't it?

Martha Brangenberg: Oh, it most definitely is. I think so many people look forward to all that comes with saying goodbye to one year and hello to a new year and new opportunities. And to do that together with people that you love and care about is powerful.

Jim Brangenberg: Yeah, we've had quite a few New Year's type celebrations over the years. And Super Bowl parties, by the way. Yes. But that's a topic for another show... but we had quite a few New Year's celebrations in our homes in New Years past. Why do we do it?

Martha Brangenberg: I think what I just said, Jim, is that we look at New Year's Eve as this time to reminisce, look at the last year things, highs and lows, things that you've accomplished or things that have happened in our lives, and then turning that calendar over to the new year and anticipating all that might be ahead and doing that with friends and family and neighbors, or coworkers, whatever we're gonna talk about today, is so powerful because you have experiences that you've lived together and you're anticipating, and it's just one way, one of many ways really, to celebrate that together and to recognize it.

Jim Brangenberg: Heck, I just like to do it because I like to have a potluck.

Martha Brangenberg: You like the food.

Jim Brangenberg: I love the food. I love the punch. Martha makes this chocolate mocha ice cream punchy thing and I love hanging out with friends and I love bringing people in our home that otherwise would be at home alone. I hate the thought of people being home alone.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah. It's really not celebrating when you're sitting at home instead of ringing in the new year as people say. And for Jim - and Jim, for you and I, it hasn't always been at midnight that we've rung in the new year. We're like. It's 12 o'clock somewhere. (chuckling) You don't have to stay up and get all tired to start off your new year in order to celebrate together.

Jim Brangenberg: But I disagree with Martha. I do think you need to stay up till midnight. Because it's just a thing. It just is a thing.

Martha Brangenberg: Oh. But sometimes people would use as an excuse not to come.

Jim Brangenberg: Yeah. We start the party early enough. Like when we were at the beach in Florida, we invited all of our neighbors over and sometimes 10, 15, 20 of 'em would come. And most of them would peter out before midnight ever got to be anywhere close to happening.

Martha Brangenberg: Which really wasn't a good idea on the beach anyway, 'cause fireworks were gonna go off at midnight whether you were in bed or whether you were awake and they were gonna wake you up.

Jim Brangenberg: There was no absolutely no point in going to bed early in florida. Absolutely not. They were doing explosions way off into into the new year. We had, and I think really, if I remember, our friends, Mike and Kathy were the only ones that really made it up to midnight with us pretty consistently.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah.

Jim Brangenberg: And by the way, New Year's in Florida, pretty nice. Sixties for a low, windows are open, seventies for high. Pretty nice. Pretty nice. Yeah. But Martha, for some New Year's is about that special bottle of bubbly, and we don't drink, but when we've invited others in, we just let 'em know that they could bring alcohol if that's what they choose. Why is that? Why did we decide that was okay?

Martha Brangenberg: For us, it was like we're gonna be who we are and who we have decided and what we've decided to do in our lives, but we really didn't want to hinder other people from coming because for some people it is about popping that cork and tinking the glasses and we would do that with our sparkly apple cider. But, just wanted, again, to make our home feel comfortable for people and let them choose how they do that. Another thing that we loved about having especially neighbors over, Jim, on New Year's Eve, is nobody had to drive home.

So it was a safe environment for just keeping people off the road, not only for their own 'cause we didn't end up with people being drunk at our parties at all.

Jim Brangenberg: No, because people came to our house and they weren't being encouraged to drink by other people.

Martha Brangenberg: But they would have their beverages or whatever. But we don't like the idea of driving in traffic after midnight on New Year's, because other people don't make good choices and it could be dangerous out there. So having people in our home that live nearby in our neighborhood and coworkers that could stay close by, that was another reason that we like to do that.

Jim Brangenberg: And you could always be a designated driver and drive people home if they've had too much. But like I said, if you do it in your neighborhood, they can walk home or wander home or wobble home or whatever it may be.

Martha Brangenberg: Jim, what do you think it is about having a party in our home that helps to break down those barriers and actually let real conversations happen?

Jim Brangenberg: First of all, it's really cool because if you're having food, you get to pray over the food, 'cause if it in your home, you can do what you wanna do. And we like to pray over our food. It just, we get a chance to love on people.

It's our space. It's our space that's always bathed in prayer. So people come in to our home. It's a place that the Holy Spirit's already living and breathing and it impacts people, it impacts the conversation. But when somebody comes into your home, it's your domain and you get a chance to really just make them feel comfortable and loved on. And it's different than them being in their home. And because our home is different, it feels different and we just love having people come into our house.

Martha Brangenberg: I was also thinking sometimes at work people put up a fake front. And one of the things we've really tried to do in our home -

Jim Brangenberg: not like a false wall.

Martha Brangenberg: No. Like a mask. Wearing mask. When they come in our home, one of our biggest focuses is on making people feel comfortable and relaxed and be themselves. And so I think when you do that in an environment that's homey, people are more likely to take a deep breath and to relax a little bit and to enjoy the environment that's been set around them.

I always have made it a point to make sure that the decorations are something that people can look in and admire and pay attention to, and that it goes throughout the home and they feel free to go in different rooms and nothing was off limits. And all of that is intentional to just help people feel like it's not a mystery to be in our home and it's not something they should be afraid of.

Speaking of great conversations. You gonna interrupt this conversation?

Jim Brangenberg: No, I'm not, but I wanted to say some other things. I just, when we invited people in and made them feel comfortable and the inviting environment, but being able to greet people with a hug. People you don't always get to hug or shake their hands. It just, when you're sitting in your own home and people know that it's your own home, and they may, because we were believers and most of 'em were not. They just were kinda curious 'cause they're used to religious freak kind of people, but we were different than that and it was just nice to be able to share time with them.

It was something that was cherished and it was something that wasn't done in our neighborhood. And what I'm trying to figure out is how do we do it in our new little Missouri house? We may have to do it in the office.

Martha Brangenberg: We do have other spaces that we can use. So I know, I was just gonna say, you're talking in past tense because it's been a little bit of a challenge to get into that role here in a new location. And I think that's a good challenge for everybody is to say, you know what, maybe this is the year, maybe this is the year that you bite the bullet and you just say, you know what, there might just be a few people that attend, but we're gonna invite you over.

Jim Brangenberg: At the beach, we would put the fireplace video on the television. And we would turn music on very softly so as not to hamper conversation. A lot of times people have music really loud, then you have to yell and nobody wants to yell.

Martha Brangenberg: No, but it's nice to have a little filler.

Jim Brangenberg: It is nice to have a little filler.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay. Okay, so now can I talk of great conversations? Okay. So we wanna have great conversations in our homes when we invite people in. Jim, you and I are participating in some amazing location events this year in 2026, and we'd really love for you all to be a part of them.

And when we are there, we can have a great conversation together because I know that there will be many. Check out our events page for all of the details. Go to iWork4Him.com/events, but you just might see us in places like Maryland, North Carolina, Orlando, or Cincinnati this year just to name a few. So each event is unique and kingdom focused. We look forward to great conversations.

Jim Brangenberg: And if you're listening to the show and we've not met face to face, when you get to those events, make sure you come up and introduce yourselves. We'd love to hear from you.

Martha Brangenberg: Or even if we've met you before face to face please do so.

Jim Brangenberg: Well, but bring a gift.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay. (laughter)

Jim Brangenberg: Sorry.

Martha Brangenberg: Jim likes chocolate.

Jim Brangenberg: I really like Mountain Dew better. I like dark chocolate, but that's not really, it's, I'm not looking for that kind of gift.

Martha Brangenberg: It's awkward to bring a case of Mountain Dew, Jim.

Jim Brangenberg: It is. A bottle's fine. Okay. All right, so let's talk about really the practicality, what we're suggesting. What we're suggesting is that you open up your home to guests, that you clean your home and prepare it for guests, and that you dedicate - you're just a steward of your home. You don't really own your own home anyway, and you're a steward of it. So steward it well and bring people in, whether you're working and you bring people in from the office.

Or you're retired and you bring people in from the neighborhood, or whether you're working, you bring people in from the neighborhood and you're retired to bring people in from your old office, however you wanna do it, but to invite people into your environment.

Martha Brangenberg: That was really confusing, by the way. (laughter)

Jim Brangenberg: Just bring people into your house and don't just - here's my challenge. Don't just invite a bunch of church people to your house. Invite the people that don't know Jesus to your house and maybe intersperse a couple of church people so they can interact, you can intermix your groups. Mix it up a little.

Martha Brangenberg: Just say you're having friends over, and then that can be whatever you want it to be.

Jim Brangenberg: It's not Friendsgiving, its Friends...ynewyear.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah. So let's talk about some things that can make it simple, because I think another thing that's an obstacle is people think it has to be complex. It has to be pinterest worthy.

Jim Brangenberg: My mom hated having parties. She was always worried about all the details. She's freaked out about the details.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah. But if you have, say, okay, we're gonna do hor d'oeuvres or finger foods, or we're gonna do appetizers, or we're gonna do just desserts. Just say, Hey, just bring something to share and make it simple. Let them bring it, right, on their own platter.

And if they, if you need to get out some dishes, get out some dishes, but don't make a big deal out of it. Just try to be as graceful as possible, but allow people to carry the load with you. Don't make it so difficult that you're like I'm never doing this again. So I just wanna say, start off simple.

Make it a potluck of whatever sort. Like I just gave you all those ideas. Even have somebody bring - we had that for Thanksgiving, Jim, we had Sprite with cranberry in it. Or you know you can make the punch.

Jim Brangenberg: My son-in-law bit into one of the cranberries. That was the first time he'd ever bitten into a cranberry.

Martha Brangenberg: I don't think you're supposed to do that.

Jim Brangenberg: I don't think you're supposed to do that either. No, but so potluck is great. Besides potluck, everybody always brings your best recipes to a potluck.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah.

Jim Brangenberg: It is the delicacy of grazing. Unbelievable. And make sure somebody brings those little weenies that you put toothpicks in, 'cause those are always a good New Year's Eve party. All right. So but you could have a theme. Could you have a theme?

Martha Brangenberg: It is a theme.

Jim Brangenberg: Wow.

Martha Brangenberg: Okay. Yes. You could say, come with like your word of the year, or maybe come with a something that you want, a poem you wanna share, or you could do some things too that can spark conversation.

So I know over the years, Jim, we have done different things where we've had. There are a lot of games out there: would you rather? Or I can't think of all of 'em off the top of my head, but they're conversation games.

Jim Brangenberg: Or a puzzle.

Martha Brangenberg: Or...

Jim Brangenberg: oh, no puzzles. Wow. That's funny. Did you hear that? Just live on the air. No puzzles. We didn't. Yeah, we don't rehearse this.

Martha Brangenberg: I don't think puzzles is really good for a New Year's party, but, hey, there might be a, somebody that's an introvert that would like to.

Jim Brangenberg: In your family puzzles work. It's like an all out sport, full contact.

Martha Brangenberg: Yep. But we wanna show the best of ourselves that day. Okay. And that may not be doing possible.

Jim Brangenberg: So because you're not providing alcoholic beverages, and I'm just telling you, if you listen to the show, please don't provide alcoholic beverages. The Bible doesn't say don't drink. It doesn't, but I'm telling you, it provides the wrong message. So just be alcohol free. If people wanna bring alcohol, it's okay, but be alcohol free. And provide alcohol free phenomenal beverages. If you want it, email Martha at I work the number four him.com, she'll give you the mocha punch recipe. It's fabulous.

It is. It's also, so the Sherbert Punch recipe easy, the Rainbow Sherbert punch recipe. Which is really rainbow sherbert and some Sprite and some Pineapple juice. All right. But provide, and of course, bring water. If you're a friend of mine, mountain Dew or Coke or some diet drinks, that kind thing.

Martha Brangenberg: So you'll drink Mountain Dew on New Year's Eve because it's late at night and you wanna stay up, right?

Jim Brangenberg: That's right. But provide an option of drinks and always have something diet, 'cause there's people that wanna drink chemicals.

Martha Brangenberg: You're so good at party planning, Jim.

Jim Brangenberg: And make sure you have, for party planning, you gotta have those blow whistle things that go, like a kazoo with the thing that flies up. You gotta have that and Party hats for New Year's Eve. Absolutely. Not to wear the whole night, 'cause that's ridiculous, but to put on right when the ball starts dropping in New York City.

Martha Brangenberg: Speaking of that, you think it's important to watch the ball drop?

Jim Brangenberg: It is important. Put it on your television - because it's fun!

Martha Brangenberg: It is.

Jim Brangenberg: And it does a whole minute countdown. And it's just the longest minute of the year. And besides they spend like a million dollars building that thing every cotton picking year. You might as well let 'em get some benefit by having you see it in your part of the country. And the good news is if you're in California, it's only nine o'clock when it's dropping.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah. You can watch it early.

Jim Brangenberg: That's right. Alright.

Martha Brangenberg: Or rerun it every hour.

Jim Brangenberg: So a game, you could do a game.

Martha Brangenberg: Yep.

Jim Brangenberg: You can do all kinds of things. If you have a well lit backyard.

Martha Brangenberg: The big thing is to take the initiative and make something happen because you might just open the door for future relationship with the people that you invite. They're gonna feel more comfortable with you, and then you never know what they're gonna experience in the new year where they may need to lean on your shoulder or talk to you, and they're gonna feel more comfortable and more familiar in a good way because they have had that time with you and you've shown that you just care about them and want them to have a enjoyable evening, which just builds on your relationship. And that's really why we do it, Jim. It's all about relationship.

Jim Brangenberg: Absolutely.

Martha Brangenberg: Love God, love others. That is what the Bible summarizes.

Jim Brangenberg: Wow. Somebody said that. Oh yeah, Jesus did.

Martha Brangenberg: Yeah, he did. He did.

Jim Brangenberg: He summarized the entirety of the law and the prophets in two sentences.

Martha Brangenberg: And it's really not that it's about the new year, but it's a great excuse - there are certain times of the year that we have great excuses for having parties, getting people together for fun, Super Bowl, you mentioned it. That's another great one. So if you can't make it happen for New Year's this year, maybe think ahead. Think ahead, think about the Super Bowl and how much fun you could have, just having everybody together.

Jim Brangenberg: And praise God, this year there'll be an alternative halftime show.

Martha Brangenberg: That's right.

Jim Brangenberg: All right, so for more ideas and how you can do this kind of thing all year long, get a copy of one of our books for the cost of shipping only during the month of January. You can in fact call our one 800 number, which is not an 800 number. It's an 8 6 6 number 7 1 3 96 75, and put it in an order for one of our books or multiple books.

Maybe you'd like to give them away for New Year's presents to a whole bunch of your friends just for the cost of shipping. 8 6 6 7 1 3 96 75, or you could always email Martha while you're getting that recipe for that Mocha punch, email at Martha at iWork4Him.com. Martha at I work the number for him.com.

Martha Brangenberg: And we'll have all that in the show notes as well.

Jim Brangenberg: Oh yes, the show notes. Love that.

Before we go we want to make sure we thank each one of you and to make sure you know how much you all mean to us. Our audience is amazing and it's exciting every week, or if you listen to iRetire4Him, every other week, to share news stories of how God is using people right where they are to make an impact on the kingdom. You can help keep this message going through a simple program where you round up your purchases on your credit card. Just listen to the commercial at the end of the show today, or also go to iWork4Him.com/donate for all the details on our Swipe program.

So happy New Year from all of us at iWork4Him!