5/27/26 - 2148: The Kingdom Impact of Simple Hospitality

Jim: This is iWork4Him. This is also iRetire4Him

Martha: Where faith meets work and faith meets retirement, and believers unleash their calling.

Jim: I've never done this before. We've never done this before either. We've never taken on an agenda for an entire summer.

It's not just an agenda that will promote, that we're just gonna promote our shows. It's an agenda for us as well. It's an agenda that has the potential to transform our entire country, and for sure our entire community. This involves an age-old custom that has the power to transform lives. This single custom has the ability to break down walls or barriers between neighbors.

It has the ability to create and nurture relationships, and it also has the ability to heal communities. What is it that I'm droning on and on about? It's the power of the summer picnic. Food, fun, fellowship, freedom, family, and forever. Welcome to iWork4Him and iRetire4Him.

Just keep listening and keep watching. This is gonna be a fun conversation, and there's a contest at the end. Martha, everybody loves to eat and everybody loves to hang out with other people, so why do so few people in today's world spend time eating and hanging out with people in their own neighborhood?

Martha: I think the reality is, Jim, that a lot of us when we get home, we hibernate, and we don't think about our neighbors as far as spending time with them. And so therefore, that is a, become a lost art. A lost art of spending time hanging out with neighbors on the front porch or having a meal together.

Jim: Yeah, I think it started with when builders started, when builders stopped building front porches and started building back decks.

Martha: And adding enclosed garages that attach to the house, so you could drive your car in the garage, shut the door, go in the house- and never breathe the outside air.

Jim: Never see or talk to anyone. All right, tell me about your - I don't know the, I actually don't know the answer to this story.

Martha: Okay.

Jim: People, Martha and I have been friends for 44 years this summer, and I don't know the answer to this question. Tell me about your favorite family picnic when you were growing up.

Martha: Okay. Sunday nights at my parents' house after church, 'cause there was Sunday night church.

Jim: Oh, you are old.

Martha: They would get root beer from A&W Root Beer.

Jim: It's got a frosty mug taste.

Martha: And watermelons, and I'm sure there was other food, too, but that was what I remember because it was very special. And someone would have a guitar, and we would sit around, and people would sing worship songs and eat food.

Jim: That happened all the time?

Martha: Not every Sunday ...

Jim: I was thinking about a specific one that you remembered forever.

Martha: Oh.

Jim: That was a pretty good example.

Martha: I'm gonna stick with that ...

Jim: your parents loved hosting people.

Martha: Yes.

Jim: My parents weren't as much about hosting people, but I remember one summer party.

Martha: Wait, let me just say this. That may not have happened all the time, but as a little kid, I felt like that happened a lot, and it was very good and comfortable. Does that make sense?

Jim: Yes. How many watermelon plants did you plant with spitting the seeds?

Martha: Oh, I have no idea.

Jim: Okay. All right.

Martha: Okay. Now your memory ...

Jim: my memory. We had a pool in our backyard growing up, and everybody wanted to swim in the pool, especially in the middle of summer. Even in Minnesota, it's hot in the summertime.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: And I remember one picnic party where everybody came over, and everybody was swimming, and there was all kinds of food and beverages, and it was- it lasted six hours, and the food was so amazing. That's what I loved about Minnesota, was when there was a potluck or a picnic, oh, the food was so good. But after that party, and it got a little out of control... i'm not gonna go into those details. I was a little kid. My parents never had another one. I don't understand why. So

Martha: And that was your favorite one? The only one and the last one?

Jim: I don't know that they ever had another one. We hosted picnics all the time.

Martha: You and I, we.

Jim: Yeah, but I-

Martha: This part of we.

Jim: Yeah, that part of we.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: It just, I loved having everybody over, and we were all swimming and playing and jumping off the diving board and going down the slide and everything. We're gonna recommend that you host a party too, when we get to the end of the show. We're just gonna recommend no alcohol, but we'll talk about that in a minute.

Martha: Hey, they're grown-ups. They can figure it out.

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Martha: Yes.

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Martha: We'll put the link in the show notes for you.

Jim: patriotmobile.com/iwork4him.

Martha: Okay, so why are we talking about picnics today, Jim?

Jim: I'm hungry.

Martha: And if you're watching on YouTube, you can already see that.

Jim: I'm hungry.

Martha: I think you went for ,the I don't know, is it Italian or Hispanic food?

Jim: I don't know. I just found this really cool background that's picnic-y.

Martha: It looks very yummy.

Jim: All right. We're talking about picnics today because I believe that your neighborhood picnic could transform your community. And what I have noticed, and what we've noticed, is that a lot of Jesus followers are really struggling with the two things that Jesus told us to do: love God and love people.

One of the ways to love God is to love the people that He created, and when you go home at night, you're surrounded by other people, unless you happen to be in one of those 2,000 acre ranches in Montana, but even that, you'd have to drive by somebody to get to your 2,000 acre ranch. Or fly over it with your private helicopter.

Martha: Or at least go to the grocery store once in a while.

Jim: Yeah. Our communities desperately need to feel the love of Christ through you, and a picnic is the greatest way to do that. We need to break down those barriers between neighbors, and food does it every time

Martha: And the idea, and maybe we'll talk about this a little later, but the whole idea of having a picnic is that it's a low entry point.

Jim: What do you mean?

Martha: You don't have to go inside your house. You don't have to clean your house. You don't have to have room for 25 or 30 people. A picnic, if you lend itself to the outside, can be very casual. It can be laid back. People can bring what they want to share. If you run out of your salad, there's more chips in a bag somewhere that people can eat.

It's not about perfection, it's just about the whole idea of being together. And so a picnic just is that, it should be that low entry point, not, we're not making this a Pinterest worthy experience. Let's just do it. And we'll talk about that a little bit more.

Jim: All right. So it is something that I just... Jesus told us: love God, love people. When he said love people, he said love your neighbor. He also said, "But I tell you also, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Why is it that our neighbors end up on that list, our enemies list? Why is that? And a lot of times it's because we don't know our neighbors, and so we have misunderstandings and we don't... relationships make it possible so that you can love on your neighbors.

Martha: Yeah. So say you have a neighbor who, I don't know, maybe they have a pet that does something that irritates you. And- ... if you never talk to them- (Jim barking)

Jim: Like that all the time?

Martha: Maybe that's it.

Jim: Okay, maybe.

Martha: But whatever it is, if you never talk to them or have a relationship with them, if you were to then complain to them, then it becomes this, all we've ever talked about is something negative. As opposed to you have a relationship with your neighbor, you've shared a meal together, and then you say, " by the way, when your animal digs up my garden, it really is terrible because, I work really hard in the garden." And, or whatever it might be. You then have that, you have context. They know you're a nice person.

They know you cook a good hamburger. They know that you looked after their kid when their kid was gonna get hit by the swing when five other kids were on the swings. Whatever it might have been at the picnic.

Jim: I'm just trying to figure out where you're going with this.

Martha: Where I'm going is if you have context with a relationship, then if you have a conflict, It's not the only thing you've had with each other.

Jim: That's beautiful.

Martha: So then they're not, they don't become their enemy, they just become a relationship that you've had to clarify something with. That's where I was going with the enemy thing.

Jim: I loved it. And you grew up in the country part of it and grew up in the city part of your life. I grew up in the suburbs the whole time, and I knew that if I did something wrong- ... one of the other neighbor's families was gonna find out about it, 'cause everybody knew everybody, so you couldn't get away with anything.

Martha: It was gonna make it back to your mom.

Jim: That's right, or my dad.

Martha: During the bridge game.

Jim: That's right. (laughing)

Martha: When they were playing cards with all the neighbors.

Jim: Did you know that Jimmy the other day- I saw Jimmy the other day, yeah. (laughter)

Martha: His bicycle went flying past my kitchen window.

Jim: We just need to understand that the neighborhood picnic has the ability to make people feel whole, feel needed, feel wanted.

And you know what? By doing all that to them, they may even end up coming to church with you. That's not the goal of this picnic. The goal of this picnic is just for your neighbors to feel loved, wanted, needed, and connected. And it's something that we need to work on, and we need to lead up. Don't wait for your neighbors to do this.

We're calling on everybody that listens to iWork4Him and everybody that listens to iRetire4Him to have a neighborhood picnic this summer. Everybody.

Martha: That's like a throw down, right?

Jim: It is a throw down. That's right. And it doesn't count if your whole community's having a neighborhood picnic, which we're doing on June 27th.

Martha: You mean a Fourth of July celebration?

Jim: Yeah. This has gotta be something you're hosting for your block or for your street that you are doing-

Martha: The close by neighbors ...

Jim: that's right, close by neighbors.

And you were mentioning something about food, people run out of food. I've never been to a picnic where they, people ran out of food. They run out of the good stuff, the really good stuff.

Martha: That's what I'm saying, but it's okay.

Jim: It's okay. It is okay.

Martha: Actually, it's a big compliment, so there's no problem with that. You know- 'Cause that means whoever brought it, everybody liked it.

Jim: That's right. Sorry to interrupt.

Martha: That's okay.

Jim: Why do I say this is the power to transform our country? Our country's divided. Left wrong, Democrat, Republican, independent whatever it may be. North, south, red, blue, whatever. Color of skin, oh, my word. That has nothing to do with God. God wants us to build bridges with people. He wants us to love on people. And if you have a picnic with people, let's just imagine everybody who's a believer had a picnic this summer with their neighbors.

Guess what?

Martha: What?

Jim: Our country changes. Because you can have conversations with your neighbors, and when you get to know people... For instance, we have our neighbor, Joe. I don't know if he listens to our podcast, but Joe used to live near us. And Joe wasn't the average person's appetite.

I loved Joe. First of all, he could cook like a champion, but Joe had a few tattoos on him. And, but we love Joe, and I got to know Joe 'cause we had a garage sale, and Joe came over. We had a garage sale. I got to know Joe. I gave him my phone number. "Hey, Joe, if you ever need anything, let me know." Five hours later, Joe calls me, "Jim, I need you now. I need you really fast. Bring a ladder and come over right now to my house." I run over with my six-foot ladder to Joe's house, and Joe is hanging from his balcony.

Martha: Interior balcony. (chuckling)

Jim: Yeah, interior balcony, holding up a couch that he and a friend were trying to lift up onto his balcony, and they lost their grip. And so I was able to help Joe right away because I met him at my garage sale.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: That's neighboring. And now, and we've been friends with Joe now years. Love Joe. He's fantastic I miss Joe. Joe, come back.

Martha: And we did bond over food.

Jim: We did bond. He cook, that boy could cook. You and Joe bonded over food, lots of food. All right. Okay. Okay, we're reminiscing. So let's talk logistics. Let's talk about logistics. Because not everybody's like Jim and Martha with logistics.

Martha: And I don't think Jim and Martha are like Jim and Martha. I don't know what you're thinking.

Jim: Okay. So, martha likes to plan everything. I like to plan most everything.

Martha: So it can look different for everybody. But probably the biggest thing is to pick a date.

Jim: Very important.

Martha: Make sure you can be there, and that you kinda-

Jim: If you're hosting the party- ... you should plan on being there.

Martha: And if there's others in your family that you want to be there with you, that live there with you, make sure it fits on their calendar too. So you have, you're hosting it. Let's say you're hosting it at your house, in your yard. Let's make sure the hosts are gonna be there. That's a good idea. And that's a good first step.

Jim: All right. And then you need to go out, and once you pick that date and a time- ... usually do it during the cool of the day. So do it 5:00 during the summertime, it gets hot.

Martha: Eh, it depends.

Jim: If you have a really great tree-

Martha: Whatever you think is gonna work.

Jim: Okay, fine.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: Okay. All right. Best way to organize food, just tell somebody bring your favorite dish that you love to cook.

Martha: Sure.

Jim: Or make. Whether it's dessert or it's a salad or it's a side dish. We recommend that you provide the main dish. Hot dogs, hamburgers, whatever you want it to be. Don't be like my friend Dalton, though, and pick out those hamburgers that are really cheap at the grocery store 'cause they're not all beef.

Martha: Okay, but here's a, here's the thing. You can pick anything that could be of substance. So maybe you don't wanna barbecue. Maybe you wanna make it ahead. If it is-

Jim: That's true. Okay ...

Martha: make some sloppy joes or make a bucket of beans and hot dogs that are all cut up or whatever. Something that can be counted as protein. And then let the rest just work itself out.

Jim: That's right. Don't worry about if you have too many desserts.

Martha: Never a problem.

Jim: No, never worry about too many desserts. All right. And remember, you're holding a picnic, you're hoping for a nice sunny day, or partly cloudy probably. If it ends up raining, plan to have your garage cleaned out so you could actually use your garage.

Martha: Yeah, just have a backup plan.

Jim: Or have a backup plan, a neighbor's garage or whatever. But it's important. Don't make it too complicated. Keep it simple.

Martha: Nope.

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Martha: Good job, Jim. It's, I'm thinking about the fact that we don't wanna act like y'all don't know how to have a picnic, but- if you're out of practice- and you haven't done it for a while-

Jim: raise your hand-

Martha: Some of the- ...

Jim: if you've had a picnic in the last year ...

Martha: okay, but keep your hand on the steering wheel, whatever.

Jim: Okay.

Martha: Okay. But here's the thing. Some of us might be out of practice.

I will say a couple more things that came to mind, Jim, is the bare necessities to make it successful. Paper products so that you have- Like plates, napkins ... something to eat on, and cups, and whatever you are anticipating, provide that or ask a neighbor. I'm hoping you already know some of your neighbors and say, "Hey, we're gonna do this," and they say, "Oh what can I bring?"

You could then say in addition to whatever your favorite dish is, would you mind bringing a pitcher of lemonade, or would you mind bringing a case of water?" For $4, you can get 32 bottles of water, and that can be a great backup. So just think through some of those logistics to take the tension out, to make it easy, make it simple.

And you know what? If you don't set the bar very high, then there's a lot of room for the next time. If you set it too high, then people say, "Oh, I could never do that because that was way too fancy." Keep it simple and have a lot of fun.

Jim: All right. And you can either go big, go small, or go home at the end of the day, whatever it may be. You can have just a few neighbors over. You could... But you know what? If you only have your neighbor on your left and your right over, the people across the street are gonna go, "How come we didn't get invited?" You need to invite people that can see your face at least.

Martha: But that could also be supply and demand. That could be like "Oh, I wanna do this again- invite more people."

Jim: Make sure you've got enough chairs and enough tables for people. You don't wanna be sitting on the ground. If you're living in Florida, you definitely don't wanna be sitting on the ground- ... 'cause fire ants wreck every picnic-

Martha: Or we have chiggers here, right?

Jim: And we got chiggers here. Yeah. So tables, chairs, maybe some bug spray is a good idea. But just make it easy for people to come. I guarantee you when you tell people, "Hey, we're just gonna have a fun summer picnic on this date. Would you come?" They're gonna say, "Wow, that sounds fun."

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: And plan it a month out thing. It's, this is a purpose, don't have an agenda with this. You could pray over the food, that's fine. But then just the agenda of the day.

Martha: The agenda I would plan would be to maybe have a few games. So if there's a lot of kids, you've got something to keep them interested because what happens when the kids get restless or bored, then things get disastrous and people go home.

Jim: So- I recommend explosives.

Martha: No. Not for the kids.

Jim: Yeah, absolutely. Give them some fireworks. For the adults ... send them out in the open field. Water balloons would be fun. A slip and slide. Oh, that's a bad idea. The insurance company said- Frisbees ...

Martha: frisbees. Croquet. Badminton.

Jim: Ooh.

Martha: Horseshoes, cornhole. That's right, lots of different things there. All of those different things.

Jim: Set up a tire swing on your biggest tree.

Martha: And it doesn't have to be like, okay, everybody's gonna go do this, but say, "Oh, there it is," if somebody wants to play or get the kids involved and- Hoop

You could have some contests.

Why not? You want people to be able to walk the next day?

Jim: You can tell the kind of party that Martha would host and I would host. I would just say sit down, eat, and talk. Martha wants things to do.

Martha: No but I want the kids to be able to have activities to keep them busy.

Jim: So that we can talk- Yes ... and they're not driving us nuts.

Martha: Yes.

Jim: Okay. All right. So one of the other things the whole idea is make sure you get their contact information. You may not even know your neighbors' full names. You might just know Bob and Betty. Okay? Get their last name, get their phone numbers, get their email addresses so you can be in touch with them and do this again.

Martha: Good idea, Jim.

Jim: That's ... Was that a good idea?

Martha: That was a good idea.

Jim: Oh, that was a good idea?

Yeah. All right. You can start small with just one family or have lots of family. Any way you look at it, this is gonna be a win-win for everybody. Speaking of wins, Martha.

Martha: All right. Tell us about the prize, Jim.

Jim: All right, here's the deal. We're doing this, we're rolling this out on all of, to all of our audiences iWork4Him and iRetire4Him, it's thousands of people, tens of thousands potentially if the show goes viral- ... which it probably will because of the background, I imagine.

When you host this picnic, take a picture. Send it to jim@iwork4him.com. That's Jim at iWork, the number 4Him.com, and you'll be entered in a contest for a $100 grand prize at the end of the summer, one person who submits a picture to us is going to win a prize for hosting a picnic in their neighborhood. You may not submit somebody else's picture from somebody else's picnic. It's gotta be one you host. What, Martha said something?

Martha: Okay, so I just wanna clarify.

Jim: Clarification.

Martha: So we're just drawing a winner right? It's not they had the best picnic or the most people or-

Jim: If you enclose a $100 bill with your picture- ... you could have a better chance of winning.

Martha: $100. (laughing)

So we're just gonna draw a winner out of all the pictures-

Jim: That's right. Okay. And then we're going to post them all on our social media, 'cause it's just gonna be fun. And really, the prize is gonna be worth $100. P.S. we haven't decided what the prize is gonna be. But it will be worth $100, and it may be appropriate to where you live in your part of the country.

Martha: I think I know what it's gonna be.

Jim: Ooh, Martha already knows. This is her, that's her wheelhouse. So here's what we're asking. We're asking for you to hold a neighborhood picnic. Why? Because your neighbors need to know that you love them. Why? Because they need to know why you love them is because you've been loved by a heavenly Father who loves you so much He sent His Son to die for you.

Your neighbors, not all of them know that. How are they gonna find out? By you loving on them, serving them food, some fellowship, some fun, and just making a relationship. That's why we're challenging everybody out there, have a summer picnic, and submit your picture to jim@iwork4him.com. And of course, Martha will have that all in the show notes, won't you, Martha?

Martha: Yes, I will.

Jim: Is there anything else?

Martha: No, I can't wait to... And don't wait till the end of the summer to send us the picture. You can do it after, as soon as you have your picnic.

Jim: We already have one entry, 'cause I mentioned this, I did a five-minute show about a month and a half back just - I was on a rampage.

Martha: Which is where this idea came from.

Jim: Yeah, and I thought, "This needs to go everywhere." "We need to really develop this." So we already have one entry. They're guaranteed... they're not guaranteed anything. If you guys all kick in.

Martha: No, they're guaranteed to be entered-

Jim: Ah ...

Martha: because they've been entered. Okay, here's what I'm gonna do, Jim.

Jim: Okay, what are you gonna do, Martha?

Martha: I'm gonna create a background that we're gonna use to help remind everybody about the picnic campaign over the summer.

Jim: So all summer long, our backgrounds are gonna be picnic related?

Martha: We'll do the best we can with that.

Jim: Can we do, can we have a picnic picture of us having a picnic on a yacht? A really big one

Martha: that's not gonna... We wouldn't... That wouldn't be real, and you said we'd... it needed to be a real picnic.

Jim: If any of you out there listening have a yacht and you'd like to hold a picnic, we'd like to come.

Martha: Or anything else. We'd love to come to any kind of picnic

Jim: I got a friend with a big boat, SS Biggie. I'd like to go on that boat.

Anyway.

Martha: Anyway. We hope that you see why this is important. We hope that you understand why this matters and why we're making this a summer-long campaign, and we hope that you'll join us. It- don't get scared. Just take some action. Talk to the other people in your household and say, "Hey, is this something we can do?" And let's just do it. Get it on the calendar and make a plan, and then pray for good weather or a backup plan and... 'cause-

Jim: No, pray for good weather. Don't pray for the backup plan.

Martha: No, plan for the... I don't mean change the date. I'm like, have the tent set up or have the-

Jim: Yeah ...

Martha: garage cleaned out. That's it.

Jim: And if you get the boldness of getting your garage cleaned out, ladies, just thank your husbands.

Martha: It's a benefit.

Jim: That's right.

Martha: Beautiful thing.

Jim: Or husbands, thank your wives if she did all the work.

All right. You've been listening to iWork4Him, and another special iRetire4Him episode as well, with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers and our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately, iWork4Him.