This is the third of a series of posts that explain the details and the how and why we do Friday Nights. You can read the backstory here, part 1 here, and part 2 here.

Who Are These People?!

So who actually comes to Friday Nights?

Well, that’s both easy and difficult to explain. We have our regulars…those that come nearly every week. We have semi-regulars…those who only come once or twice a month. We have the not-so-regulars…those who only come a few times a year. And we have new people or those who have only come once.

Including our family, there are half a dozen families that are regulars. Three of these families have been coming from day one and continue to help Brandy and I put it on. The Whites, Coombs and the Grunaus never agreed to produce this event on a weekly basis, but they’ve been faithful in their help none-the-less! In times where either Brandy or I have had to be gone during a Friday night, these families have stepped in to cover the slack. We love these couples and their children immensely!

Aside from these regulars, we’ve noticed there are four special groups of people that tend to REALLY be attracted to our Friday Night community.

1) Large Families

We have a large family. As a result, we never get invited anywhere! When you invite us over, eight people show up…with a service dog. We’re loud, busy, confusing…and eight is just a lot for dinner. It’s like this for many large families. You never get invited anywhere.

So here we are…a big family, inviting your big family.

It allows parents to sit and eat and chat with other adults and not have to worry what the kids are doing (another post on that later). Many people who come have large families…so large families always feel welcome.

If this is you, you are welcome here.

2) Special Needs Families

Two of our children have special needs. They can be a challenge every day. If it’s not our large family that deters you from inviting us over, it might be our loud, never-stops-moving, child with autism and her accompanying service dog. Or maybe not being able to talk with my wife who is on constant surveillance of said special child.

Having special needs kids can be incredibly hard. Try taking a kid out to dinner that randomly screams, is confined to a large wheelchair, or has unusual looking movements or limb differences. It attracts unwanted attention and sometime invokes a feeling of guilt or dismay when you cannot control your child in public. Special needs kids are tough. Not just for mom and dad, but the siblings also.

At Friday Nights…we all understand this because many of us are THOSE people. On some nights there is that screaming child, the non-verbal child in a wheelchair, the adult brother who struggles with motor control, the child that finds every unlocked door to run away…and no one bats an eye because that is our normal here. It’s beautiful really.

We ARE those families.

We LIKE those families.

If this is you, you are welcome here.

3) Single Parents

Single moms, single dads…you might get the offer to go out more often than the groups above…it’s just that you typically can’t go! You have a kid or two or three at home you have to be with. So you never go out either.

Friday Nights allows single parents that opportunity. You can bring your child…we kind of expect that actually…let them have their fun and you can participate in adult conversation.

It’s a free night out!

If this is you, you are welcome here.

4) Our Children’s Friends

One of the more fascinating groups we didn’t expect to attend Friday Nights is the parents of our kid’s friends. Our teenagers rave about Friday Nights to their friends at school and invite them all, including their teachers! So when their friends come, their parents often show up too. So quite often, when their parents show up for the first time, it’s our first time meeting them! We love this because it truly starts to create community with random groups of people who otherwise would never meet.

If this is you, you are welcome here.

Lastly, we’ve noticed that friends will bring friends and family with them. One couple came with their family…they were from New Zealand. We have had people from Madera, Merced, Coarsegold, North Fork, Kingsburg, and Reedley.

If you can drive to our house, you are welcome here!

We have always said that Friday Nights is open to anyone and everyone. We mean that! Life is just hard. Whether you can’t keep track of all your kids or your kid is screaming at the top of his lungs or you just need a break from your kid…Friday’s is for you!

It’s Friday Night…where ya going?

This is the second of a series of posts that explain the details and the how and why we do Friday Nights. You can read the backstory here and part 1 here.

Frequency

It is EVERY Friday.

EVERY. SINGLE. FRIDAY.

We honestly believe this is one of the keys to making it work…if not the most important part. It’s also one of the most difficult to do.

It’s about consistency. It’s about making sure that everyone always knows they can show up at our door without that awkward feeling of, “Oh, you’re not doing it this week?”

It’s every week. Our door opens up at 6pm and most people leave by 9:30pm.

The Holidays

As of this writing, we have been doing Friday Nights for well over a year and a half. We were even open the Fridays after Thanksgiving, New Years and Christmas.

Initially, we thought that the crowds would lessen during the holidays. But when they tended to increase, we realized it just adds to the need for community. For many people the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons are filled with joy and celebration and family and presents and thanks…but not for everyone.

Often these “joyous” times are not very joyful. Separation from family members, a past death during the season, or just having a difficult time in life can sometimes make people resent the holiday season. People just sometimes need to get away. We get that. We’ve been there.

That’s why we keep our doors open during the holidays as well. People need community. And we need it too!

Since we began this endeavor, we have only missed one week and that was because Christmas was actually ON a Friday. (I wanted to do it, but I got voted down by the kids and my wife who was sick in bed!)

The Real Challenge

The biggest benefit to Friday Nights is also the biggest challenge. Pastors and church staff have a common phrase, “Sunday comes every seven days!” It’s a reminder of both the benefit and challenge of pastoral work. As soon as you finished Sunday morning preaching…you have to start preparing for the next one…which is in seven days!

Friday Nights often feel that way. By the time Friday morning rolls around, we just sometimes don’t want to put in the effort. But then we realize, we need the community ourselves. We have to make dinner anyway…might as well just make more!

But if we’re keeping it real, at times it can be hard for us personally. Maybe we had a difficult week, the kids are complaining, the house is messy (a post for later), or we just don’t want to be social. But we’ve committed to this, and even on the hard days, we’ve never regretted it. Not once. In fact, we have NEVER had a Friday Night where nobody came. Even if just one family shows up (which is our lowest record), we’ve provided and received community. Therefore, it was worth it.

So whether we heavily promote Friday Nights on Facebook and Twitter during the week, or completely forget to mention it at all…we’re always open every Friday Night. Please stop by. Message me for directions. Take a load off. Get a free meal. Share some company. Laugh a little. Get some advice. Give some advice.

Create some community.

It’s EVERY Friday!

For thousands of years, people have gathered around the serving of a meal. Food merely sustains us. But meals bring people together. Meals can bring together the best of friends…and the most random of people.

Some food can be elegant and exquisite. Other times, it can just be hot dogs and fries. Regardless of the type of food, the sharing of the meal, the breaking of bread, the conversation and community that ensues around a table…can be life changing. Friday Nights at our house has become that for us. Life changing. It has been for others as well.

Many others…

For over a year and a half, our family has opened our door to anyone and everyone who wants to share a meal and share in that community. Every Friday, we have people over for dinner, but what they get is community. EVERY Friday. You can read the back story here.

This will be the first of many posts that will share what we do and why in more detail. Brandy and I run into friends frequently who ask many questions about what and why and how we pull this off.

“How can you afford it?” “What about the kids?” “Do you really just let anyone in?”

We also hear lots of excuses as to why some people do not come. Granted, not every CAN come…we get that. But when they start the conversation off by saying they think it’s really cool and they want to participate but…. There is always some reason that we’ve already addressed but they just don’t know.

So this series will be about addressing all the questions anyone has ever asked about Friday Nights. So here we go!

Beans and Rice

It’s pretty much all we serve!

On most weeks, we put beans in the crock pot Thursday night, let them soak, and then start cooking Friday afternoon. We might use the crockpot if we’ll be busy that day. Add in an onion, garlic and spices and we’ve spent nearly zero time preparing. Beans are cheap…and this is important since we pretty much finance the whole endeavor.

Brandy also typically cooks rice. Plain ol’ white rice…with a little lime and cilantro. Maybe Mexican rice if that’s what she’s got around.

We also lay out shredded cheese, flour tortillas and sour cream. Recently, we’ve also started providing corn tortillas since several people have said they’re gluten free.

So if you are gluten intolerant…you now have no more excuses!

We also put out chips and salsa…more on that for another post!

Sometimes other people will bring additional food. Desserts, candy, soda, olives, a salad. One time someone brought some enchiladas….hmmmmm. That was a good Friday Night!

Anyway, sometimes people bring something else to share…sometimes nobody does. Many people will ask if they can bring something and typically we just want them to show up themselves, bring nothing and have a good time.

It is the same basic food every week. There are two basic reasons:

1) Cost

As stated above, beans are cheap. We’re already a large family and with four of the six kids being teenagers, we spend more on food each month than we do on rent! Doing this every Friday…beans is pretty much all we can afford!

2) Expectations

Serving the same base meal each week sets an expectation for everyone…particularly kids. Let’s face it, nobody wants to go to dinner somewhere each week and have no idea what is being served. And kids hate not knowing even more. So everyone always knows it is always beans and rice and cheese and tortillas. If there is something extra one night, awesome…but no one will expect it and then be disappointed if it’s not there the next week. In addition, making the same thing is just easy and we’ve perfected it. The beans here are good!

More Than Beans and Rice…

Somehow, the cooking of beans and rice has led to much more than just filling the bellies of a few friends. It has led to real community. People we call family. People who we can depend on. People we can text or call for prayer. People who we can ask advice of. People who care about our well-being and spiritual lives and family and kids and work and future.

People who we call community.

Everyone is welcome to join us. And join the community.