CLM Hen House

fromdefiance2submission · Joined: 23 Mar 2026 Posts: 52 Location: Ohio

In one of the other forum it was suggested to have monthly church meals, which I think is a GREAT idea. But, since I am not the only one who helps to set up for the meals following morning worship it tends to pose this problem, some of the ladies won't want to be in the kitchen "preparing" during the worship service. (Sounds like Mary and Martha!) I don't want them in the kitchen either, we know the important place. So, how do you ladies get your meal all "put together" without having someone spend all morning setting it up? I'm afraid this suggestion to have them more often will be shot down if I don't have a good plan. A couple of them just think they HAVE to be in the kitchen (definate Martha's) so they may think it's too much work. Somehow I need to pose this as being EASY FELLOWSHIP time. Any suggestions Question

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I am not - but I know I AM

Dawg Tired · Joined: 24 Mar 2026 Posts: 46

There are 2 of us at our church who have Fibromyalgia and every Sunday morning we prepare breakfast instead of attending Sunday school. Sitting through Sunday school and then through the worship service is just too much for us. We eat a breakfast between Sunday School and morning worship.

If we are having a potluck dinner at noon, then instead of fixing breakfast we use the Sunday School time to set up the serving tables for the noon meal then the other women do the clean-up afterwards. Ususlly the 2 of us have a sink of soapy water and we wash anything we use in the preparation of the meals so there isn't a lot of dishes to wash.
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RockyMountainGirl · Joined: 28 May 2025 Posts: 23 Location: Idaho

Since we have fellowships every month, everyone knows the drill. Every month we have one lady be in charge of the kitchen and she comes and sets up the tables, plates and such the night before. Then the morning of the fellowship everyone comes in the kitchen and drops off thier dishes in the fridge or the stoves and goes right in to services. After services Pastor dismisses all the ladies and we have ten minutes to do any last minute preparation such as putting the food on the food table, cutting cakes or anything else. After we eat the men and teenagers take down tables and chairs, take out garbage, and vaccum and the lady in charge of the kitchen that month has a couple of helpers to do the clean-up.
~Amy~

CApastorswife · Joined: 15 Apr 2026 Posts: 30 Location: Southern California

We have potlucks about every six weeks, and a little preparation goes a long way. We have the teens/men set up the tables and chairs the day before, sometimes the chairs are finished right before their Sunday School (their class is next door to the fellowship hall). A certain lady comes in each month on Saturday and covers the tables with plastic and puts the flowers on, then she puts out the napkins, cups, etc. If she isn't able to do it, I usually grab a girl to help me. I also make the punch (we keep it in the fridge overnight to get cold) and get the coffee machine ready on Saturday. Our ladies bring in their food and put it in the oven or in the fridge, and we also have a couple of ladies who stay in the kitchen from right after Sunday School until about 10 minutes after the service starts to take food, cut cakes and bread, etc. All they miss is the singing that morning. Then at invitation, I have a couple of other ladies (could be the same ones) go out and uncover food, take it out of the fridge, etc. They have 7-10 minutes until service is out, and everything is usually ready.

Another thing we have done when needed is to have one lady stay the whole time and rotate food in and out of the oven, on the stove, etc., but to make it a different lady each month. Hope thie helps!

One word of advice - always make sure a day or two before that your helpers are lined up...I have assumed a couple of times only to go in and have no help at all!!

jodi · Joined: 14 Mar 2026 Posts: 217 Location: Lake Mary, FL

I feel the sermon and invitation are more important than the meal so I have done a coupe of things to cut down on prep time and ladies in the kitchen.
1. We do not warm up food or keep anything warm in the oven. I ask the ladies to bring their dishes in a crockpot or just wrap it very well to keep it warm. (If the dish is taken out of the oven just before leaving for church it can be wrapped in newspaper, towels, paper bags and it will still be very warm by serving time.)

2. The serving spoons are out when the ladies arrive and they know to put a serving spoon with their dish (this keeps me from having to unwrap the dish to know what kind of utensil to out with it)

3. I ask the ladies that bring dessert to arrive at church early enough to cut thier own dessert before service. This saves a lot of time.

4. Prior to the service I go ahead and fill cups with ice then just stack them in the freezer. At the end of the service I put them in an ice chest so they can be easily carried to the fellowship hall. I don't do enough for every person, just enough to get started. Then a couple of ladies handle filling cups and pouring drinks as people come through the food line.

Hope that helps!
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~Jodi

CApastorswife · Joined: 15 Apr 2026 Posts: 30 Location: Southern California

Good ideas here - I was going to post a question similar to this one! We have a system but I need to be less involved in it...

amyjoyousone · Joined: 29 May 2025 Posts: 52

Lots of great ideas here! One thing I try to do is involve ladies from time to time who just don't volunteer. Usually, if I ask, they are willing to help, they just prefer to be asked rather than offer. I try to make sure that my 'worker bees' don't get burned out. So, I draw in others from time to time. Also, have a clear plan of what you are going to do, cuts down on confusion and conflict.
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Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice! Philippians 4:4

puddles · Joined: 17 Mar 2026 Posts: 1 Location: West Virgnia

We used to have potlucks once a month and had various families in the congregation "hostess" after church. However, it became harder and harder to get folks to sign up to be hostess so our head deaconess came up with the idea to still do a "main" potluck once a month then break up the membership by first letter of their last name and group them into 3 groups so the whole month would be covered.

1st week: whole church
2nd week: A-F
3rd week: G-M
4th week: N-Z

This breakdown was what worked for us, you'd have to look over your membership to see what would work best for you.

At first folks didn't think it would work but as we got into it more and more, it's been great. What makes this handy for us is knowing when we have to bring food to share. We know we always bring food the first and now whenever our groups turn is up.

The group I'm in likes to do a theme each month we "do potluck". We've done Mexican, Chinese, Italian, soup/sandwich, baked potatoes (we also had other sides of veggies) just to name some of them.

We usually have about 30-40 stay for dinner and we have been so blessed to have such a great time of fellowship during the meal.

god_bless