Amazing Chicken

Ok, so it's not like I'm the frugal gourmet or anything, but...

I bought a $6 chicken at Kroger a few weeks ago. We roasted it. My family ate two meals off it.

I froze the carcass.

Friday afternoon, we made stock with it, added veggies and 1 lb of barley.

20 people ate well Friday night.

So 28 people off one chicken.

I realize more and more how much I should have paid attention to my mom in the kitchen. I am way behind the learning curve.

No Stress Chess

My mom told me about this product, No Stress Chess. It's a chess set, with a twist. It has a bunch of cards you play with. Each card has a piece, and you have to move that piece. It tells you how the piece moves. The theory is that you by pass a huge learning curve in chess-- learning the complicated moves. You just do them as the card shows. It takes some strategy away, of course, but it really does teach the moves quickly. After 5 games now, John and Joe both not only know how the Knight moves but can see possibilities of capture with it-- which takes a while to develop.

Anyway if you are looking to teach anyone chess, I recommend it! I have two boys who have (for the time being) quit watching Sponge Bob to play chess. They keep asking me to play! I think it can work for older folks, too. I have started a chess club at the church, and there are some middle school kids who have never played, so we'll see.

I am interested that some of the kids who are written off at school as ADHD or just hard to deal with b/c they can't focus will sit and play chess with me for an hour or two. Just a thought.

Jesus First: One More Thing

You're going to have to decide you're going to do it anyway, even if it doesn't pay.

If you can't make that decision, you will, as John Wesley said, "be beholden to those with money; and then, farewell Methodist Doctrine!"

Jesus First

I don’t know any gentle way to say what follows.

How dedicated are you to Jesus?

Is it only when it’s convenient?

When the weather is nice?

Or when the weather is bad (because in nice weather, you need to be out doing something)?

When you feel like it?

When you wake up with that good feeling and God seems like some more fuzzy?

When you desperately need help and all human resources are gone?

When you’re not sleeping in?

How dedicated are you to Jesus?

Tonight, it was below freezing, spitting snow and rain. I was driving the bus for the kids. There, crossing Broadway at Loudon were Jazmen and Deneisha. Jazmen has cerebral palsy, is in a wheelchair. She rolls to church Wednesday and Sunday. No matter the weather.

She and Deneisha just want Jesus. They want to be around Jesus’ people more than Jesus’ people want that. I do not know anyone who wants it more. I need a truck that we can get her wheelchair in so she won’t have to freeze on the way.

They froze on the way.

Plenty of people will be warm and comfortable staying away.

Jazmen and Deneisha can’t give any money. And yet, we need them more than we need anyone with money but any less dedication than them.

It’s funny; George Strunk explained the “death spiral” to me. It’s when a church starts growing, adds staff to add programs and then has to raise more money to get more staff for more programs. It’s a death spiral because generally speaking, you don’t grow with sold-out Christians. Mostly, they are occasional worshippers, not involved in much. They give sporadically, but tend to receive ministry at high levels from staff and programming. So you have to get a lot of them to support the staff and programs that you attracted them with. The trick is to stay a few steps ahead of the death spiral. (And here my topological metaphor is no doubt crashing. But you get the point.)

There is a way off the spiral. It’s the downward way of Jesus, and all you need are the Jazmens and Deneishas.

This is what Monday Night Looks Like

Ok, so you have heard me go on about Monday night ministry at The Rock La Roca. Here are some pictures of it. It is a beuatiful, mad thing! This is a long post. But I hope you take a look and get a taste!


Leo, doing what else? Makin' coffee!!


John Owen, in the pantry (what he calls Bill and Barb's store). Empty shelves in the background! We really pound it out, y'all! Please contribute to our food pantry. Times are hard and people are hungry. I can vouch for them!



John Owen, with one of his best buds, Barb Demoline, the aforementioned Barb of Bill and Barb's store.


Bill MacDonald, of Bill and Barb fame, helping a friend.


One of our core commitments is to make things as nice and attractive as possible. Barb Demoline, Ruth Stewart, and Judy Lyon have gone to great lengths to clean clothes, create potential outfits, and set them out as nicely as possible.


Food boxes ready to go out! This is a labor of love! Bill MacDonald gets here about 11 a.m., goes to God's Pantry to get our food, then starts work on packing the boxes.


Kenny, chief cook and bottle washer; a guy from the neighborhood guy who looks to start a catering operation! and Sharon, a long time member who can flat out cook and is game for anything.


This one blows me away. Jenny and Gentry are new to our church. It's her birthday, and she wanted to come serve here before they went out!


Melissa, Joe Joe, and everybody's favorite baby, Kaitlyn!


The people!


Martina and Kenny in a conspiracy of service!


This may be my favorite image of the night! Judy Lyon. She is Bob's wife; he was my favorite seminary professor, and she was a "mother in Israel" to many of us. She cleans up and pretties the place up with some great place mats! One woman asked her if she could take some of the place mats home, because her place is dingy and could use some brightening up! Judy has know my boys from before they were born. What a place to be in ministry!



Ruth in the background. Michael Hughes, head dishwasher. His wife, Becca, is right behind him. They came to us because they heard about our crazy garden ministry. And now they feed people! Ha!

Joe Joe attacked by a wave

I am reposting this because many people did not know this is a video. Click on the play button beneath the picture...

Prophecy Fulfilled

At the beginning of 2008, Iosmar Alvarez, Eliseo Mejia and I had lunch. We began to pray and prophesy. 2008 was going to be a breakthrough year for our ministries.

It was madness. It sure did not look like 2008 was going to be anything but humiliation and the fulfillment of the prophecies that said I was running this place into the ground. The Rock was down to about 200 in worship. But even below the surface, the places where the pastor's eye sees, it wasn't good. Serious dissent and division. Hidden or not-so-hidden agendas behind smiles. Gossip, strife. People leaving.

As the year went on, it got worse. The numbers picked up, but beneath the surface, and often bubbling up to the surface, was ugliness. More gossip and strife. Attempts to attack and undermine. More people leaving.

But then, in the summer, it all broke apart. Next thing we knew, we have a new, united service on Sunday morning. An evangelistic outreach service on Monday nights. A more thorough-going ministry to the poor, building relationships not just handing out help or creating mascots out of the two or three poor folks we knew. The garden was better than ever. Sunday Schools started up. A new church coming together in the Woodland Park/Downtown area. And then, we hit 400 people in weekly worship.

The Holy Spirit brings revival and withholds revival, so don't look at me to figure out some new strategy or great plan to make this work somewhere else. I run what I brung and trust God for the rest. So I won't ask for another lunch at Chili's to make outrageous predictions for 2009.

May we be used by God for whatever He knows is best. If it is for glory, so be it. For dishonor in the eyes of the world, I love it.