Author: Allan (Page 152 of 492)

The Central Church podcast has taken a delicious turn with the latest episode breaking down a college basketball-style bracket of Little Debbie Snack Cakes. If you’ve ever wondered about the merits of Zebra Cakes and Oatmeal Cream Pies versus the qualities of Nutty Buddy Bars and Swiss Rolls, this is the 29-minute podcast for you.

Our Associate Minister, Greg Dowell, found the bracket somewhere on the internet — I have no idea who actually put these sixteen Little Debbie snacks together and seeded them the way they are. We passed the brackets out at our Parade of Prayer Wednesday and asked folks to fill them out in competition with others in their households or online with their friends, and then tune into the podcast for our hot takes on the snack cakes and the results. They could then score their brackets at home and compare them with others, make outrageous wagers — whatever.

During the podcast, Greg and I disagreed on the winners in a few of the key matchups. It was a collaborative bracket so we both had to compromise here and there to make it work. For the record, I would always choose Zebra Cakes over Oatmeal Cream Pies. I know the Oatmeal Cream Pies are an established American tradition, I know it’s a classic. And I do appreciate the Oatmeal Cream Pie’s contributions down through the years. But, to me, it’s like the Dallas Cowboys — it’s been 25 years already! Forget your heart, get past your nostalgia, what do you pick right now today? Zebra Cakes!

I would also go with the Christmas Trees over the Nutty Buddy Bars. I appreciate the versatility of the Nutty Buddy. It’s light, it’s just the right amount of peanut butter and chocolate, it’s got sustenance, it’ll maybe even substitute for a meal in a pinch — I get it. But for a guilty pleasure with red and green glitter on top, I’ll take the Christmas Tree cakes.

In my own personal bracket, those two calls lead to a Championship Matchup between Zebra Cakes and Swiss Rolls. That seems like an impossible choice to make, doesn’t it? How do you do this? The moist vanilla cake with the cream filling and white icing with thin chocolate stripes versus the moist chocolate cake with the cream filling and the perfectly thin layer of chocolate on the outside? The Swiss Rolls always leave those little strips of chocolate on the wax cardboard, a little bonus of delight that you can peel off with your fingers or scrape off with your teeth. The Zebra Cakes, though, contain more bites and they’re lighter. Fluffy, almost. Impossible!

That’s why Little Debbie invented the Zebra Cake Rolls. 

God bless America.

Peace,

Allan

Today is Central’s Day of Prayer and Fasting, one of our church’s many responses to the virus crisis. Our whole church is abstaining from food today in an effort to keep a sharp focus on our prayers as we lift up our voices and hearts together to God.

The Central Chapel is open today until 5pm and people have been trickling in and out for several hours now, sitting alone in this sacred space to spend a few moments with God in prayer. We’re also live-streaming from the Chapel all day until 5pm. Our elders and ministers are introducing a different emphasis for our prayers, reading a passage of Scripture, and leading us in prayer at the top of every hour. You can find it streaming on our Central Facebook page and on our Central YouTube channel. Leave it on all day or just check in when you need a quiet place to pray.

We are praying for healing, for our health care providers, for our church family, for the world’s leaders, and asking that God would use this time to draw men and women to himself.

We are confident that our God is right now working all things together for the good of his people, for the good of his wonderful creation, and for the sake of his eternal Kingdom. May he bless us and bless the world as we pray together today.

Peace,

Allan

Thirty minutes before our Easter Sunday worship service was set to live-stream from an empty auditorium yesterday morning, I walked in to discover that it wasn’t really empty at all. Scattered throughout our worship center, in every one of the ten sections, from front to back, were pictures of our church members pinned to the pews.

I’m not exactly sure who started it —  I have become aware of at least one key player whose initials are Lori Stone — but I’m guessing it was in response to a short video devotional we sent out to the church family Wednesday night in which I panned the empty worship center with the camera and talked about where people sit. I talked about missing people. I talked about knowing where people sit and how much they mean to me when I see them each Sunday. I reminded them that I know where most of them sit and I’m going to be doing my best on Easter Sunday to picture each one of them in their regular seats, worshiping together in that big empty room.

And, then, yesterday morning, there they were.

Somehow between Thursday and yesterday, they took their selfies, blew them up, printed them off, and collected them and placed them in the worship center without me knowing anything about it. Some of them are family pictures taken out of old directories. Some are individual pictures placed side-by-side in that family’s pew. Some of the pictures are serious and some of them are just stinkin’ funny. On the front row of the youth section, there’s Grant and the two Joshes; Stoney, of course, is wearing a military gas mask. There’s Lanny and Gina with an encouraging note. Is that Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards next to Faith Dowell? There’s Tommy and Wendy shouting, “Amen!” And there’s Bradley Bledsoe. Sound asleep. I love it!

What an unexpected and tremendous blessing from our God! What an incredible shot in the arm! What an inspiration! To think that so many people would go so far out of their way to make that happen on such short notice! Just to bless Kevin and me. Just to do whatever they could to encourage us.

I was really moved by the display. It was unexpectedly emotional for me. I had to run to the chapel and pray it off so I wouldn’t be a sobbing wreck for the Welcome and Call to Worship. I think it just reminded me so starkly how important our relationships are together in God’s Church. Being together — living and worshiping and serving together — is such a vital part of what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be his Church. I was reminded that we are all in this thing together. We’re connected. We really do belong to each other. I know their stories and they know mine and we’re doing what we can together to get through a really rotten time.

To everyone who placed their pictures in the worship center, thank you! It means the world to me. And to our God who allows me the great privilege and blessing to be the preacher at Central, thank you! To you, Father, belong all glory and praise!

Peace,

Allan