Soul Food A
Satirical Consideration
I don’t know how it is with other
Christian denominations, but for Baptists, it seems we’re always exploring
ways to increase our membership. Presently, First Baptist Church, Pontotoc
is engaged in an activity that promises to increase church attendance. First
Day is the name for the contemporary worship service held in the gym each
Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m., and while the combined attendance of the three
morning worship services may have increased, I remain skeptical that, other
than in offering an alternate style of worship, its effect is permanent.
Whether or not increased attendance will translate into increased enrolment
is not overtly evident, but time will tell.
Through the years, Baptists have tried various programs to "save the lost."
In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed a number of these efforts. I’m no
church historian, but I’ve watched the rise and fall of disciple building
programs like "Training Union," and "Church Training." Others and I have
been trained to witness in programs like "Evangelism Explosion" and "Continuing
Witness Training." I’ve watched my home church struggle with a "Bus
Ministry," and I’ve read about the bus ministries of larger churches,
though bus ministries are practically non existent, today. I haven’t
seen a significant increase in membership enrolment due to any of these heavily
promoted activities or programs.
In my youth, my young adulthood, and even into my mature adulthood, the Sunday
School program was THE outreach arm of the church. Sunday School, later renamed
"Bible Study," was the force behind church growth. Oh, this or that new preacher
might pull more than his predecessor, but most of the church growth was a
direct result of growth in the Sunday School program. Sunday School is still
a vital part of the life of FBC, Pontotoc, and I’m sure that’s
the case of many Baptist churches, but as more and more churches embrace
the gospel according to Rick Warren, I expect to see a decline in emphasis
on Sunday School. Warren and other advocates of church growth are heavily
invested in the worship hour, trying to make worship indistinguishable from
a typical, worldly, entertainment event.
Sunday School, if it remains true to its origins and doesn’t abandon
critical Bible Study, will become a casualty of church growth. With the current
mindset of many church leaders, worship attendance takes preeminence over
all other activities. As I see it, Sunday School’s days are numbered,
for Bible Study and the church growth movement do not exactly complement
one another. Plus, the church growth movement owes its relevance to that
which is contemporary, while the relevance of the teachings of the Bible
is ageless.
There is an avenue toward achieving church growth that has largely been
overlooked. It’s one I had not considered until I was in Jackson, last
Saturday, attending the Paula Deen cooking demonstration at the Mississippi
Coliseum. While waiting for the program to begin, I began to absorb the flavors
of my surroundings, gaining a perspective on who’s interested in seeing
a Food Network star, estimating the size of the crowd, and watching folks
parade from the vendor booths on the floor into the stands.
I took mental notes on those nearby chatting on a cell phone, and I happened
to notice that a lot of folks were still eating and drinking as they made
their way to their assigned seats but thought nothing of it until a lady
passed within twenty feet of me carrying three large cups of cola. In that
moment I experienced an epiphany.
"Food," echoed throughout my brain, something I write at the risk of being
considered as one whose brain has a lot of empty space in which a word can
echo. "It’s food that people want. These people didn’t come here
to see Paula Deen, they came to eat! Paula Deen is secondary to their primal
need of physical nourishment."
"Why have I not realized this before?" I screamed within.
At the gospel music concert I recently attended in Birmingham, AL, folks
snacked during the program. When folks go to a football game, they eat in
the stands. No festival happens without food vendors on site. Folks buy gasoline
where there’s a convenience store, and, more often than not, they purchase
something to eat. People eat in their cars on the way to a destination, and
they eat when they get there. Airports have places to eat and a lot of folks
grab a meal before a flight and, once airborne, eat snacks provided by the
airline. Even hospitals have vending machines and cafeterias for the convenience
of visitors. Food is found everywhere one looks.
Fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and automobiles have produced
a generation or two of folks who can’t go shopping without eating. In
my youth, food was rarely consumed away from home, unless my family was visiting
our relatives. Fast food restaurants either had not been invented or else
had not made their way to rural Mississippi. In those days, our stores of
convenience were grocery stores and every county seat town had four or more
in the downtown area. Gasoline stations (called service stations) sold candy
bars, nabs, and cold carbonated drinks, but little else in the way of food.
My folks used to drive from Okolona to Thaxton without stopping to eat anywhere
along the way, and, back then, the trip took more than an hour over graveled
roads. In my junior college years, I actually drove from Senatobia to Pontotoc,
a seventy-five mile trek over two-lane roads without even thinking of stopping
to get something to eat.
"Food, food!" my thoughts returned to Baptists, who largely limit their eating
at church to that of dining in the fellowship hall. "How have I been so blind?
If Baptists want more people attending church all they have to do is open
up their sanctuaries to food! So what if a drink gets spilled on the carpet?
Rip out the carpet, and install linoleum to make the floor of the sanctuary
more food-friendly. Pry off the hymnal racks that are on the backs of pews
and install cup holders and litter bags for the convenience of the worshipers."
The sanctuary of FBC, Pontotoc is ideally designed, with its large foyers
and spacious walkway at the back of the auditorium, to accommodate vending
machines, even concessions. Other Baptist churches might be less fortunate
with respect to space, though I imagine most could find the space if they
looked for it.
I envision a food court where hungry worshipers may choose from a variety
of foods. Anyway, from nine ‘til noon is a long time to go without food
for those who come early for Sunday School and don’t get home until
after the pastor’s sermon is cold.
"Blind," I say, "We’ve been blind in not realizing the potential food
has in reaching the lost of this world. It’s not the organ music; it’s
not the clothes we wear or don’t wear; it’s not ‘Hell-fire
and brimstone sermons’ that turn sinners from our doors; it’s the
lack of an available food supply once they arrive, not to mention that food
is not presently allowed in the sanctuary."
First Baptist Church, Pontotoc has removed most of the barriers that hinder
folks from attending church. Now it’s time to remove the food barrier.
"Hear oh Israel, er…make that Baptists, the word of the Lord that was
revealed to his servant. In my house ye shall not withhold food from my children,
lest you suffer my wrath." The Book of Wayne.
Hey, I’m just the messenger. Don’t shoot me.
RRN Staff: Please, no hate mail from church growth advocates as we
are reasonably sure there was loco weed in that last salad the Editor
Deen Delights
At Mississippi Coliseum
Last Saturday morning, Barbara and I made our way to Jackson, MS. The occasion
for our trip was to attend a cooking demonstration at the Mississippi Coliseum
by one of the queens of TV’s Food Network, Paula Deen, a southern gal
if ever there was one. It would be my first trip the coliseum. The official
seating capacity for the coliseum is 6500 permanent seats and 2,650 temporary
seats, and by my estimates it was a little more than half filled for the
2:00 p.m. Deen show.
We arrived well ahead of time for the cooking demonstration, but so did a
few thousand other folks. It wasn’t hard to get inside the front entrance,
but getting from there to the floor where vendors were hawking food, cookbooks,
and kitchen appliances took a spell. We might actually have bought something
had either of us been able to squeeze our way through the wall of humanity
between us and the booths.
"Look, there’s a display of Paula’s cookbooks," Barbara noted.
"We can find them on the Internet cheaper than whatever they are charging
for them here," I responded, urging her toward an exit. "We need to find
our seats."
I had looked at a seating chart of the coliseum on the Internet a few days
earlier, and I should have known our seats were not close to the stage, though
they appeared to be according to where Section D was located. I am pretty
green when it comes to coliseum seats, and what I didn’t notice was
that seats D12 and D13 were not in section D. Nope, D12 and D13 were about
halfway to the top of the stands in Section CE. My wife is far better than
I am at reading ticket information, and she soon figured out how to get us
to the right section of seats.
I checked my watch, once we were in our seats. It read, ten minutes before
one o’clock. I had a feeling my seat was going to get hard before the
show was over. Barbara and I were the only ones on our row at the time, so
we chatted, and she read some of the brochures we were given when we entered
the building.
It wasn’t long until a mother and daughter sat down beside Barbara in
the two seats next to the aisle. The mother said she lived in Laurel and
her daughter stated she worked in Hattiesburg.
Since SUPERVALU supplies several stores in the area, I asked, "And where
do you shop for groceries?"
"Wal Mart or Kroger." The mom replied.
I wrinkled my face in disappointment but responded with a smile, "Those are
bad words, because I work for SUPERVALU. I happen to know they have a County
Market and a Sunflower in Laurel."
Mom admitted she sometimes shops the Sunflower for her meat purchases. Wal
Mart beats a lot of independent and chain stores on low prices, but they
haven’t managed to corner the market on meat.
"Something like dog food, I buy at Wal Mart," she elaborated. "Meat, I usually
buy at Kroger or Sunflower."
"Thanks for the business," I replied.
Barbara learned the daughter was a huge fan of Paula Deen, having purchased
several books and watches Paula’s cooking show twice a day while she’s
working for her dad. I figured she could beat me on a trivia challenge of
Paula Deen facts, so I sort of kept a low profile and was content to pickup
a phrase here and there from the conversation.
We could see quite a lot of folks still huddled around the vendor booths,
when at 1:45, an announcer stated the show would be starting in fifteen minutes.
It was the second reminder, five minutes later that had me worried.
"It is now one-fifty. The show will not start until the vendor area is cleared
and the audience is seated."
"That’s not good," I told Barbara. "This thing may not start until
two-thirty, if they wait on folks to leave the booths."
Finally, at two-fifteen, a low murmur arose from the floor as a delegation
entered from behind a curtain.
"Are those security guys?" someone asked.
"They look like store managers to me," I whispered to Barbara.
A moment later Barbie Basset, a local TV personality, appeared on stage to
welcome us. She then introduced Mr. Brookshire, an executive of the
Broookshire’s corporation, a Texas based grocery chain with four locations
in Jackson that was the key sponsor of the cooking demonstration. He, in
turn, introduced the four guys that looked like security folks as managers
of the local Brookshire’s stores. And, several minutes later, Paula
Deen walked onto the platform to the chants and cheers of the audience.
"We love you, Paula," could be heard from several locations, as a few expressed
what the rest also felt.
"I love you, too," Paula responded, emotionally. "Y’all my heart is
so full. I feel like a Miss America."
Laughter filled the coliseum, and laughter would be heard often during the
next ninety minutes of her interaction with an appreciative audience. That
she was present for a cooking demonstration was completely a secondary motivation
for Paula Deen, who freely shared how her past uniquely qualified her to
bond with practically every woman present.
Paula’s new husband of two years appeared with her and helped with the
cooking chores. Paula shared personal stories of how the two of them met
and fell in love.
Paula began her career in the food business as "The Bag Lady." She made
sandwiches in her home, her two sons took them to the streets of Savannah
and sold them. It wasn’t long until Paula opened a restaurant, which
she named, "The Lady." Paula’s real home cooking along with her personality
helped the restaurant soon outgrow its location. So, a larger building was
found with room to seat four-hundred. Even so, lines of customers form outside
"The Lady and Sons" for lunch, daily.
Gordon Elliot, himself a star of the Food Network, discovered Paula. Impressed
with her potential, he helped launch her career with Food Network and produces
her show, Paula’s Home Cooking. In 2005, Paula had a role as
a grandmother in the motion picture ELIZABETHTOWN. But, success and
marriage do not seem to have spoiled her, as she continues to challenge herself
with new endeavors. Paula will soon appear in a new show, Paula’s
Parties, and her sons new show premiered a couple of weeks ago, Road
Tasted.
The folks who went to the coliseum to watch Paula cook, may have been
disappointed, because she didn’t spend much of her time cooking. Instead,
she gave the audience what they really wanted, a chance to spend some delightful
time with Paula the person, not Paula the TV star.
To Rayanne and Jason: Thanks for giving us the tickets to see Paula
Deen.
Bodock Beau
Southern Security - How To
Reading about a Southern Belle may have put readers in a mood for some good
southern humor.
How To Install A Home Security System In The South
-
Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots.
-
Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns and Ammo and your
NRA magazines.
-
Put a giant dog dish next to the boots and magazine.
-
Leave a note on your door that reads:
Hey Bubba,
Big Mike, Slim, Tiny and me went for more ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't
mess with the Pitbulls. They attacked the mailman this morning and messed
him up pretty bad. I don't think Killer took part in it, but I locked all
four of them in the house. Better wait outside
-------------------------------
My friend's mother is a proper Southern lady and a passionate gardener
who spends hours outside with her plants. In her neighborhood, where she
has lived most of her life, no one has fences and every yard is open to the
next. Recently one of her longtime neighbors, an elderly man, moved away.
"Are you going to miss him?" my friend asked.
"Actually I'm relieved," her mother replied. "Now I can bend over."
Source - Reader’s Digest, "Life In These United
States"
Above: Thanks to Carl Wayne Hardeman
Copyright © 2000 - 2006 RRN
Online.
