The Power of Pancakes

"When I first started making pancakes for the high schoolers my motivation was to simply volunteer for something easy that didn't require a commitment outside of Sunday mornings.  I like to cook, pancakes are easy and kids love to eat!  It was a good match.  It was a no pressure volunteer spot and I enjoyed it.  I had no idea that God had plans of blessing me and many others way beyond pancakes!

Soon after being in the kitchen on a regular basis, a few kids began to wonder in and chat with me as I was cooking.  I even had one or two who liked to help me flip and serve the pancakes.  God had easily opened the door to hearing kids' stories and getting to know them.  To a few, I think it meant a lot just to be seen and heard, even in small ways.  God started to develop a softness in my heart for teens.  Even though I had a teen and pre-teen in my own home I still assumed that teenagers were a group that had little interest in community and certainly wouldn't be interested in talking to someone like me, I'm just a mom!  I was wrong, and God showed me that teens are people just like the rest of us!  They are seeking, have questions, want to be known and loved and are just trying to figure out life like us all!!  

God continued to open my heart and give me a passion for young people.  From there I began leading a girl's small group once a week and had the opportunity to take teens to Colorado for an awesome, God led adventure for 3 summers in a row. I just wanted to make pancakes, but God had others plans and I'm so glad He did!"

That's the true story of Lydia Goodwin, a Shoal Creek mom who has had her three children grow up and enter into the Shoal Creek community. Each week we want our high school students to feel welcome at Shoal Creek, so between the 9:30am and 11am services we cook a free pancake breakfast to try to show them we care about them. 

As you can probably guess--those pancakes don't flip themselves! Would you reflect on Lydia's story and maybe consider seeing yourself take the same steps she did to make our Shoal Creek community a more loving and accepting place for teenagers? Would you contact me, Justin Talley, if you think you might have time to flip pancakes on a regular, or rotational basis on Sunday mornings?