Greetings Holy, Healthy and Happy People of God,

As I write this to our faithful and devoted community of radical followers of Jesus Christ, I am sitting in The Cookery, a coffee shop and restaurant, located at 1827 12th Avenue South.  One of the reasons for sitting was my connection to the owner, Brett Swain.  In 2009, Brett and Terry Kemper started feeding and providing shelter for six men in a church gymnasium called The Upper Room.

Soon thereafter Rick, after spending so time in the homeless shelter in Nashville, was led by the Holy Spirit to branch out and establish more of a mission of relational sustainability to the Nashville community.  Eventually, Brett was hired by Fleming’s restaurant and trained as a chef and traveled all over the country.  Afterwards, Brett would take those skills and start The Cookery, a coffee shop, restaurant and culinary school (a culinary school for homeless men who desire to become chefs one day).

Brett was a broken vessel and God loves brokenness.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7:

 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Our brokenness integrated with God’s glory, a miracle emerges.  The Cookery is now a full service restaurant, serving hope one plate at a time, but it started out as a rundown unwanted, broken place.  God takes broken people and puts us in broken places to reflect His glory.

This week let’s seek to be deliberately broken before God so that the glory of God can come through us as God takes our broken pieces and puts them in broken places for the sake of His glory.

Hear the W.O.W., the Words of Wisdom: “Brokenness in God’s hands creates blessedness!”

As always, remember, God’s will for us is good, we must do the rest!

Pastor Stephen