“Starter” Is One Ingredient In Building Community

Something’s growing at CNC.

It’s easy to create.
It’s bubbling with life.
And it’s meant to be shared.

It’s Friendship Bread. Also known as Amish Friendship Bread and Herman bread.

According to Wikipedia, Amish Friendship Bread, “is the chain letter of the baking world [or like zucchini from summer gardens]. The idea is very simple: a friend gives you a cup of yeast culture (also known as “starter”) and a copy of instructions. Following the instructions, you add sugar, flour and milk and it rises.”

“Eventually, you end up with 4 cups of the starter. You use one to make bread, keep one to start a new cycle and give two to your friends. Each of your friends also gets a copy of the instructions for what to do with the yeast starter. The latter part makes it somewhat like a chain letter.”

The idea is simple: use some, keep some and give some away. A recipe like this can quickly get out-of-hand and that’s what Women’s Ministry is proposing. In fact, let’s see how out of hand we can get. And how quickly we can do it.

Pass it on
Do you think it’s possible for every woman of the church to receive starter? All those on the mailing list? Wouldn’t this be a fun way to connect with others? An unusual way to build community? Let’s see if we can pass it on to all the Family by the end of October.

“Hello, my name is Susan. It’s good to see you at church today. I’d like to give you a little something. It’s a Friendship muffin, (aha, you didn’t know you could make muffins with it, did you?), a bag of starter and a recipe to make your own muffins or loaf of bread.”“When you’ve made your bread, you can give your friends a sample and the starter that made it! Then your friends can make their own and pass it along to their friends. This is why the bread is called “friendship bread”.[1]

But wait, something else is growing at CNC.

It’s a cookbook. Women’s Ministry is collecting recipes for an all-church cookbook.

So while you’re passing out samples and starter, how about passing out reminders to submit recipes (need them by August 15) and reserve a copy of the cookbook. Hardcopy forms are on the Secret Sister bookshelf; an electronic form can be received by e-mailing cncwomensministry@yahoo.com.

Be sure to grow and pass on the starter you receive. Even better yet, why don’t you start your own chain? The recipe for the starter and bread is in a separate post. When you’ve passed it on, please let me know by commenting here or click on Cookbook and comment on the post titled – Friendship Bread – Pass It On.

Let’s see how long it does take us to pass it on to all the CNC community.

Maybe at CNC we could call it Community Bread. ‘Cuz that’s what we’re doing with our sharing – building community. That’s what we’re doing with our cookbook – building community. That’s what Pastor will be preaching on – building community.

Why? Because Community Matters in the short-haul, long-haul and in Eternity.

[1] http://www.armchair.com/recipe/bake002.html