Food & Fun

For this week’s Food & Fun post I am going seriously old school. I’m reaching back to the past for a little food magic! Tonight I was reminded of 4 epic food joints from my college days in Anderson, IN and I want to share them with you.

First of all, to be classified as a “joint” is a real complement. So many restaurants are made just like the one down the street and I grow weary of the cookie-cutter stuff. To be a “joint” there can’t be a thousand others just like you. You have to have your own unique touches to be a “joint” and these places absolutely have all of thee above and more.

 First, let me tell you about Art’s Pizza in Anderson. In this day and age it is very difficult for a pizza place to set itself apart from the others…..Art’s has been doing just that since 1956. There is just something about their pizza…maybe it’s the ingredients or maybe it’s the oven they use. Who knows? All I know is if you are looking for an adventure and you crave good pizza you have got to check this place out. Forget all the fancy toppings….you can’t get anything exotic here. It’s all traditional pizza stuff and it will rock your world.

Also, when going to Art’s I would highly recommend trying an Italian Roast Beef sandwich as an appetizer. It’s slow roasted all day, every day and they top it with rich broth and green peppers. It is one of the tastiest sammy’s you will ever try.

Secondly on the college food circuit let me tell you about Gene’s Root Beer in Anderson. This is an old-fashioned drive-in style restaurant that has been an Anderson staple for years. You pull up and ladies come right to the car to serve you hot dogs, corn dogs, Spanish dogs (their version of the chili dog), fries, fried mushrooms and various other kinds of guilty pleasures. This place actually makes their own root beer! The recipe is a secret but they do sell it by the gallon. Great ice cream to finish things off as well.

Gene’s is located right on SR 109 (the bypass) in Anderson near the AU campus. If you are heading through there anytime soon, I would highly suggest stopping in for a great meal. They close for the season on October 15 this year.

 Thirdly is the Lemon Drop on Mounds Road near the mall in Anderson. An Anderson tradition since 1954 the Lemon Drop has been described as “old world greasy.” It absolutely rocks! Great burgers and traditional drive-in type food. It’s small so you may end up sitting at the counter next to a stranger but it will be worth the trip. Try the onionburger. You will not be sorry!

The Lemon Drop is one of those places you really have to experience to fully understand. Kim and I have shared many meals in this place over the years and have loved every single one of them.

The owner still cooks every single meal. As I wrote earlier, this is “old world greasy” and something you will really enjoy!

I could also spend time talking about places like The Toast (another greasy spoon place downtown), Eva’s (a fabulous place for an awesome old school breakfast) or The Real Hacienda (a converted church in downtown Anderson). They are all great and I would highly recommend each of them! Enjoy.

My Thoughts

Summer is quickly coming to an end so it’s time for some random thoughts……

I think that I am going to try to smoke some meat on Monday. I also think that I will need to do some research before I am ready for that. We are trying ribs and maybe a turkey breast.

I think that the guy who just stained my deck has taken me to the cleaners.

I think that the music at church this Sunday is really going to jam and while most of the people at church will enjoy the chance to worship with this kind of music, there will be a few who won’t. 

I think that the Big Peach in Bruceville, IN (near Vincennes, IN) has amazing produce. We have been enjoying some of it this week after stopping there on Monday. It’s one of those awesome old roadside produce stores in Southern Indiana. You can actually eat a peach that was just picked that morning….very cool! Plus they have all kinds of other stuff to eat like homemade jams and apple butter. Any time we go south we are all about the Big Peach! You can find it right on Hwy 41 just north of Vincennes.

I think that I am enjoying the process of blogging. I have things on my mind and this is a great way to share them with friends and family.

I think that the Cardinals should fold their tents and concentrate on next year. Without pitching you cannot win.

I think that the Colts have a chance to make some real noise this year. How cool would it be to break in Lucas Oil Stadium with another title? That would be so awesome.

I think that my assistant, Shirley Spangler is an incredible cook! This may be seen as a shameless attempt to manipulate another invitation to her house for dinner. While I take issue with the word shameless, that’s exactly what this is! She can cook anything including amazing pies and homemade dinner rolls. She rocks!

I think that I’m ready for lunch. What will it be today? No Chick-fil-A on the eastside of Indy, which is a bummer. Thanks for your comments on yesterdays blog by the way. 

I think it’s time to get back to work……have a great day.

Dreaming About Chick-fil-A

I hope that you are aware of restaurant perfection. Please tell me that you have eaten at Chick-fil-A?? I have to tell you that I am a Chick-fil-A addict. I am off the charts when it comes to this place. My wife will tell you that each and every day we have a conversation that goes something like this:

KIM: Hey Babe, how was your day?

BT:  Pretty good, how was yours?

KIM: Pretty good. What do you want to eat for dinner?

BT:  Well, let me think…..

KIM: Let me guess, Chick-fil-A? Shocker! Please don’t make me eat there again today!

 That is pretty much a daily conversation that we have. Why? Let me explain. Did you know that all the food that is served at Chick-fil-A is made fresh, by hand, every single day? That’s right….every single day. That is pretty tough to find in today’s fast paced world of fast-food. Also, since their “genesis” in 1964 they have always cooked in 100% peanut oil that is both trans-fat and cholesterol free.

On a low-carb diet? Check. Got you covered.

Are you a vegetarian? Check. Got you covered there, too. In fact, you can even call ahead and order a special vegetarian meal that they will prepare especially for you. How’s that for service?

Breakfast? Absolutely. Sounds strange but the next time you are looking for a quick breakfast, give them a shot. They are awesome!

It also happens that this company was founded by a Christian and to this day, none of their restaurants are open on Sunday. Also, listen when you are there for the Christian music playing over the sound system. Very cool.

Oh, and did I mention the ice cream? Eating this ice cream reminds me of a story…..

When I was a kid, my parents would often try to give us special treats in the summer. I was very young when I learned 3 little words that would rock my world: homemade ice cream. My parents knew that no matter what they wanted me to do, if they just made a batch of homemade ice cream I would do whatever they asked! It was the best.

Fast forward to 4 years ago….my friend Sam and I meet for lunch at Chick-fil-A in Evansville. He pulls me aside and says, “Please tell me you’ve had the ice cream here?” I hadn’t and after our meal he opened my eyes up to Chick-fil-A’s “Icedream” vanilla ice cream. 

Let me stop here and tell you that I am a pretty simple guy. I love baseball, golf, football, basketball and ice cream. My ice cream doesn’t have to be exotic, just solid. Very, very solid. The first time I tasted “Icedream” I was transported back to being an 8 year old boy and eating my parents homemade ice cream in the backyard on a hot summer day. It was amazing….not just amazing, I actually worked a deal with the manager at the Chick-fil-A near my house to sell me extra-large drink cups full of “Icedream.” Sound obsessive? Yeah, Kim thought so too. I had to stop doing that. 

But, I still look for any opportunity to stop by and have a meal and I would encourage you to do the same.

TM Concert Update

We had a great day on Sunday and are grateful for your prayers.

The morning concert was electric and you could really sense the presence of the Lord throughout the service. Harvestime is one of my favorite places to lead worship….the people come so hungry and ready to experience God. We actually had several people re-commit their lives to Christ in this service. We also had at least 1 person indicate that they prayed to receive Christ as their Savior for the very first time! We are so grateful for that!

Pastors Mark & Tonya Tabor

As I wrote on Saturday, my brother Mark and his wife Tonya are at the top of my list of hero’s in the faith. They have been a huge inspiration and encouragement to Kim and me. They are top-notch people and excellent pastors. They have both a heart for their people and for the lost. The Lord has used them to build a tremendous congregation in a smaller town and they are really making a difference in the community.

Kim and I have learned so much for Mark and Tonya over the years. Many things we have learned through conversations and times of prayer and spiritual renewal; but, others have been learned by simply watching them pursue the Lord with their whole hearts and lives. We love you guys and are so grateful for the investment that you have made in us! Thank you for the calls, emails, conversations and prayers that you have offered over the years. You guys rock!

We also had a great concert in the evening at Good Shepherd. I am so grateful for the way God is using our new devotional CD: “Finally Free: Stories of Hope & Inspiration.”  We used 2 of those stories yesterday: Sandra & Misty. Both of these stories moved people in such a tremendous way (as do all the ladies stories on the CD). We were able to hear so many people talk about how God used these powerful stories of healing and forgiveness to encourage them and remind them that God is truly in the details of our lives. I am so very thankful for that fact.

In all, it was a great weekend and we are grateful for the ways in which the Lord was at work. We are also grateful for your prayers! Thank you for that important support.

Now it’s time to go unpack and get some sleep so I can be ready for work tomorrow!

TM Concerts – 8.24.08

Hey Friends – we are down in area of my “genesis” (as Troy likes to put it) for 2 concerts (Tabor Ministries) tomorrow morning. There is just something special about coming home. My Mom & Dad are here and it just feels good to occasionally be under a roof where someone else is responsible, you know?

Tomorrow morning, we will be ministering in what has become my home church, Harvestime Temple in Mt. Vernon, IN. My older brother, Mark, is the Senior Pastor. It blows me away that my brother became their Senior Pastor in his twenties. That rocks my world….and he has been here for more than 25 years. He is a total stud and a real hero in the faith for me.

Tomorrow evening, we will be ministering at Good Shepherd Assembly of God in Evansville, IN. 

There is a chance that some of my friends from high school will be at these concerts. I am excited to see them and also excited that we will have the opportunity to share The Gospel with them. I thank you for your prayers in that regard.

Time with family, great food & someone else being in charge. That is really nice!

I’ll keep you posted…..

Worship Matters – 8.17.08

This past Sunday was a real celebration of God’s faithfulness. It was such an honor to look into the faces of the congregation and see them actually pausing to remember times in their lives when they have come face to face with the faithfulness of God. It was awesome.

We used a song by Tommy Walker called, “We Will Remember.” It is such a powerful song and he paints these amazing pictures with the lyrics. Check out these lyrics to the chorus and first 2 verses:

We will remember, we will remember, we will remember the works of Your hands. We will stop and give You praise for great is Thy faithfulness.

You’re our Creator, our life sustainer, Deliverer, our comfort our joy.
Throughout the ages You’ve been our Shelter, our peace in the midst of the storm.

With signs and wonders You’ve shown Your power, with precious blood You showed us Your grace. You’ve been our Helper, our Liberator, the Giver of life with no end.

Wow, those words just rock me. Just to see them in print and get the chance to pause and sing them in worship was an amazing experience. I find myself captured with the idea of remembering. It can be such a powerful experience to stop and remember all that God has done in our lives. We can remember times of distress when HE delivered us. We can remember times of celebration, devotion, sacrifice and worship. We can remember God’s amazing faithfulness to us throughout our lives. Remembering can lead us into a deeper walk with God. As HE orders our steps, those memories can spur us on to greater things and can encourage us as we strive to be the people of God. Through those powerful memories, God teaches us, not simply for the sake of our learning but for the sake of our future. Those memories build the foundation for a lifelong walk with God.

Later in the song, Tommy brings it to an amazingly personal level:

I still remember the day You saved me, the day I heard You call out my name. You said You loved me, would never leave me and I’ve never been the same!

I would encourage you to take some time and look back on God’s faithfulness in your own life. I hope this song is an encouragement to you. Here is the audio of us doing “We Will Remember” from yesterday.

New York Recap

We are home from New York! It was an awesome weekend that allowed us to experience a renewed sense of God’s power and majesty. We had a wonderful time of ministry at Calvary Baptist Church on Sunday night. Thank you so much for your prayers! We had such a variety of people at this concert: normal New Yorkers, visitors from out of town and even homeless people. It was probably the most diverse crowd we have ever led in worship. We were so blessed to see them respond as we worked to lead them to the Lord in worship. We also had the chance to share the Gospel with them. It was an awesome time of ministry and we are so grateful for your prayerful support!

We saw 2 more incredible shows while in New York. On Friday night, we saw “South Pacific” and the cast that led this show to 7 Tony Awards this year. It was amazing!

We also saw, “In the Heights” the story of a Hispanic neighborhood in Washington Heights in New York City. This show was absolutely incredible. The writer of this show is also the lead actor performing in it and is super talented. This show also won the Tony for best musical this year.

The highlight of the trip had to be our Sunday morning visit to the Brooklyn Tabernacle. I never cease to be amazed by the astonishing work that God is doing through this incredible body of believers. Their services are 2.5 hours long so even though they are spaced out over an entire day, there is almost constantly a worship service going on. They happen at 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM. We attended the 12:00 PM (noon) worship service and truly had an encounter with God as we worshipped.

The church relocated a few years ago and this was going to be our first visit to their new location. We arrived at 11:30 AM only to wait in line to get into the building. That’s right….wait in line. We waited in a line that stretched for nearly a full city block for more than 20 minutes to simply get into the building. At right is a picture of the line.

When we finally reached the door we were blessed that someone recognized that we were visitors and offered us seats on the main floor. We considered ourselves very blessed by this since after only a few years in this new building they have already outgrown it. There is another building across the street for overflow. That’s right…..overflow. Those in the overflow room watch the service via video.

Once the service began we were swept away by the presence of God. It was tangible. The only way to describe worship at this church is to envision a wall of sound. It’s not loud as much as it is completely overwhelming. There is no escaping it. Band volume is not an issue in that it is too loud….it’s an issue in that sometimes you cannot hear them because of the passionate singing that is happening from within the congregation.

I cannot help myself but thing about what God could do if every church pursued Him with this kind of passion? Regardless of style, can you imagine what our country looked like if there was a church making this kind of impact on every corner? How do you think our country would be different? What kind of things would we be doing? How many lives would we be impacting?

That has me thinking long and hard about what we are doing and why we are doing it. It’s something to pray about for sure!

I will leave you with a few more pictures from the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Be Blessed!

 

Worship At The Brooklyn Tabernacle

"How Great Is Our God" At The Brooklyn Tabernacle

 

Tech Team, including Carol Cymbala (center) director of the choir

 

Tech Booth & Band

 

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

Kim & Brian Concert – NYC

 We are here in New York City preparing for our concert at Calvary Baptist Church on W. 57th Street in Manhattan. We are so excited to be here and are praying that the Lord would work in a powerful way in the concert on Sunday night! We hope that you will join us in prayer!

This is truly an amazing city! It is really an experience to walk the streets and listen to all the different languages you can hear and to smell all the wonderful foods cooking in the neighborhood restaurants.

It is also a tremendous reminder of just how many people in the world are in need of a life-transforming experience with Jesus Christ. That is why we’ve come here….to reach out to the people of this city and tell them about the Lord. Will you join us in prayer over that?

The concert will take place this Sunday night, August 10, at Calvary Baptist Church, 123 W. 57th Street in Manhattan at 6:00 PM. We are trusting the Lord for a powerful night of ministry and are praying that we will see many lives touched and impacted by the power of the Gospel.

We thank you for your prayerful support and will put a new post up to let you know how the evening goes. 

Thanks again for your support! God is good!

Be Blessed - 

Brian & Kim

NYC Day 1

This city totally amazes me. How this many people from this many places can coexist in such a small area is beyond me! As we walked down the streets of Manhattan today it was amazing to hear so many different languages being spoken around us. The busy-ness of this place is unbelievable as well….. everywhere you look there are people and they are all going some place in a tremendous hurry!

We have had a great first day. We have already spent a great deal of time walking around, taking in some of the sights and sounds of this incredible city. And, we plan to do a lot more while we are here.

 We got a great start to day 1 with an incredible Italian meal. We also went to see the musical “Jersey Boys,” the story of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons. The music was incredible! It was overwhelming to hear and consider all of the hits and familiar songs that this group made famous. To name just a few: “Who Loves You,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Sherry,” ”My Eyes Adore You” & “December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)” and many, many others. I cannot imagine the vocal flexibility it takes to sing the lead role of Frankie either…..WOW!

I will offer you a huge caution with this show. When I am going to a secular production, I always have to remind myself that I am not going to church. That was very, very evident while seeing this show. It contains a large amount of profanity. I was quite surprised by the language. Again, the music was amazing but the language is something you need to be prepared for. It gets pretty thick in the middle of the show. So, if you u plan to see it, consider yourself warned.

Tonight we are off to see “South Pacific” and celebrate our anniversary at a very nice steakhouse overlooking Central Park. We are excited and enjoying our time here!

Worship Matters – 7.27.08

I’m late in writing this post but just had to share about an experience that Kim and I had on Sunday, July 27, 2008. This was a really special day for the traveling piece of our ministry, Tabor Ministries. We had been invited to share 2 morning worship concerts at Madison Park Church of God in Anderson, IN. This is really a leading church in that denomination with a tremendous pastor (Jim Lyon) and a Worship Pastor (Steve Williamson) who has been very gracious to our ministry over the years. Steve has also been a mentor to me and we were very excited to head to Anderson to share with their congregation.

One of our dreams has been to travel with a live band. We have been praying about that and decided that this would be a great day to give it a shot. So, we called on some very special guys to go with us. Let me tell you that these guys absolutely rocked the house! It was amazing to work with them. They added such excellence to our worship and we hope the Lord will provide the resources to take them with us all the time! The boys in the band are: Terry Hayes (guitar), Don Zlaty (Hammond B3 & Keys), Tom Janke (bass) and Tim Gee (drums). 

As we continued to pray about this day, we also felt led to extend the invitation to our choir to join us for the morning. So, more than 40 of them traveled to Anderson on their own to help us lead in worship. It was an awesome team building experience and they knocked it out of the park.

I am so grateful that my team gets that our ministry has 2 facets. I am grateful that they don’t simply tolerate this part of our ministry but that have wholeheartedly embraced it. I will never take that for granted!

We shared a song in Anderson that has become very special to Kim and me and also to our church family. It’s a song of declaration that reminds us of God’s providence, love and care. I’ll close with some of the lyrics to Miriam Webster’s amazing song, “Made Me Glad”:

You have made me glad, and I’ll say of the Lord, You are my Shield, my Strength, my Portion, Deliverer, my Shelter, Strong Tower, my very present Help in time of need!”