#1,681 Cooking Night.

Our supper club that started 5 years ago with a handful of infrequent guests and visitors has been slowly transforming and growing since we began. Then, there was no class for people between ages 20-35, but we had a pot luck supper club and devotional once a month at different FUMC host homes. Last year, we established a Sunday school group called the Adoration Class. And before long, we started meeting for a small group on Wednesday nights after the church family meal, and now we’ve also started meeting in the church kitchen once monthly to cook a bunch of meals for new parents in the community and the sick and elderly in our church family, then we deliver them whenever the people we’re serving would like. Tonight we made Waverly chicken, hamburger pies, and corn casseroles for 6 families. It took 45 minutes, and we had SO much fun…

And now I’m sort of realizing that our group revolves around food.

Waverly Chicken (which is apparently just poppyseed chicken without the poppyseeds) might be my absolute favorite meal in the Laurel FUMC recipe chain, and I really HAVE to share it with you. It makes my mouth water thinking about that creamy, comforting casserole that our church is kind of known for delivering to those who could use a little comforting. Promise me you will make this EASY meal.

Laurel FUMC Waverly Chicken


1 1/4 stick of butter (melted—can be light butter)
2 sleeves of Ritz or Club crackers
8 oz. sour cream (can be light sour cream)
1 can of cream of chicken soup
2 cups boiled (or rotisserie) chicken, shredded
1 can chicken broth


Preheat to 350. Crush the crackers and mix together with melted butter. Put half the crackers in the bottom of a 9 x 9 casserole dish. In another bowl, whisk together sour cream, cream of chicken, and chicken broth. Stir the chicken into the sauce and pour over cracker crust. Top with remaining crackers and bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

I would like to tell you what a blessing it is to the people we’re taking food to, but honestly, I think we’re the ones who are feeling it most of all. We’re more than a group of random people who sometimes meet at a church thing—now we’re a group of friends who have Sunday morning and Wednesday night therapy sessions by telling each other what’s going on in our lives, praying for one another, laughing together, cooking together, and eating together. There are about 15 of us Methodists who are always there, with 5-10 visitors who come to everything they can when their own church isn’t meeting. It feels so good to see this small seed that was planted in 2009 is bearing fruit in 2014. We’re finally doing more than just meeting, but we’re actually serving and loving outside of ourselves.

I’ll be messing up and figuring things out for the rest of my life, but I’ll tell you something. I’m falling more in love with the journey of learning to be a Christian every day.