Jen Russum

Flowers Fade Friday: Choose ONE.

Flowers Fade Friday: Choose ONE.

I hope I can say this with grace. Because it bugs me… a lot. Are you committed to one church? Have you picked the best church you can find with solid teaching and a good vision for ministry and have you made that church your home? Do you serve there? Share your life with the people there? Obey and study what your pastor teaches you from the Word? Do you give your money to this church? Or are you a church hopper? Are you never fully satisfied with any church so you hop from church to church? Maybe you visit some of them for only a week or two. At others you might stay for a few months or maybe even a year before you decide you don’t like the lady that always sits behind you or the music is too loud or too quiet or the sermons are too long or not long enough, or you don’t like your small group or they don’t have VBS in the summer or they use crackers instead of bread at communion… Whatever it may be, you typically move on to the next church as soon as something bothers you at your current one or as soon as you hear about the amazing new worship service at the church down the block. Or maybe you are a double-dipper? You go to some big, fancy mega church for their awesome worship and their variety of ministries that can serve you, give you friends, make you feel content, but you actually don’t really like the teaching that much. It doesn’t challenge you, so you go to night service at this cool church, but you go to another smaller church for their morning service because you get fed there spiritually. You don’t serve at this smaller church or tithe there; you just smile at the precious little pastor as he preaches and then you make your way across town to your sanctuary full of electric guitars. *Disclaimer: I am not knocking large or small churches here. I have happily been a part of huge mega churches and small churches where sometimes the babies outnumber the adults.* My point is that big or small doesn’t matter. It just matters that you choose ONE. You aren't a super Christian if you are going to an extra service to get good teaching before or after you go to the church that fills all your social needs. You aren't on some holy mission if you are never satisfied with your church and always going in search of the perfect one. God wants you to pick a church. He wants you to share life with a local flock. He wants you to serve your church. Give to your church. Pray for your church. The truth of the matter is that no church is perfect. A church is a place filled with sinners {hopefully mostly redeemed ones or those seeking Jesus}. There will be people in the church who wrong you. Your pastor might not preach the best sermon every single week {but hopefully the Holy Spirit guides his preaching always}. The worship leader might not always sing your favorite songs. The whole world is hurting financially and this, of course, includes churches. Your church might not be able to provide all the fun ministries you want or have a staff of pastors to counsel you and encourage you at every turn. But that doesn't mean you should leave. It means you should give. You should give your time and volunteer for a task that your church can’t pay someone to do. You should give your money to keep your church functioning in our uncertain economy and to pay the pastor who brings you God’s truth each week. You should give of yourself by sharing your struggles and joys with other believers and praying with them and for them, because we don’t need a bunch of counselors when we are living in Gospel community with other people that truly love Jesus. We don’t always need VBS when we have a church full of Jesus-loving parents who are willing to exchange babysitting and allow their children to play together in Gospel homes. *Another disclaimer: I am also not against counseling. There are many situations where pastoral care or counseling is definitely necessary. But there are many needs in the church that could be met by loving friends instead of by dominating the pastor’s schedule. I beg of you, choose a church. Stop skipping church, double-dipping, or hopping around. Of course, it’s okay to search for a church for a while when you move to a new town or whatnot, but the search has to end. Find the most theologically sound, Jesus-loving church close to your home and give your time, your money and your prayers to this church. Be prepared to see God bless you and teach in you in new ways when you love and serve His flock. This is our missional community in Scottsdale... they are honestly some of our very best friends in our new city! {{The pictures throughout this post are of my churches since high school. There are three not because I hopped around, but because I have lived in three different states over the past ten years. The first is a traditional mid to large sized Bible church in Texas. The second is a modern, mega-church in Seattle. The last picture is of the coffee shop that my tiny Scottsdale church met in this past summer when we were in between buildings. I told you, I'm not picky about size or style. I just want a church that loves Jesus and I want you to have one too!}} xoxo,Jen ... Read more

Baking: Love/Hate {Part Two – Lemon Squares}

Baking: Love/Hate {Part Two – Lemon Squares}

Regardless of my love/hate relationship with baking {I posted about it yesterday - read it here}, I sucked it up and baked not once, but twice, this past week {banana bread recipe coming soon}! My dear friend Bekah, drove over from Cali to visit me for MLK weekend and we made lemon bars together. Bekah is quite the little baker, so something about being in her presence inspires me to want to bake too. She brought me some pretty, bright yellow lemons that were begging to be made into lemon bars. We used the Smitten Kitchen recipe and Bekah taught me a baker's secret. She introduced me to putting parchment paper on the bottom of the pan to prevent the bars from sticking. Did y'all know about this? Am I out of the loop on this because I am a part-time baker hater? Anyway, the parchment paper worked like a champ and I can now scratch scrubbing the bottom of dirty baking pans off my list of reasons I hate baking... am I slowly crossing over? Basically, you should know that this recipe makes a 9x12 pan of lemon squares and I ate about 3/4 of them myself. That is all. Lemon Squares {from Smitten Kitchen} For the crust: 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 cups flour 1/8 teaspoon salt For the lemon layer: 4 extra-large eggs at room temperature 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (3 to 4 lemons) 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 2/3 cup flour *Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting How you do it: Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet {OR grease the pan and then add parchment paper on top so it sticks to the grease and stays in place}. For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Pull/roll the dough into a giant ball in the mixing bowl and then put the ball in your greased pan. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into the greased baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill for 5-20 minutes. Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool in pan. For the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 28-32 minutes or about five minutes beyond the point where the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature. Cut into rectangles and dust with confectioners’ sugar. xoxo, Jen ... Read more

Baking: Love/Hate {Part One}

Baking: Love/Hate {Part One}

Let me share a little secret with you. I kinda hate baking. I mean you can’t fully hate baking because when you bake, baked goods come out of the oven and they are delicious. So the story always ends happily. Except it doesn’t really… it’s a faux happy ending. This is how baking really works: you get out a bunch of ingredients that spill all over your floor and counter {sugar, flour, etc.}, you measure them all precisely according to a recipe {no creativity}, and then you put the mixed ingredients in the oven. Did I mention the risk of baking - that if you aren't paying close enough attention and accidentally forget or add too much of one ingredient all your work in ruined? Anyway, back to the baking process. You have to keep your eye on the oven, since all ovens cook differently, to make sure you don’t undercook or overcook these baked goods.  Then comes the good part if you succeed in all of the above…. fresh and warm baked goods straight from the oven! The bad part is that baked goods only really taste great the first 24-48 hours, so the goal, at least in my opinion, is to eat as many as you possibly can in that first day or two. And this is where the faux happy ending comes into play – eating, I don’t know… say, two dozen cookies, half a cake, or one whole loaf of bread in a two day span is simply not good for you, anyway you look at it. I don’t care if you used applesauce instead of oil. It’s not healthy. {P.S. I do NOT believe in using applesauce instead of oil, spelt instead of flour, or Splenda instead of sugar. If you are going to make a treat, you need to MAKE a treat. Butter, oil, sugar, white fluffy flour. Bring it. Don’t skimp. Just don’t do it very often.} And that, my friends, is why I don’t like baking.  I love the fluffy, sugary goodness that comes out of the oven, but the process… the flour-dusted counters, babysitting the oven, the desire to consume three times my daily calorie needs in bread and cookies makes me kinda hate it. With all that said, I will be back tomorrow with two new recipes because I sucked it up and baked TWICE this past week. And now I'm sucking it in because of that 3,000 calorie factor... Just some proof that I know how to bake, even though I love/hate it... xoxo,Jen ... Read more