Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
We've got a bonus feature for you today with our Community Connection, and
we're talking with Aaron Kirkpatrick. He is the preaching minister with Adams Boulevard Church
of Christ and how are you today. It's been a while since we've had
you in here. It has I think it was about this time last year
we were doing kind of a relationship summing deal and I think's last time we've
got a chat. Yeah. Well, this time we're going to do it
on a kind of a bigger scale, a big time relationship avand what we
got here. Yeah, So I've been working with pastors from all over our
community to create an event that's really focused on maybe putting the unity back in
community. I like that. And we're calling it Bartlesville's biggest pot luck ever.
Oh boy, this is this is gonna be huge potla. Guy.
Do you go going to church? They did potlucks? Oh yeah, oh
all the time. So, like I remember as a kid, I was
always the one like you, you wanted to sneak out as fast after that
closing prayer song as possible to get to the lunch line because there was always
like the big bucket of KFC Pride Chicken. Somebody brought it and it was
somebody did and it was going to go super quick. So I grew up
doing pot lugs. Oh yeah, and uh. And you know, we
we've been talking about our community, talking about you know, we've got tons
of people moving here Oklahoma. You may know this is the ninth fastest growing
state in the country right now, it is, and for the last several
years, Bartlesville has had about fifty new family groups moving into Bartlesville every single
month. Now we also have people who move away or you know, pass
away, like so, I mean, it's a churn, but that means
we've got a ton of new people who have moved into our community and they're
from all over. They don't know anybody, No, they don't and talk
to any adult. What they'll tell you is one of the hardest things to
do as you get older is make new friends. So we were talking as
pastors, saying what can we do that would bring the community together and not
make it about a It's not a fundraiser, it's not a you know when
we're not I don't know, it's not a big project. It's there's no
there's very little structure. There's no presentation, there's no band, there's no
it's just like, hey, what if we all just came and brought enough
food for us and to share with other people, put it out all out
on tables and said, hey, if you want to come and eat,
come and eat. And so that's what we're gonna doo. Okay, well,
there you go. This this is gonna be a big event. What's
the date. It is April fourteenth, So it's a Sunday afternoon. Okay,
We're gonna do it from five thirty to seven, long enough for everybody
to come and have fun. We're also we're telling people bring a bag chair,
you know, a lawn chair of some kind. And then bring if
you've got a long game, if you like you know, corn hole or
ladder ball or washers or you know, whatever it is, bring that with
you. Set it up, and if you like playing it, probably somebody
else will like playing it with you. There you go. So it's I
mean, it couldn't be less formal, and I think it's gonna be a
lot of fun. I think it's gonna be a blast. The only thing
you have to bring is yourself in a dish. Yeah, and if you
and that's assuming. What we want is if you can provide food, provide
food. But if you're hungry, right, if you're a part of our
community and you're like, you know, I don't have food to share,
that's okay, it's just company. We'll share ours. It's for everybody.
Now. When you say putting the unity and community, you're doing that at
Unity Square, and we're coming together as one but one community's right. I
think I put it together here, that's right. But and this is really
gonna be I think it's gonna be one of those things that you guys could
probably do this every year if you wanted to. Well, you know,
let's just get through the first one first. That's on the panic on your
face. We're not sure how this one's gonna go. So anyway, we
want this to be a rousing success. And we want you to meet new
people. We want you to feel comfortable in your new surroundings. We want
you to feel welcome here in Bartlesville, right. I mean, if just
if just the folks to go to church somewhere, show up and bring food,
we're gonna have a ton of people there it's not just for church folks
either. You don't have to go to church anywhere. Just come and be
a part of it, right if you're from the area and you want to
come and hang out, We're going to have a great time. We're going
to eat well, and we're going to make new friends. That's what it's
all about, you know. So much of the American experience has been around
a meal and then the friendship. So the just making acquaintance with someone that
is quite a part of that too, And this is going to be a
nice gathering at you and I think mother nature is probably going to cooperate pretty
darn well with this too, I hope. So we're working on backup plans.
The easiest way to stay updated on something like this, we have a
Facebook event that's being shared by people all over the community. It is yees.
So if you get on Facebook and you just you know, search for
an event Bartlesville's Biggest pot Luck ever, you'll find it. It'll find it,
and you can let us know you're coming. That will help us.
Just I say that we're going to set up the same number of tables for
food regardless, but it would at least be good to help spread the buzz,
get people excited about it. But that's the easiest way to stay updated
is just to follow the event there because we're posting it regularly. Now,
I want to go into just a little something here about the Adams Boulevard Church
Christ. Easy to find warm cold. It's exactly right right behind the water
tank. Yes, and it's a big church, and it's a nice church,
and it's a friendly church. Yeah, you know Church Christ. We
do potlos well. So this is in our DNA. I was going to
say, that's in your wheelhouse here. We like the joke. You know.
We talked about being family at our church. If you're if you're a
guest there, like you either got to sneak out during the closing prayer or
you're not leaving for fifteen or twenty minutes because our church is so friendly,
like you walk out. We had a family come a year or so ago.
As I got to know him, they said, the first time we
came, it was so fun that I was worried it was a cult.
It wasn't, which is why we're here now. Why we're here now,
that level of like of friendliness. You talked about the American story is one
of food. But like the whole ministry of Jesus was when you know what,
He's always eating with people because and I did the research on this,
one hundred percent of people eat, they do so, so why not languished
for hours on that when I could tell, oh, man, it's you
know, you wouldn't believe how far down the rabbit hole I had to go
to France stat But once you once you realize like this is the common human
experience, there's no easier way to set up a place to build unity,
right, a way to build unity to build friendships. You and I talked
about the fact that friendships. I've got a mathematical formula that I use.
But but friendships or relationships are experience multiplied by time. Right, So every
friend you have, you have a series of stories in your head of things
y'all did together that were that were experiences that stood out, And it happens
over a length of time. The one day you go, I'm friends with
this person. How that happen? It's simple, you had unique experiences with
this person over time. So this event, it's a unique experience. We
never done anything like this before. And you're gonna come out and see so
much food it'll bog your mind. I can't believe how many tables our church
provides just for dessert when we do a pot luck. Oh can you imagine
the desserts that are going to be there for your desserts? I think a
wood for miles. It's gonna be amazing, right, So, a unique
experience is an opportunity to meet new people. And then, because Bartlesville is
such a great community anyway, you see the same people everywhere you go.
If you make one new friend, that's gonna be an awesome opportunity. So
that's going to lead two more new friends. But having one to begin with
is one hundred percent increase of what you had before you showed up. And
that, my friends, is solid math. We're just dropping knowledge bombs left
and right this morning. We're going to convince ourselves for geniuses here in a
minute. But you can be the genius by proving us right there you go.
So I want to know, since you grew up doing potlucks, what
was your favorite dish? I told you mine was a fried chicken. Actually
it was like like a cheese or scarlet potatoes and stuff like being Irish.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, any form of potatoes, your
good potato, so butad cheese, I'm there, Yeah, that was it.
Yeah, so the scaloped potatoes there you go, that's the thing for
you to bring. Then, And you know, we've had questions from people
with food sensitivities, and so we're gonna have labels where people can I'll tell
you the two questions. We have food sensitivity and what about my dish?
So the same answers for both. We're gonna have like name tags you can
put on your dish to make sure you get it back. But if it's
a special like if you had a food sensitivity, right, if I was
gluten sensitive, gluten intolerant, then make a gluten free dish and bring it
to share and put gluten freeze exactly. Then you label it and then other
people know, oh that's awesome, like somebody who shares, you know,
my needs brought something that I can have. So everything's gonna be labeled.
We're gonna be Lutheran for a day. Actually, we're gonna have Lutherans there.
I know, I know, tell you that. And jest, there
was a joke that went around in the up North where I'm from. Your
moms will loose and you got you've got casserole dishes with labels with your name
on the bottom of every one. It's like, yeah, yeah, well
the Church of Christ is what happens is you just leave anybody anybody's dishes they
didn't take home. You just set out on the display. You know people
will grab it. But I don't want to walk home with a thousand dishes,
you know, sitting in my church. You'll never find them. So
we're gonna we're gonna have you label your stuff. It'll help people find the
food that they can eat, and it will help make sure that everybody gets
their stuff back. There you go, and it's gonna be a lot of
fun. You're gonna meet friends and you're just gonna enjoy yourself for the day.
It's gonna just put that on your calendar right now, fourteenth April fourteenth,
five thirty to seven. You know, you show up a few minutes
early and bring your food or whatever. But it's gonna be a really great
time. And let me say one more thing too. We've had so we
were really intentional not to do business partnerships or sponsorships because we didn't want because
we really just wanted to be simple. We're not trying to raise money.
We're just trying to throw a party. But as a result then we've had
some people who have businesses and say, hey, I want to come set
my you know, my my tint up and smoke meat that I can share.
Like that's great, come and do that right there. Really there's no
sign up for this, it's just show up and share what you got.
Yeah, well, there you go, com a yard as they say,
exactly, Wow, this is wonderful. I want to thank you very much
Aaron for coming in and of course looking forward on Facebook. It is the
biggest potluck Bartlesville's biggest pot luck ever on the fourteenth, five point thirty and
Unity Square. We're going to put the unity and community and community in the
unity and we're gonna put some food and all y'alls. You got it.
That's one hundred percent Come and join us. Alrighty, it didn't come out
to eloquent, but that's the way it's gonna be. I want to thank
you for being part of our broadcast today and once again, folks, you've
been listening to our community connection