Men's Breakfast, June 13, 2015

The Men’s Breakfast Group met Saturday, June 13th.  Mayor Norma Garcia had been scheduled as Featured Guest but received a free trip to Israel and canceled.  Danny Massey, BISD Superintendent, then accepted the invitation but canceled the day before.  We therefore had an open forum among the five men present.  Robert Dohle, priest at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church and Winston Rossow, pastor of Miracle House of Prayer were present.

The question thrown out was “What is the future of religion in Freeport”.   It was noted that there are about 46 churches in Freeport but much fewer than half the people attend church.  Robert said that one problem is that churches concentrate on being churches instead of being Christian.  The evangelicals worship the Bible and use it as a club instead of being Christians.  This has alienated much of the population.  The demographics of Freeport have changed and it is more difficult to get people involved with the church. 

Winston said that he had the revelation that he should go local a few years ago.  Before then, most of his congregation commuted from as far as Houston for services.  Now all but two families of the congregation are from the local area.  The congregation is mixed black, Hispanic, and white instead of all black. 

Robert is going to reach out to the community with “Dog Days of Summer”.  This is a program where free hotdogs are provided to everybody who comes by at one of the Freeport parks as a way to introduce his church. 

Robert  also reported on a major change to his church’s fish fry.  For many years he has held a fish fry where the whole community was invited and fish and shrimp plates were sold.  All the proceeds from the fish fry were given to various charitable organizations in the community, such as Brazosport Cares food pantry.  Robert is planning to expand this event.  He plans to have several churches participate and to hold it at Riverplace on a Sunday in November.  The hope is that many more people will participate in the preparation and that many more will buy plates.  More information will become available in the future. 

In spite of the diminished event, the men had an interesting discussion and a good breakfast.  The next meeting will be July 11th.