A Pretty Good BBQ 2010

I can’t believe it happened again… We just finished the third annual A Pretty Good BBQ! This is an event that I organize through my church, the Dayton Vineyard Church. Their slogan is that we’re a Pretty Good Church, meaning that we’re not perfect, but do a pretty good job as a church.

The church is very outreach-focused, so, when we came into possession of an older church building in a less-blessed part of Dayton, and we wanted to do some sort of kick-off for the neighborhood to get to know us better. Someone suggested that we could do a cookout with burgers and hot dogs, and I suggested barbecue. I was told that burgers and dogs were good enough.

That kind of hit me the wrong way. Whether you’re Christian or not, good enough isn’t always good enough. I felt that we should serve with our best instead. So I posted on the BBQ Brethren site my idea to get some cooks from Ohio together, make some barbecue, then give it away. In fact, I even said it would cost everyone $50 to help buy meat, because we had no budget for it.

I had no way to prepare for the response I got. I thought maybe a few people from near Dayton would respond. Instead, I got people from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio. Then we added Pennsylvania last year, and, this year, Kentucky and Tennessee! Cooks were driving in from all over, not for a contest, but to serve a neighborhood with which they had no connection, just because a friend asked them. Those of you that think you know what serving is, those of you that are Christian and only serve those that come into your building, learn something from barbecue people. Serve with a smile and because you were asked to do it. Serve with your best. These cooks have served, some of them three years running, with not just their best, but with much better than I see people serve at the very church where we cooked and served several hundred people. You try asking a group of people who, at the time, you’d never even met in person, to drive hundreds of miles to do something for a group of people to which they have little or not connection, then tell me what kind of response you get.

The word that comes to mind when I think of how these guys pull together for this is “humbled”. These cooks, these friends, go so far beyond the call that I can’t explain my reaction any better.

Keep in mind that I’m not saying we don’t have a great time. The vast majority of time spent together is a lot of fun, with a lot of joking around and a genuinely enjoyable 24 hours in each others’ company. But it’s a lot of work, and these guys keep getting it done.

We cooked Boston butts and beef briskets, to the amount of about 650 pounds of meat. we served most of it at noon Sunday, and set some aside to serve another ministry in Dayton on Tuesday, then breakfast at the church on Thursday (feeding a couple hundred people then). Phil, the founder of the BBQ Brethren, even popped for a prime rib dinner, which I fixed for the guys on Saturday.

We had over a dozen men cooking this past weekend, with several men from our men’s ministry there as helpers. It’s tiring, hard work at the end, but, less than a week out from it, I can’t wait until I see what next year brings.

I forgot to mention this before… I want to say thanks to the Dayton Police Department. Over Saturday night, we had officers stop by almost every hour, helping us feel safe. In return we fed them venison chili, tomato pie, bratwurst and 9 racks of ribs, which they shared with 911 Dispatch. Guys, thanks for coming by!

Guys, thank you. You blessed a lot of people with your time, talent and caring. You may not have realized it during the event, but you made an impact, not just on the people you served, but on those that will learn from your actions how to serve.

With that said, I’m just going to show some photos of the event. They speak for themselves, I think.