Food, fitness and faith: Bethany Lutheran Pastor Shawn Osborne leading exciting new programs

Bethany Lutheran Pastor Shawn Osborne is taking care of his flock, body and soul.

Since May 10, the church has been offering free community meals every Wednesday and Osborne will soon be offering his “Mission Ready” workout training program for the third year.

While Osborne has years of experience helping people with physical fitness through his background in the military (Osborne served with the Air National Guard, Army Rangers, and as a Navy Chaplain), it took a little nudging from Upstairs to get him into the food serving arena.

“It all started with a vision. My wife (Karen) has been wanting to do something (community meals) like this and then another parishioner of ours echoed those thoughts during a road trip we did together. We wanted to actually do something for the community. Everyone talks a big game, but we wanted to actually get something done,” he said.

When Osborne found out there were members of the church that had worked providing food for large groups before, he decided to move forward with his plans.

With the help of church member Pat Shirey, Osborne began breaking up his volunteers into teams of six, made his way through the county’s Serve-Safe class and began planning meals.

With four weeks of meals under their belts, Osborne and Shirey have watched as attendance has grown from 30 at their first meal (spaghetti) to nearly 60 at their latest meal (lasagna).

As for the meals themselves, Shirey says she works hard to source the freshest ingredients, and shops locally as much as possible.

“I don’t want to put my name on store-bought stuff if I don’t have to. I also try to work with as many local producers as I can to source our ingredients,” Shirey said. “I am from Georgia and that is just the way I was raised.”

Meals are served every Wednesday, with the doors opening at 5:45 p.m. and dinner served at 6:00.

There is a short, optional service held after every meal, but the event is open to everyone.

“This is for the people in our church, but we are aiming more for the people outside of our church. Even if you are just a single mom that doesn’t want to cook on Wednesday evenings, come on in. We have plenty of food with no strings attached,” Osborne said. “We are not asking anyone for money and we are not asking anyone to join the church, it has nothing to do with that at all. We just want to help out the community as best we can.”

Osborne is also helping out the community with the third year of his “Mission Ready” training program.

With the use of a 15-foot rope-climbing tower on church grounds as well as other equipment, Osborne is helping anyone looking to get in better shape.

According to Osborne, it all began with his son’s friends while Osborne was in the Navy.

“They wanted to train, so I had pull up bars installed in my garage and put up a heavy bag in the corner,” he said. “We would go out and do crazy runs, usually carrying a 25-pound kettlebell or something like that. Everything was done as a team, though.”

These days, the eight-week course consists of lessons in survival swimming, self-defense, physical fitness, ethics lessons and more.

“This could be for self-defense, getting ready for football season or getting ready to go into the military. I just like training kids and helping them get into shape,” Osborne said. “It’s not just for kids, though. Adults are more than welcome to join us.”

As for going from training recruits in the Navy to helping the kids in his church get into better shape, Osborne says it’s funny how thinks work out.

“It’s good to have a second skill set, especially considering I never planned to be a pastor,” he laughed. “You want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

To learn more, call Osborne at 808-781-7731.