Holey, Wholly, Holy

Donut Church: A “Hole” New Approach

Woodlawn Chapel is a donut church.

I realized that as I stopped by Donut Palace, our purveyor of finely fried pastries! While I’m an infrequent customer, the owner still greeted me by name and asked about the church. She asked if we were happy with our donut order, and even inquired about my kids. Donut Palace is a small, family-run business which provides a different approach to customer service than, say, Krispy Kremes (whose financial problems have been well publicized on the business pages lately). Donut Palace has a simple vision: the customer is king. Or, as one internet reviewer put it, “It’s kind of like ‘Cheers’ only with donuts.”

For many years, we have “sold” donuts on Sunday morning. All proceeds go to youth ministry. While we work on the honor system, we do ask for contributions. Our motto is this: “Grace is free, donuts cost a buck!” Some weeks we barely cover the cost of the donuts, other weeks we have a surplus. That’s not the point, however. There’s more to being a donut church than merely selling pastries.

As a donut church, we take hospitality seriously. We try to greet visitors by name. We welcome them to our home. We offer refreshment. We take the needs of our community seriously. We don’t cut corners on service. We minister to each other.

We do something else, too. A donut is holey – it has a piece missing. A church that strives to be leaven in the world tries hard to fill in the missing pieces of people’s lives. When the church ceases meeting spiritual needs, it becomes a social club. That’s why we offer Sunday School (it’s for adults, too!). That’s why we take food to Circle of Concern and serve the homeless at Joint Neighborhood Ministries. That’s why we engage questions of faith at all ages and at every stage of life. We’re good at being holey – that is, filling the holes in people’s lives.

Now here’s the point: what’s missing in your life? I’ve seen grown adults arrive at church early so they could scout out their favorite donut and put it in a safe place for later. No joke! They knew that something was missing. We can’t patch every hole, but we can offer assurance, community, acceptance, transformation. We can point the way to a deeper journey with God, and I’m quite certain God can meet your needs. To me, that’s worth getting up early on Sunday mornings. Would you join me?

Call ahead and we’ll save you a donut!

In Faith,


Chris