Deanna Doss Shrodes

Today we met with the chef and our sales rep at the Hilton to have our taste test of all the food for the conference. All I gotta say is mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Our ladies are in for a real treat. Dealing with Hilton has just been extraordinary. Right down to the fact that they had us come in and taste every starch, every vegetable, desserts, etc. and pick EXACTLY what we wanted for the banquet at the conference. We are so excited. It's going to be great.


I've been cranking out work, messages for upcoming things, and trying to get everything squared away so we can have a few days off. We have been running here and there with everything from funerals to ACMC to you name it and I think my last day off was a few Fridays ago. At least two. I am looking forward to this week...really anticipating it.


Our friends Randy and Dawn are coming in tonight. (Our friends of 20+ years...used to be Larry's youth pastors, then I worked for them at TC, then we both worked for them when they were our S…

Getting up was a glorious experience. I had eight whole hours of sleep last night!!! Anybody who knows me very well knows I keep late hours to get everything done. And actually my best hours for working are at night. It’s when I think best and can create. But yesterday, we were at the Hampton Inn for co-hort, and the beds and the shower are SO comfortable (I’m a real fan of both Hampton Inn, and Hyatt) that you can get such a great rest if you make a point to. And, I made a point to. So glad I did.

Sunday night we had newcomers night. I was exhausted from a full day. We had a good service Sunday morning with eight people filled with the Holy Spirit! God is so good. Larry had a meeting all afternoon and Savanna and I had to go home and clean for newcomer’s night. With being away speaking on Fri/Sat I never got to it. So we had to go home right away after service. She said, “Momma, I know you’re tired. Go ahead and take a nap.” (Sometimes, she’s not only brilliant, but kind…) I went in …

For dogs?

Last night Larry and I were watching a news show and they were reporting on Michael Vick. Lawyers were debating what his sentence should be and the debate was getting heated. Somebody brought up the fact that supposedly this past week, Vick said he "found Jesus." The newscasters were asking if this should make any difference in his sentence or the public forgiving him for what happened with the dogs. One of the lawyers, being totally serious, said, "Michael Vick found Jesus this week. Unfortunately that was something these dogs did not get a chance to do..."
We laughed so hard. Lawyers can sometimes really grasp at straws and this was really one such time.
I began to feel kind of convicted. In ten years of having our dog Geena I don't think any of us have shared the plan of salvation with her. I mean, according to these lawyers, time has not run out yet for her to make that decision...

it's painful. What will this girl have going for her when she's older and starts to sag? Um, really nothing unless something really changes over the next few years, bless her heart.

Today I'm continuing, and finishing the highlights from my "Wonder Woman" teaching that I brought at the ACMC. Here we go:

6) Have a game plan

I have a call of God on my life to pastor, to write, to preach. I also happen to be a wife of 20 years, and a mother of 3 children who are 10, 16, and 17 at this time.

When my children were born, I had a strong desire to continue pastoring, writing and speaking. I heard everyone talk about how my life was going to completely change and although I desired to have children, I feared the change. What started the fear in the beginning of my pregnancy with Dustin (my 17 year old) were people in the church where my husband and I served as youth and music pastor, respectively. As my pregnancy progressed, people would come up to me and hug me, with a look of sadness and say, "It's been so nice having you, Pastor Deanna. It was nice working with you." After several people doing this, as if my ministry was in the past tense, I …

Continuing on the highlights of my "Wonder Woman" teaching from the ACMC on Fri/Sat, and yesterday's blog, let's start part II with the first five of ten keys I shared to 'becoming a Wonder Woman"...

1) Learn from Jesus

In the book, Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald gives three reasons why Jesus took control of His time:

1) He understood His mission – not even Satan could convince Him to change His priorities.
2) He understood the source of His power. He realized that he would need the private time of 40 days in the wilderness, and the prayer and fasting to overcome the enemy in a time of weakness. He budgeted that time to prepare.
3) He made intentional choices about his time – invested prime time in the disciples, debriefed them when they returned from assignments, took time to rebuke them when they failed, affirm when the succeeded.

It was amazing that at the end of three short years of ministry, Jesus was able to say, “I have finished the work…

Did you know that today is National Women's Equality Day in America?


In celebration of this historic day, Pastor Tara Sloan and I announce the launch of our new blog, "Equal Time". We will both be the primary contributing writers on the blog however, it is also our goal to feature many articles by egalitarian writers.


We are so excited about this new venture and hope it is a blessing to you.


We are both blessed to be a part of the Assemblies of God fellowship, a group which celebrates women in leadership and officially holds an egalitarian view, meaning that we believe in the Biblical equality of women. In fact, our new superintendent-elect of the Assemblies of God, Rev. George O. Wood, has done some extensive Biblical research and much writing and speaking on this issue and is a passionate advocate for the equality of women. To read one of his sermons on this topic, go to Superintendent Elect Dr. George Wood.


It is our prayer that you will find Equal Time to be encouraging,…

Today I spoke once again at the All Church Ministries Conference in Lakeland. They requested that I bring a teaching called, "God's Wonder Woman." Evidently I've gotten a reputation for being able to multi-task. :-) I'm going to break my teaching down over the next few days in a few posts for my blog readers. What follows is my introduction. Hope you enjoy! Stay tuned each day for more...

I saw a book in the Christian bookstore recently and it was something to the effect of, “I’m not a wonder woman”…and I thought, “yes I am!”

Daniel 11:32 says, “but the people that do knowtheir God shall be strong, and do exploits”.

The Bible says that signs and wonders will follow them that believe.


John 14:11-13 says “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I…