CHURCH AT ANOTHER MOVIES

So, the secret is out - I am still in Texas. Sure, we decided to stay a few days after the conference to spend time with our son and daughter-in-law who, together with their children, are developing into Texans at a scary pace.

But I was in church this morning. At a movie theater of course. Is there any other place to do church in the 21st century? By the way, there is a conference in DC in May exclusively for pastors of what are known as theater churches. There are a lot of us about!

Preston Trail Community Church is three years old and they're certainly doing a lot of things right. The congregation seems to be mainly couples in their thirties with young children and that's not surprising because their children's activities are outrageous. In over 40 years of being a Christian and closely involved in local church life, I have never sen anything like the Kids Street program that I was in today with my four year old escort, Benjamin at my side.

This isn't Sunday School as most of us know it, it was a front-led, high energy, fun-filled 35 minutes which is advertised as the place where children and parents learn together.

If I was a parent living in this area, that's where I would be on Sundays, even if the main service stunk, because Kids Street is so amazing.

Let me hasten to add, the main service here certainly did not stink. The music was great and the message was good stuff too, though a one hour service is still a little brief for someone like me who has difficulty disciplining himself to a 90 minutes service normally.

I'm going to spend some time with the founding pastors tomorrow and hopefully a meeting of the minds will be of mutual benefit. I love church - which is good, because Jesus does too - and I'm always interested to see what is happening in other places. We can learn a lot from each other.

Or as Rick Warren puts it - God gave you eyes so plagerize!

Check out where I was today - www.prestontrail.org