ANOTHER YEAR

We just wrapped up the contract renewal for the lease of our movie theater until September '07. It took a bit longer than usual (this is our third renewal) as the parent company was looking to bump up the price substantially.

We have been paying a lot less than the Patchogue-Medford School District was ripping us off weekly before we made this move - their loss - but I wasn't ready just to swallow such a huge hike for using the UA on a Sunday morning.

Well, we have a deal I'm happy with and that has saved us $6,000 p.a. on what was initially being demanded, so we're all set.

I'm happy that we're taking steps to "own" the theater. I don't mean buy it, I mean treat it as if it's ours, that this really is our home and not just a holding place until we get into something better. That's why we're upgrading so much stuff for the fall and have embraced the "Church At The Movies" identity.

On Sunday a great couple who are new to us asked what our identity would be once we get a building up and I told them maybe we'll continue to be Church At The Movies. We definitely won't become something that looks and smells like regular church.

We didn't come this far to go back to boring neutrality! But that's all in the future - September is right around the corner.