HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?

Seth Godin hit it out of the park - again - on his blog yesterday.
By the way, he's at Seth's Blog

Yes Substitutions
This, of course, is the opposite of "no substitutions".

I had lunch at the Pump in NY today. The Pump is about 350 square feet (total) and it's a money factory. They have nearly 50 ingredients, all healthy stuff, and offer them in precisely 41,000,000 combinations. So, you can have whole wheat pita with egg whites, chicken breast and hot sauce, no onions. Or no pita, double egg whites, double hot sauce and brown rice.

People who care about what they eat go somewhere on purpose. People who don't care, go close or cheap.

There's a line out the door of the Pump every day at lunch. Why? Because people who love substitutions (the picky ones) go blocks out of their way to eat here. Is there anyone clamoring to get into the "no substitutions" place?

I'm with the Purple Cow man - a church that makes the statement "This is us, this is how we are and when we are" is doomed for failure, in fact it's probably dead already but no one had the guts to bury it.

Like the folks at the Pump, we should be deciding the ingredients, but offering them in whatever way people find most palatable. This is a consumer society - choices rule and unless churches function that way, they are far more irrelevant than they may ever realize.

I am excited by the fact that 40% of the people in our building on Sunday morning were not in Worship Central. Some chose the Big Screen Cafe, others gravitated to the loud music in Altered and of course the kids had a whole selection of stuff to choose from too.

"This is our church, this is what we offer, but how would you like that?"

We do not exist for people to serve us - we are here to serve them.

HALLOWEEN

Tomorrow evening I'm planning to spend a couple of hours at Fun 4 All in Port Jefferson Station as we've rented the place from 6.00pm to 8.00pm for a fall party. Simple soul that I am, I figure our kids should be able to go to school on Wednesday and join in the bragging about who had the best Halloween, instead of hiding in a corner, dying with embarassment and trying to explain why they don't do Halloween at their house, even though they don't actually understand why themselves.

I think our kids will have a blast. I love Fun 4 All, especially the big slide which I try to go down at least once, hoping I don't get caught, as I'm waaay above the age limit specified on the sign beside it!

I'm glad to hear so many people are inviting unchurched friends and neighbors to come too. It will be a good connection event.

It amuses me how some Christians get freaked out by Halloween. You'd think that a five year old at your door asking for candy in his ill-fitting Batman outfit was a messenger direct from the realm of sulphur.

Look, I know all the history of the date. I've read a load of stuff about it and there's no arguing on my part about it being the high holy day for Satanists. However for the 99.9999999999% of people who are not devil worshipers, it's a dress-up, be scarey, have fun, eat candy day, period!

I don't like the weirdness that goes with a lot of the scarey stuff and I also realize that kids can be in far more danger nowadays than they were when trick-or-treating a generation ago.

That's why we're throwing our own party and we'll have a ball!

SINGLE DIGITS

Just got back from my weekly weigh-in and am finally down to a single-digit weight loss needed to reach my goal.

Just over 122lbs down and only slightly more than 9lbs to go!

It has been a long haul, but I am looking to crack that last bit before I leave for India four weeks from today.

SHE'S HOME

Gill got back while I was in service today and was I glad to see her when I cut out earlier than usual to head for home!

She got quite a shock because I completely re-did the den while she was away. New floor, re-painted, new furniture. etc. We had been planning to do it some time early next year, but I decided to surprise her with it.

She deserves it!

THEY WON

A couple of weeks ago I got a call from the office of former Jets head coach, Joe Walton, who now directs the football program at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania.

Seems his Colonials were coming to Long Island to play the Stony Brook Seahawks and they wanted a pastor to do a pre-breakfast chapel service on game day. So I was over at the Holiday Inn in Ronkonkoma early yesterday to meet Coach Walton - a great guy who didn't excel in his years with the Jets but has worked wonders at RMU.

I chatted to the team members about a question some of us have heard a lot over the past few years - What on earth am I here for? - and then I prayed for them.

I actually prayed they'd win!

And they did - 21-6.

Several NFL teams have left messages for me today asking if I could not conduct a pre-game service, would I at least pray for them to win?

I am still waiting to see who makes the best offer before signing a contract!

CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS!

Something's up with this clock!

There will be with yours too tomorrow morning if you don't set it back one hour tonight. Summer's gone, daylight savings time is over, but here's the good news...

If you forget to change your clocks, you'll be in church one hour earlier tomorrow and can help us with set-up!!!

LONG ISLAND - A CHURCH PLANTER'S DREAM

Nationwide church attendance in the United States is less than half of previous estimates, according to Dave Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, and director of the American Church Research Project.

According to a news release from Mission America Coalition, Olson addressed the Mission America Coalition annual conference on its closing day with groundbreaking new research about the state of the American church. Instead of relying on limited survey data which is then extrapolated to the entire population, Olson has worked for years to build a database of actual recorded attendance in over 300,000 churches across America.

And the findings are not pretty.

Here in our county for instance, in 2000 only 13.2% of the population attended church on any kind of regular basis. But of those,71% are Catholics.

No disrespect to anyone here and I don't want any threatening letters from zealous friends of the current Pope or any of his predecessors, but since many Catholics do not fully appreciate the Gospel yet, the bottom line for Suffolk County is that less than 4% of the population attend a Protestant Church and it means that less than that again are probably born again.

BINGO! We did it. We won the lottery!
Of all the places around this great nation we could have ended up, God has dropped us right in the middle of what is possibly the biggest mission field in America. There are over 1.5 million people in Suffolk and these statistics confirm that most of them don't attend church and the vast majority do not know Jesus.

Unlike many states, we don't have a church on every corner and you can't build a church by stealing people from other churches as hardly anyone is in church to start with.

This county is a church planter's dream - there is unlimited scope!

Now, how best to reap this vast, vast harvest???

AM I KIDDING MYSELF?

I was looking at these six questions today that were suggested as a gauge for how a church is doing. They were under the main question - Are your services enjoyable for visitors?

1. Does the worship music reflect a style the crowd appreciates?

2. Is the message addressing a topic that’s relevant to people’s lives?

3. Is there an appropriate amount of humor in the service?

4. Does the service flow smoothly from one thing to the next?

5. Are you using visual elements to capture people’s attention as they engage in worship and hear the message?

6. Do you periodically surprise people with something they weren’t anticipating?

I answered "Yes" to all six, but if I'm missing something, please do email me and let me know your perspective. Thanks!

WE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR ...

I picked this off marketing guru Seth Godin's blog today!

The two things that kill marketing creativity

The first is fear.

The fear that you'll have to implement whatever you dream up.
The fear that you will fail.
The fear that you will do something stupid and be ridiculed by your peers for decades.
The fear that you'll get fired.
The fear that there will be an unanticipated backlash associated with your idea.
The fear of change.
The fear of missing out on the thing you won't be able to do if you do this.

The second is a lack of imagination.

I believe that every single person I've met in this profession is capable of astounding creativity. That you, and everyone else for that matter, is able to dream up something radical and viral and yes, remarkable. So why doesn't it happen more often? Sure, fear is a big part, but it's also a lack of imagination.

Basically, most people don't believe something better can occur. They believe that the status quo is also the best they can do. So they don't look. They don't push. They don't ask, "what else?" and "what now?" They settle.

Fear is an emotion and it's impossible to counter an emotion with logic. So you need to mount emotional arguments for why your fear of the new is the thing you truly need to fear.

As for the second issue, just knowing it exists ought to be enough. Once you realize you're settling, it may just be enough to get you wondering... wondering whether maybe, just maybe, something better is behind curtain number 2.

STRONG MEAT

Spent some time getting things into order for Sunday's message today. I want to talk about how you maintain your momentum, because that's one of the biggest struggles for all of us in the journey God has invited us on.

To tell you the truth, it's not rocket science - any more than last Sunday's teaching on forgiveness was. But it's essential stuff.

From time to time I hear about people who visit our church and others who even stay a while, who complain that they want "strong meat". Well, here's the deal, let me check with you whether you've got all the basics working well and then when I'm satisfied about that, I'll start explaining Greek words, speculating about the Anti-Christ and screaming at you a bit like real preachers do.

But till then, we'll focus on what really matters because the truth is that most people who say they want deeper teaching really mean they want something for their brain that doesn't touch their heart or affect their lifestyle. You will not get that at CATMO.

+ We're concerned about what you're like at home, not just how broadly you smile in church.

+ We care about whether you really pray, not if you can teach a Bible study on the subject.

+ We want you to have a reputation where you work that reflects who you claim to belong to.

+ We want you to be serving others and getting behind the vision of the church, not just criticizing those who are already committed.

+ We're interested in knowing that what you watch on your TV and where you visit on the internet will help you to be a positive influence in our church family.

+ We wonder how you are dealing with anger or other key issues.

And there's a whole lot more before we'll ever get into what many call "strong meat". Of course the real insanity is they don't recognize what real strong meat is when they're getting it. Take a look through the list above once more - none of that is baby's milk!

S.A.

Had a long chat with Gill today. She doesn't look for the limelight in our church and so a lot of people probably don't really know her that well. I have known her for over 38 years now and I wish everyone had the insight I have into what an amazing person she is.

Despite having knee replacement surgery just over six months ago and still experiencing considerable discomfort, she undertook an 8,000 miles journey because seven years ago she promised an obscure South African woman that she would do all she could to help her as she rescued children in a remote colored township.

She has earned the love and respect of hundreds of children living in poverty and hopelessness. She doesn't preach at them, she loves them. Now and again she gives some of them a straight talk, like she did yesterday with a teenage girl who has left one of the safe houses and is now drinking a lot and sleeping around. That conversation ended with the girl in tears and seriously re-thinking her decisions.

Over the years Gill has not only introduced dozens of others to Kurland and her kids, but in so doing she has helped many of them find potential in themselves they had no idea was there.

I miss her a lot, but if that one girl turns her life around; if some of the team with her realize they are capable of far more than they anticipated; if Kathy is encouraged to keep going against all odds and share God's love with the kids in Kurland, it's worth it all.

But all credit to Gill for making that incredible journey one more time.

WAAAAY TOO QUIET

I think we should ban missions trips because people who go on them have far too much fun. They get to travel to interesting places; hang out with great people; eat exotic foods; be treated like heroes and generally have the time of their lives helping others, because Jesus wasn't kidding when he said that it's more blessed to give than to receive.

I've heard a bunch of nonsensical and unbiblical reasons for churches not getting into missions, most of them from pastors, like -

This is our mission field right here at home and when everyone here knows Jesus we'll spread our wings a bit then.

We can't keep pouring money into missions because we need money here ourselves.

Each church is different, and not every congregation is meant to be sending people overseas all the time.

And thus the chicken-hearted codswallop continues ad infinitum.

If the self-centered leaders who can see no further than their own belly buttons really want a reason not to fulfil the Great Commission, all they have to do is ask. I'll give them one.

It's very lonely back at home when your spouse goes on a missions trip!

There you go - now that's what I call justifiable cause! Its way too quiet here!

AMAZING

We have some incredible people who are part of CATMO. They showed it this morning. For the first time in three years no one showed to open the movie theater for us and we were stuck as we don't have a contact number for the current general manager anyway. So as helpers arrived from 7.00am onwards, there was a lot of discussion about what was going to happen.

With every passing minute the crowd of volunteers ready for action increased and by the time the sleepy manager arrived apologetically almost a full hour late, one entrepeneural person had just managed to open up a door and set of all the alarms!

Set-up started 60 minutes later than normal, but when 9.30 came around the seven areas we prepare were all ready and in great shape. An amazing job by dozens of dedicated people.

This is a great church!

And we do have the general managers number now!!!

The picture shows just one section of the storage room and all the equipment that has to be moved every Sunday.

SIMPLIFICATION

So how have I been preparing for tomorrow morning? Just got in from chasing around stores looking for a piece of equipment I decided I needed. There's a long story coming of course - so here it is!

Down in the DR a couple of days ago I decided I would see if I could get an egg whites omelette for breakfast. I had been very good at the amazing morning buffet in the hotel the previous day, just eating a plate of fresh fruit - a full plate of course. But on Thursday I approached the eggs station and started looking for a carton that resembled the egg whites I keep in the fridge at home. No joy.

Not to be deterred I asked the chef if he had any. "For you sir," he replied, "I will break some eggs."

As they say in the Guinness commercials - Brilliant!

Imagine that. How innovative. No cartons from the supermarket so he cracked the eggs, separated the yolks from the whites and made a delicious omelette, throwing in the veggies I had selected. Brilliant.

Then I got to thinking that maybe instead of buying pre-separated whites at almost $5 a pop, perhaps it would be a lot more cost-effective if I bought eggs at a buck and change a dozen and did what the hotel chef did.

So that's where I've been this evening, running around like an idiot looking for an egg separator, which I eventually found in good old Wal-Mart of course. A $2.79 investment that will make a world of difference and save me a fortune at the rate I eat omelettes nowadays.

And tomorrow morning we'll look at something so very simple that some folks may have forgotten it. Something that will not just make their lives easier, it will transform them. We're going to look at what Ed Young Jr calls The Real F Word - FORGIVENESS.

Now I'm ready for dinner - spinach and cheese egg whites omelette!!!

HOME AGAIN

It's quiet here - no wife and no dog, but at least the dog comes back tomorrow. It will be another week and a bit before Gill's trip is over.

Had a very profitable time with Rob and Kelli.

Tired!

And of course very deflated about the Mets!!!

MEANWHILE, BACK AT SHEA

Tell me they'll clinch a World Series spot tonight! Please!
Lie to me, I don't care, but personally I have little confidence that the team that dominated the National League all season can pull off the one win they need to take their season to the next stage.

And please Lord, if the Mets are ahead at the bottom of the 8th, let it be by a huge margin so that Willie Randolph doesn't have to send his closer in again tonight. My heart won't take another Wagner performance!

Okay, I know it's only baseball, but it's a great diversion from life!!!

SUCCESS AND STRESS

Still in the sunny DR!
Three years ago I sat down with our missionaries, Rob and Kelli Nelson and discussed what their next step might be as their commitment to a mission here had come to an end. I guess Island Impact Ministries was born that evening on the patio of the Sosua By The Sea hotel.

The goal was to share the love of Jesus in a very practical way, by bringing health care to the impoverished people of Sosua and some of the remote villages in this part of the country. Back then there was no real plan how to go about this, where medications would come from, who would help, etc.

Fast forward to 2006 when Island Impact has its own clinic, a reliable new vehicle to reach isolated towns, a whole pharmacy, an eye care clinic, a team of eye surgeons coming in once a year and a team of general surgeons flying in annually too. You can add to this three churches assisted in a bunch of practical ways, including finding child sponsorship so they can offer education to several hundred children.

Plus there is an ever-moving English speaking church that Rob planted and pastors right in the heart of the town.

Man, have they done well. But they're fried! Where are all the people who want to be missionaries? They could use some down here!

TEAR UP THE MANUAL

It's overcast here in the DR today, with the sun occasionally breaking through. I'm spending this afternoon talking some more with our missionaries down here, Rob and Kelli nelson.

They're doing a medical clinic this morning, which I opted out of in favor of reading beside the pool and just catching my breath - I'll go to tomorrow's clinic so I have a first-hand picture of some of the stuff they're doing.

Charlotte is our main link person with the work going on down here through Island Impact and the teams we sends down several times a year keep us well connected, so my main purpose in toughing it out in this resort town for a couple of days is mentoring this great couple.

We talked for quite a while yesterday and one thing that came through clearly is the need for them to forget the normal model of church and continue to develop church here that is totally relevant to the culture. They meet over a restaurant on Sunday mornings and have been using DVDs for worship lately, which is totally okay so long as you forget the manual.

There is no set way to do church. You won't find a single dominant pattern in the New testament or in church history.

It takes guts to break free from decades or centuries of tradition, but it's so, so necessary.

So I'm encouraging Rob and Kelli to build the church side of their minsityry 5 miles from normal and be glad to be there.

After all, I never did like normal.

MOVING OUT

Who'd have thunk it?

After all these years together, Gill and I are going our separate ways.

She left this afternoon and is heading south - South Africa to be more specific, with a team of ten people from the church.

I'm flying off to the Dominican Republic in the morning to spend a couple of days with our missionaries down there.

The good news is we'll be back together when she returns on the 29th - I'll be home Friday!

I married a remarkable woman, someone who cares tremendously for others. This has been a tough year in many ways, with some serious family health issues and Gill having a knee replacement herself in the spring. She had every reason not to make this trip.

But 8,000 miles away there are several hundred children living in abject poverty whose faces will light up when she walks along their dirt streets on Wednesday. They won her heart the first time she was in the colored township of Kurland. She came home and directed me that we have to do something for these boys and girls. With her encouragement and the backing of so many in our church, we have been able to make a difference as we have taken the Kids Explosion program under our wing.

Our team will be involved in spiritual, social, educational and recreational activities with these great kids and will leave them with fresh heart and new hope.

Gill felt we could help make a difference and she's dead right. In true Blackmore fashion, she's not asking anyone to do what she won't do herself, so she's off to Africa yet again.

God bless her trip and bring her home safe!

ONE MORE WORD ON SET-UP

Got an email from my friend Billy Ritchie who pastors in Milton Keynes, England, following on from my thoughts on setting up every Sunday.

Though its busting at the seams, Billy's church does have its own building. But he informs me they still go in at 7.00am on Sundays to set up for a 9.00am service!!!

SHARPER IMAGE

The new lights definitely help the look of the stage. No need for people to come into a church service and feel they are stepping back in time!

I'M WITH POPEYE

When I was a kid I loved watching Popeye cartoons and remember what the funny little guy used to say all the time before he turned to a can of spinach for a boost of superhuman energy -

I stands as much as I can stands till I can't stands no more!

I like to go to bed reasonably early on a Saturday evening, but have made an exception tonight as I've been watching the Mets' NLCS Game 3. I don't know what has come over them in St.Louis, but they stink.

I've been waiting for someone to do something special with the bat, but there's nothing happening. Their pitching has been embarassing too. It's the middle of the 7th and they're still down 5 - 0.

I stands as much as I can stands ...

But that's enough - GOODNIGHT!

THE BLESSINGS OF SET-UP

Checking out that church building that's for sale, a couple of days ago, has me chasing the whole building issue through my mind.

I'm trying to find the answer to a few of major questions.

How much more can we do to fulfil our mission with a building than we are currently doing without one?

Is that sufficient return to be willing to commit to a multi-million dollar project?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a building?

Whenever I ask that third question, the first reply is generally - You won't have to do all the set-up and breakdown. I've been thinking about that and have come to the conclusion that having to set everything up on a Sunday morning is not necessarily a bad thing. There are some blessings to setting up.

1. It provides an opportunity for service to a lot of people.

2. Those people then become a part of making things happen and take ownership of the church and its mission.

3. You don't have to be a super-Christian to get involved in set-up. We have a number of young Christians and not-yet-Christians involved as well as mature believers.

4. It is a good time to develop relationships - we laugh a lot.

5. There is immediate gratification. You do a job and as soon as you have finished, people are enjoying it.

6. You get the first pickings at our Big Screen Cafe!

I honestly don't believe it is a bad thing. And by the way, for any skeptics who may visit here, I'm part of that elite group of twenty five or thirty people who will be there way before anyone else tomorrow morning.

It'll be dark and frosty when I leave home tomorrow - and I love it!

PLAYING HOOKEY

I wonder if my old friend Bobby Lloyd will notice I didn't make it to Long Island Citizens For Community Values (LICCV)'s annual banquet this evening. Although I have never been to it before, I had bought tickets for tonight's event because I wanted to hear the keynote speaker.

Jeanine Pirro is causing quite a splash in the papers, with word of her trying to get her philandering husband's boat bugged and the press leaking tapes of conversations with former New York City top cop Bernard Kerik peppered with expletives.

Probably not the kind of press you're looking for in the lead up to an election nor what the organizer of a Christian event relishes.

But I wanted to hear her. I'd still take her over Cuomo for State Attorney General any day.

Yet the truth is, the Mets won my attention. Rescheduling Wednesday night's rained out game to tonight meant a change in my schedule too.

Hope Bobby's having a blast and Jeanine is knocking them dead!

Let's Go Mets!

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

I am really looking forward to Sunday! Now I know that's something I repeat here pretty often, but what makes this week different is that I'll be teaching again and not only do I love doing that, but I'm especially passionate about what I'm sharing this Sunday.

We had a guest preacher a couple of weeks ago, had a Celebration Sunday with a guest missionary and Frank speaking and then Lesaya did the teaching last Sunday. So after three weeks off, I'm ready to go.

Making Changes is the subject for the upcoming part of our Discover Recovery series and I'm really expecting Sunday to be productive. I've been praying for folks to take a very positive step forward on Sunday morning and to start with God's help to make some of the changes that will free them to be people they want to be.

We have had dozens of new people worshiping with us over the past few weeks. I expect to see more this weekend. Above all, I am looking for those who will cross the line and make the biggest change ever, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God.

BALANCE IS BUNK

Here's an article I just found - and liked - from John Stanke's MONDAY MEMO -

There is one phrase that I hear all the time when I meet with people. Perhaps I would hear you say it if we got together. What is the phrase? I'm glad you asked. That phrase is a simple two words.

YES, BUT. . .

I hear "yes, but" all the time. Do you hate your job? "Yes, but I can't quit." Are you good at what you do? "Yes, but it's not me, it's the Lord." Do you want to travel? "Yes, but I'm not sure it's God's will." Do you want to be in ministry full-time? "Yes, but I'm not sure if it's the right time or season." Are you ready to do God's will in your life no matter what the cost? "Yes, but I want balance and don't want to go overboard on any one thing."

I have come to the conclusion that "yes, but" people are expert excuse makers. They use their magnificent creativity to concoct all kinds of reasons why now is not the time for them to produce, shine or make an impact. I have come to the conclusion that "yes, but" is really the same answer as "no." "Yes, but" sounds a whole lot better.

The last excuse on my list of examples is one that I would like to explore more closely and that is our desire for balance.

BALANCE IS BUNK

Many people stop short of effectiveness because they don't want to go overboard. They want to be balanced. They want to have faith, but not excessive faith. They want to address racism, for example, but not make anyone unhappy or uncomfortable. They want to see world-class results in their life, but not have to pay a world-class price.

I challenge you to name one person who was balanced who made a difference in the world. Was Martin Luther or Martin Luther King? How about Nelson Mandela or Florence Nightingale? Perhaps Winston Churchill or Billy Graham?

Now you would say that those were great people who had a unique purpose to fulfill? All right then, think of your favorite teacher when you were growing up. Were they balanced or were they passionate about teaching and learning? Think of your favorite athlete or singer? How did they achieve that special place in your mind? They did it, I would guess, because they were totally committed to their craft, their purpose. I would further imagine that they were not "yes, but" people, but "yes, and here's how we will do it" people.

Yes, I believe that balance is bunk, a myth that we pursue in our minds. The pursuit of balance makes us ineffective and at times boring. Listen to yourself this week and see if you are in the habit of saying, "Yes, but." If you are, then keep the yes, and get rid of the but. From there, I urge you to get busy giving the world what you have that it needs. As you do, I know you'll have a great week.

MIXED FEELINGS

I got a phone call today that I didn't really know what to do with - but it all worked out in the end.

An old friend who works in real estate had heard about a new church building that had come on the market just five or six miles from the Patchogue UA. I guess the congregation putting it up had got into difficulties and this almost-finished 30,000 square feet structure on over five acres of land is now up for sale.

I wasn't really excited about it. I like our theater and I love our Church At The Movies identity. I like being debt-free too. What to do? Should I check it out?

I finally took a ride down there this afternoon and walked around the property and the outside of the building. Looks a bit like a church - an attractive church - problem is, we're not really like a church! Do we really want to become churchy? I don't think so!

The matter was resolved as I walked back to my car and met a local pastor I know. He tells me his church is seriously considering buying this building. That's good. I wouldn't compete with them anyway, so the subject is closed.

And we still get top billing at Patchogue UA on Sunday mornings!

TO GO OR NOT TO GO?

Looks like the rain is the winner for the Mets first championship game scheduled for this evening. But if you're looking for a silver lining, I found one - for me, that is.

My son-in-law has a ticket for tonight's game and can't be there for the rescheduled contest with the Cardinals on Friday. So I have been offered the seat, but ...

I turned it down!

I guess if I was going with friends then I'd seize the opportunity, but one guy sitting alone in the crowd up in ther gods is probably not the best way to see the Mets get things stage of their season under way, so I declined the offer.

I reckon I'll get a better view of David Wright and co on the oversized TV that sits in the corner of my own den than from the upper decks of Shea.

However, if you come across two tickets for decent seats any time from here on and into the World Series, please feel free to call me!

SURPRISE!

We had a good evening at our house this past Sunday as we had a coffee and dessert get together for the pastors and folks that are new to our church. It's always an interesting time and it gives the opportunity to start to connect with people that are checking us out or who in their minds have already settled in at Church At The Movies.

We keep it low key - way too much cake and stuff left over, but anyway what I did about the temptation is another subject - and we ask two questions ...

1. How did you hear about the church?

2. Why did you come back?

Got an interesting answer to the second question, one that exposed one of my favorite Sunday morning tricks. This lady said she was impressed by (she used the word and I totally agree) my humility. Let me explain...

I'm doing my usual pre-service thing a couple of weeks ago, wandering around with a cup of coffee in my hand and looking out for guests. So I see this woman walking in with that where-do-I-go-now look on her face. I introduce myself, "Hi, I'm Roger, thanks for coming. Is this your first time here?" Then we get into conversation for a few minutes. Nice lady.

I keep wandering. She waits for friends and just after the service has got under way, as I'm still chatting with folks, I say hi to her and her friends as they go into Worship Central.

From what she said Sunday night, she got a shock some time into the service when I got up on stage and she realized I am the lead pastor. I guess like a lot of people she wasn't used to being in a church where the pastor is a regular person and mixes freely with everyone else who's there to worship.

I love doing that to people! Surprise!!!

I don't introduce myself as "Pastor" because we don't use those titles anyway. Pastor is a function not a point of elevation above others.

Of course I don't dress the part either. I wear clothes I'm comfortable in, even though I can't get used to buying my jeans with designer rips in them. (Good job my mother can't see me now!!!)

So if that's what makes me appear humble, I'll take it. That same lady used the word "normal" too - man, I hope she sticks around!!!

THANKS

Thanks for praying about the issues I mentioned in my earlier post today. Charlotte spent most of the day at the hospital with her mother-in-law and questions the brain damage suggestion. She says Freddy does have short term memory loss (heck, so have I and I'm not brain damaged), but he has a good grasp of what's what overall.

Jonathan has been having tests all day, but the one very positive outcome of his being admitted to hospital is that the lead doctor wants to start at the very beginning and re-test to double check even the sarcoidosis diagnosis. We've talked to him a couple of times today but when morphine wasn't touching the pain they gave him something stronger that essentially knocked him out.

It's tough being a long way from home when a crisis occurs in the middle of the night. What to do? Donna called the couple that she and Jonathan lead their small group with - at 2.00am - and they took the kids while the husband drove Jonathan and Donna to the ER at a reported 100mph.

Church family is a wonderful thing. A lot of us have lived long enough to have been royally screwed more than once within a local church. But it is still the best thing God has on earth. The church is the bride of Christ and he loves it.

I do too!

ALL THIS BEFORE BREAKFAST

We got an early morning call from our daughter-in-law, Donna, today to say that Jonathan was on his way to the hospital with severe abdominal pain. This has been a major problem for him for six weeks or more now and every test under the sun has revealed nothing. We're praying this visit to the hospital will solve the matter.

Then our daughter, Charlotte called to say that doctors think her father-in-law, Freddy, may have sustained brain damage in his sky diving accident. He has been off medications for two days now and is not very coherent so there are concerns.

Not the start to the day we had anticipated. But God is still God and his plans for us are still good.

CHECK THIS OUT

I did a wedding yesterday afternoon at a place I had never been to before - Riverview Restaurant - it's in Oakdale, right on the water.

It's such a beauthful spot that I took Gill over there for dinner this evening (they do an Early Bird for $19.95 from 4.00 - 6.00). We sat and looked out over the water, ate good food in a relaxed atmosphere and could have been in another state, it was so relaxing.

Now I know that some people reading this live on other continents and in other states, but for the guys perusing these pages who live around here, it's my duty to pass on the word that you could earn serious brownie points by taking the woman in your life here!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

This was a very happy 8th Anniversary for me. We had a good morning, with a great crowd and a lot of new faces around the place. Here's what made it very special for me.

Eight years ago I had worked like a dog to get everything ready for our opening Sunday. I was exhausted but also elated. I guided everything that happened that day, then led the service, preached and greeted people.

Today I did very little of anything. I greeted the folks after the worship team's set and thanked those who had been with us for the whole of the journey thus far. That was it.

The rest of the morning I spent wandering around the place, amazed at what God is doing and humbled to see so much going on - without me! I put my head into Altered and Kidmo, watched Li'l K filling their recently expanded area and sat in the cafe with a drink, watching the video feed on a plasma TV as Lesaya preached a great message.

So many people involved! Such committed and capable people.

So this morning I wandered, wondered where the next few years will take us and expressed tremendous gratitude to God for the privilege of pastoring Church At The Movies.

DRESS CODE

Note to Church At The Movies members ...

Following this evening's events in Detroit involving our friends from the Bronx, the wearing of Mets shirts tomorrow morning would not be an act of Christian grace!!!

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS

Heading out soon to go on our regular Grace Care outreach, taking hot meals and pantry bags to guys living in rooming houses around Patchogue. These badly maintained, overcrowded, overpriced homes for those who have nowhere else to go are a sad comment on a society that falls way short in caring for its weakest members.

The slumlord owners make a fortune out of renting rooms to be shared by two or three men at a cost that takes almost every dime of their limited monthly incomes. So we take them a good meal (and I mean good), plus some other things to help them through the week. We hope they see we're caring people and while we don't push our faith down their throats, quite a number of guys we meet on Saturdays have started coming to church on Sundays and developed a relationship with Jesus.

A couple of years ago a pastor suggested I shouldn't be doing this any more as I'm the pastor of a good size church and should leave this kind of thing to others.

Well, let me make it clear, we have a great team of people who do this outreach every week whether it's 100 degrees or 10 degrees and they are supplemented each week by other volunteers.

Our mobile soup kitchen doesn't need me - I need it!

I need to be out among people that are hurting. I need to stay connected to the real world. I need to be able to chat with and pray for those that few others care about. I need the fulfilment of seeing the smile that comes to the face of a broken man when we plough through snow to make sure he eats well, reminding him that he is special to God.

I'll never be a leader who pontificates but doesn't do it himself. I want to be a good general and lead from the front. "Do as I say" will not cut it in our church. "Do as I do" has a far better ring to it.

So I'm off to have fun! Bet your afternoon won't be half as good as mine!!!

STILL DREAMING

Here's an abbreviated version of something I put together not too long after we had started our church -

I HAVE A DREAM ...

I have a dream of a church where those who come in feeling condemned, get accepted; of a church where the fallen are restored, where the hurting are healed, and the lost are saved.

I have a dream of a church where everyone counts, where everyone is appreciated, where everyone is valued, not because of who they are down here, but because of who they are up there.

I have a dream of a church, where people are welcomed regardless of what they have done, where prodigals are received with open arms, and not with religious judgementalism.

I have a dream of a church where people don’t just receive grace but practice it.

I have a dream of a church where people who are single, divorced, widowed or orphaned feel secure and as much a part of the family as anybody else.

I have a dream of a church where the weight of the work doesn’t rest on a few, but where everybody shares the load, and plays their part in reaching the world.

I have a dream of a church where everything that is done is done with enthusiasm and excellence, and where lost souls are our top priority.

I have a dream of being God’s kind of church

- Is it possible?

– Is it possible on this planet to have a church like that?

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

We are not fully there, but we are definitely well on the way.

WHO'LL COME BACK?

Busy day today, most of it out of the office for meetings with a number of different people that took me from Medford to Farmingdale to Manhasset and then to Ronkonkoma - nice day for a tour of the Island!

In the course of my travels I was thinking that some things never change. Eight years ago today, after an outstanding launch day, I was wondering how many of the folks at our first service would come back the next Sunday. What was weird when I think back was that we started in the Inn At Medford fully aware they had a prior booking for the next Sunday and we had to go elsewhere. So our second Sunday we had service in the Radisson Hotel at Exit 63 of the LIE. Good job I hadn't read any books on planting - that was a move no writer would have endorsed!

I guess it was a prophetic statement that we would be a very mobile mobile church!

Strange thing is that I'm here today thinking about new people who were with us last Sunday and I'm doing what I was doing back in 1998, wondering who among them will come back. Of course, not everyone does - and that's okay. We're definitely not eveyone's flavor and we don't try to be. After all, you can't please all the people all the time, so you set your course and see who wants to come along. If you try to change to meet the whim of everyone who shows interest, you're gonna sink.

I guess one thing that's different in '06 is that back when we started I was thinking towards the next weekend, still wondering if we would have enough people return so that the new church could get established. (By the way our numbers were up by a few on that second Sunday even though we had a lot of people in Week 1 who were there as a one-off to wish us well and had no intention of joining us).

Nowadays I'm not wondering if we'll make it, I just want to see us continue drawing as many people into God's kingdom as we can.

500 in worship is our next goal.

AMAZINS

How about the Mets? Without arguably their two best starting pitchers, yet they keep rolling along.

Game One of the NLDS is under their belts - they're going all the way, one game at a time.

Derek who???

EIGHT YEARS AND COUNTING

Eight years ago this morning I took one of the scariest rides of my life. It wasn't on the roller coaster at Coney Island or the Loch Ness Monster with its horrific drop at Busch Gardens. This was the drive from our house, about six miles south to the Inn At Medford for Grace Church's opening service.

Who would show up? How many would show up? Would this thing fly or would it end up going under in less than a year like the majority of church plants? Had I heard from God? Was I doing what he wanted? Where on earth would I get a job if this didn't work out?

I had never read a single book on church planting (not because I was arrogant, just because I didn't know what was available); I had never attended a training course to do this or one of the boot camps that are in fashion nowadays. So I just put a few ads in the local advertising paper and waited to see who would show up.

We set out around 50 chairs that first day and spread them out well so the room looked full. But fifteen minutes before we were due to start, more seats were being added (the first and only time so many of our folks have been so early!) and by 10.00am when the service began, we were using every one of the 154 chairs in the place.

The room was crowded as I came to the microphone for the first time and anounced - Welcome to Grace Church. And so the journey began.

I'll reflect on it a little more over the next few days and as we celebrate our 8th Anniversary on Sunday, but for now I'm just remembering where I was exactly eight years ago this morning, watching in amazement as people kept on coming.

What a ride!

NEW AD

For the past three years or so we've run an ad on the placemats of the Metropolis Diner on Rte 112 in Medford. It's one of our better advertising efforts as I've met people in church who came because of it and we've had quite a number of calls too.

Here's the latest ad that will be under coffee cups some time in the next few weeks.

THE MOVIE THEATER PHENOMENON

At the end of last week I had two pastors contact me about doing church in a movie theater. Both of them are going to be planting a church next year, one in Ottawa and the other in Colorado and they wanted to pick my brain a bit about how things work in a movie theater.

We have done Sunday services in two catering halls, three hotels, two movie theaters, a regular theater, a school, a park and one other location that I can't immediately recall. But the movie theaters win hands down.

That's why an increasing number of new and not-so-new churches are catching on to the fact that a user-friendly building with tons of parking, any amount of auditoriums and a relatively low price tag is like the bargain of the century.

Heck, Mark Batterson over at National Community Church in DC reckons that with the price of real estate in our nation's capital, they will probably never buy a building or construct one. So he's just developing a network of congregations that meet in theaters all around the city.

In my legalistic, religious days (now thankfully long past!), movie theaters were from the devil. Who would have ever thought that they would turn out to be a gift from God?

IS IT ME?

It was great to have Richard Conti with us yesterday as part of our Celenbration Sunday. He has been a missionary in Guatemala for over twenty years and runs a very succesful Teen Challenge Center which ministers to a lot of the areas drug addicts.

It was a full morning, but I wanted to give Richard ten minutes to share about what's going on down there. It may just be me, but while appreciating the passion with which he spoke, I thought there was an ironic twist to his chat.

After he talked about an ex gang member who had come to Christ, left the gang and then been executed by his former friends; after he talked about being kidnapped at gunpoint himself; after he talked about the crime rates, shootings and violence, he then said if we wanted to send a missions team down, there are any amount of different ways we could be a help to them. I thought that was funny. In Guatemala you could get shot, stabbed, kidnapped or robbed - do you want to come?

Okay Rich, here's the short answer, "No!".

But there is good news for you. Several people in our church, who until yesterday seemed to be perfectly sane, are now asking when we're sending a missions team down into gangland. So I guess we'll expand our missions outreaches next year.

But personally, I'll just keep heading to India a couple of times a year. Thanks for the invitation though Rich! I have the utmost respect for you and the great work you are doing.

DEFINITELY UP A NOTCH

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm in my regular post-service mind-set of analyzing, savoring and reliving the morning service. It was a great morning! An hour ago when I was chatting with one of the guys from the church, we concluded things have definitely moved up a notch.

1. The place looks so much better. Investing heavily in quality banners and bits and pieces that add to the decor have reaped huge benefits.

2. The amount of buy-in is amazing. You would not believe how many more people have got involved in getting things going on Sunday mornings. The place was a zoo at 7.30 today.

3. Our worship team are sounding better than ever - they brought a great new song today that I loved.

4. As I mentioned last post, attendance is way up on what it was this time last year and this morning despite the rain (which generally cripples us) there was a great crowd.

5. There is a bunch of new people around. They were all over the place again today and I got to talk to a few of them after service. Every one of them was pumped and was planning to come back next week.

6. There's a looooong list of folks that are new to us who plan to join myself and the other pastors for coffee at our house next Sunday night.

7. We baptized seven people this moring as part of our quarterly Celebration Sunday where we baptize those who have come to faith in Jesus.

I'm wired. It has been a great day - all this and the Colts won again!