TWO EXTREMES

This made me laugh today -

I sent two things by UPS on Wednesday, one to India and the other to Jackonsville, Florida. Both were delivered today, but the Indian package beat the Florida one by a full six hours!

And this brought a tear to my eye -

I sincerely thank you for being faithful to who and what God wants you to be. You make a difference in this world and the one after this one. I just want to be part of it too.
Part of an email I got this morning from someone in our church, commenting on our commitment to those God is sending to us.

Needless to say, both made me happy!

GLOBAL HAPPENINGS

We have missions teams going off all over the place right now. I just got back from JFK where we dropped off sixteen people whose flight to the Dominican Republic takes off any second. They'll be linking up with our missionaries down there and helping them for a week, with whatever they need doing.

I do know the guys will be finishing up the medical clinic our team started work on down there ten months ago. It stood there half done for a while as there was word of government help to complete the project, but that never materialised, so it's going to be a busy time for our team as I understand that an official opening has been planned for Thursday with the Mayor doing the honors and a TV crew all booked to be there.

We have some great people - I may have said that before, but it's all true. At this moment we have four folks down in South Africa scoping out a whole new project in a huge poverty-stricken township that has asked us for some help.

Then next month we have a team returning to Banda Aceh, Indonesia where there is still widespread devastation following the Tsunami on December 26th 2004.

I watched the DR team filing into the airport this morning and realized that virtually every one of them will leave a real gap tomorrow. They're folks who are totally involved on Sundays. These are not your stereotypical missions team members who do nothing at home all year and think they can get on a plane and save the world. These are people who are walking the walk. They're travelling however many thousand miles to continue doing what they do all the time, loving God, loving people and serving our world.

GOOD STUFF

Last night Gill and I got to spend a couple of hours with a great young couple (hey everyone's young to me!) who are new to our church and most definitely new to our style of church. Seems they love it - their kids do too - and are doing their best to reel in family and friends.

We chatted a bit about the likelihood of moving locations and late last night, Noe sent me this Bridget Willard quote -

Church isn’t where you meet. Church isn’t a building. Church is what you do. Church is who you are. Church is the human outworking of the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s not go to Church, let’s be the Church.

That says it all. This may all be new to them, but they have certainly got the point!

CHOICES

Got word from our attorney this morning and he has been talking to the developers' attorney, so we should get word soon of a timeline for things to change at the good old UA. In the meanwhile we need to start making plans ourselves so we are not left at their mercy.

So check these places out.

Island 16 is the state-of-the-art theater in our area, with stadium seating, reclining chairs and best of all everyone knows where it is. It's four miles from where we are now.

The Regal on Portion Road in Ronkonkoma is a modern theater too, with stadium seating, its own cafe area and it's 5.8 miles from Patchogue UA.

So we're checking things out and will keep you posted.

I'm pumped. We weren't looking for this or expecting this, but since God is over all and he is the one who is building his church, we know that this is part of his plan to help us fulfil the vision he has given us.

THE GOOD IS ALWAYS THE ENEMY OF THE BEST

Some time last year my wife came back from a trip to one of her favorite stores and proudly presented me with a brand new pair of designer slippers that she had just bought for pennies in a sale.

That was all good and well, but I hadn't asked for new slippers, didn't want new slippers and was more than comfortable with the slightly stained and battered pair already on my feet that only had just over 30,000 miles on the clock.

Why was she doing this to me?

What to do?

Liar that I am, I smiled, thanked her profusely, complimented her on her shopping skills and tried them on. To my dismay they were a perfect fit and all I could do was watch broken-heartedly as my dear old moccasin-style friends were dispatched to the garbage, never to be seen again. It was an unceremonious end to two dear friends.

But many months later, I love my new slippers. They are comfortable, look half-decent and are a little sturdier for times when I wear them in the yard or even on a quick trip to the store for some milk.

Turns out to have been a very good switch even though I didn't like it at the time.

And the point of the story is?????? .....

We got word today that the developers who have been fighting for a zoning change to erect housing on our movie theater site finally got what they were after. They will be closing on Patchogue UA and the acreage around it some time in the next few months and the theater itself will then be closing.

Looks like it will soon be time to leave the comfortable old theater and move into something newer. We don't have any details yet as to when this will all happen, but it will probably be this summer.

So we will be Church At The Movies at a different movie theater some time soon. There are two theaters within six miles of where we worship now and both would be available, so we're starting to look into the options that are open to us.

A newer, cleaner and brighter facility will enhance all we are doing, even though at the moment I still love the old place we've had for almost four years.

But then, the good is always the enemy of the best!

ANTIQUITY HAS ITS ADVANTAGES

Okay, I checked out the old guy on the phone this afternoon and he is definitely insane - my kind of insane that is, which I personally would maintain is normal, though I know most would differ!

After 20 years of leading a church that is now well established, he's thinking of blowing it all, packing up his Bible and laptop and moving to another part of the state to start from scratch. And he's 54 years old!

I love it.

What the heck! Life's too short to let it be boring.

I encouraged him to keep praying about going for it and offered what little input and support I can offer along the way.

So all that got me thinking about what the advantages and disadvantages of age are when it comes to church planting ...

ADVANTAGES
1. Experience - hopefully you've learned a few things along the way from both the positive and negative segments of the journey thus far.

2. Security - you're not trying to prove anything to yourself or anybody by the time you get to my stage in life.

3. Urgency - you don't have decades ahead of you, you're staring at the last lap and want to give it all you've got. This one has to count.

4. Freedom - there are not so many other people to think about, like children who need the support and care of a father. They flew the coop a long time ago.

5. Credibility - if you live long enough people think you know what you're talking about, even though in reality you're flying by the seat of your pants.

DISADVANTAGES
1. Irrelevance - you may well become disconnected with the world in which most of those you are trying to reach are living, since you yourself are headed into the golden years. The cure? Hang out with as many young church planting hotheads as you can and make sure your own leadership team contains people from younger generations.

2. Conservatism - breaking free and staying free from a lifetime of how you used to do church can present its own challenges. You can't go by the book, you have to be willing to burn it, to question all you have ever done and thought and see whether it has a place in today's church.

3. Weariness - as you get older you tend to slow down. Nothing wrong with that, so long as others can help carry the momentum. BTW it's even more important to take care of yourself physically as the years go by. Ask me! - I'm just breaking out of a lifetime of abusing my body by making it carry around far too much weight.

4. Possesiveness - you won't be around for ever. In fact you won't be there for that long, so it's essential for older church planters to be looking for the person who will take the lead when they need to step back.

5. Unreality - you're not Superman and neither am I. None of us is the exception to the rule, though we would like to think we were, so we won't go on for ever. Have an exit strategy. When I was younger I saw so many old pastors hanging on way after their best before date that I decided that at age 65 I will step back from a lead pastor role. Plan to get out the way before you kill the thing you've brought to life!

With those things in mind - don't you young puppies count the old guys out!

DON'T DO IT!

I had a great time at the Church Planters' Conference I attended in Georgia last month, but I must admit - and can do it freely several weeks down the road - that I really felt antequated hanging out with all those potential world shapers, most of whom were not even born when I started pastoring.

Today I got an email from a 54 year old pastor saying that after 32 years in ministry he was giving some serious thought to planting a new church and he wanted to run a few things by me as he had learned that I had started our church a little later in life than most get into this.

I wrote back to him Don't do it! Are you insane?

Then I quickly explained that I was just kidding - or was I?

Here's the deal -

If you can live with yourself doing something else, you should do that.

If you're looking for something easy, go drive a truck.

If you think a new church will be less problematical than an established one, get your brain checked.

If you want to plant because you know a lot of guys are having a blast doing it, check the facts. More plants die in the first twelve months than succeed.

If you need a guaranteed income, pension plan and benefits, get a job at the bank.

But even if you're over 50, if you can't get it out of your head, if your heart keeps coming back to reaching people who need Jesus, if you're willing to jump off the edge of a cliff with no parachute, then hang on - you're in for the ride of your life and it could be the best choice you ever made!

CELEBRATION SUNDAY

Yes folks, it's that time again - our quarterly Celebration Sunday seems to have come around really quickly and we already have seven people ready for baptism in our well-used horse trough.

Not that horses ever used it of course. We bought the thing brand new, but since I don't have exact figures at hand sitting here in my den while Gill watches a rerun of NCIS, I'll give a conservative guess and estimate that by the time Sunday's done, something approaching 100 people will have used it to publicly confess their faith in Jesus and obey his direction to be baptised.

One hundred lives changed for ever.

One hundred people discovering faith and purpose.

One hundred family members, friends, neighbors who were bound for hell now anticipating heaven.

No wonder we call it Celebration Sunday. Jesus taught that there's a party in heaven when one single lost person is found. So we'll join with everyone up there and have one heck of a party Sunday.

JOB OFFER

I filled out a job application yesterday for the first time in forty years, but it didn't cause me any anxiety as I was told it's just a formality anyway as I've got the post.

Now I won't be giving up my day job or detracting from it at all, but for 90 minutes on my day off, instead of sitting in a Weightwatchers class, I'm going to be leading one. I figure I'm there anyway, so I may as well accept their invitation and teach the group.

After I've done some training, I'm going to slot into their schedule somewhere on a Monday and I'm thrilled at the prospect. It's not that I can just help others reach their goals, it's more that I'll have the opportunity to interact regularly with 20-30 people most of whom don't know Jesus yet.

Pastors tend to spend most of their time with Christians - and I have no complaint about that. But the nature of what we do means we have to make special efforts if we are to get alongside good people who are not yet believers. And this looks like a golden opportunity.

I don't intend to preach in my group, heck they'd fire me, but I do hope to show and share the love of Jesus.

MONDAY, MONDAY

This is my vegging day - I call Mondays my weekend, so if you are visiting here in the hopes of finding something profound, you will be sadly disappointed! In fact if you ever look for anything mind-blowing here you will probably end up feeling totally let down.

So what does an antequated pastor do on his day off. Bet you can hardly wait to discover the truth!!!

Went to gym at 7.00am. Ran 5.5 miles on the treadmill and then did 1.5 miles on the elyptical.

Went to Weighwatchers and found I had dropped 3.2 pounds, which means I have got off the insane excess I had put on over Christmas and during our trip to India. Well on my way towards my goal now - only 2.2 pounds to go.

Took a DVD and some goodies over to Charlotte's house where our grandson, Jace, had been throwing up and running a 103 fever.

Drove Gill over to Smithtown for a doctor's appointment and while she was there visited a few stores looking for Webkinz for the grandkids. Then went to Starbucks, sat and read the first couple of chapters of Rob Bell's new book, Sex God - looks like a very good read.

On the way back we stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up some healthy-looking items you don't get in most supermarkets.

Now dinner's cooking.

Isn't that fascinating?

Congratulations if you read all the way to the end!

Hey, a day off isn't meant to be that exciting, is it?

INNOVATIVE ADS

Paul Thompson's a sharp guy.

Look what he did with our Easter invitation. He scanned it, replaced our funny-looking old lady with his wife Pat and then sent the revised card out to their three married children, hoping they'll respond by joining us all for worship in one of our Easter Sunday services.

Now there's a great idea worth taking up.

Why not personalize some of your invitations?

A.S.Q

We covered another couple of tricky topics this morning as we continue the Answers to Serious Questions series. Today's two questions that people wanted answered were Why do Christians hate gays? and Do people who comnmit suicide go to hell?

We're looking at the things we get asked that are difficult to deal with and if the response after service is anything to go by, a load of our folks found today very helpful as we continue our quest to seek and save those that are lost.

It was a bit weird this morning, with Worship Central looking a bit on the empty side, but I heard later that the Big Screen Cafe was jam packed with people. So I guess for some reason more people than usual opted to watch the service on a plasma TV while sipping their Starbucks instead of bringing their drink with them into Theater 13.

I blame the friendly ladies in the cafe! They make it such a welcoming space. The donuts and baqels are a pretty big attraction too.

I love being able to offer people options. Let's face it, we live in an environment of choice - how many flavors of Coke can you get nowadays? So offering worshipers a choice is a great way to go.

EGGS GALORE

That was some day!

They had been forecasting showers for this morning for the past several days, but it turned out to be sunshine with totally clear blue skies. A great day and a great turnout.

We estimate there were around 400 people at our first Easter Egg Hunt, with almost two thirds of those being folks who are not part of our church. So as a bridge event, it was a total success. Without pushing anything, I had several good conversations about the church and I am expecting to see some new faces in service tomorrow.

Our people really were amazing. They worked like dogs, starting set-up early this morning and not leaving until everything was back to normal.

It's great to be able to host a major event on our church property. We reckoned we'd have a building up there long before now, but that was before the Town Board turned obnoxious on us. However we all know God doesn't live in man-made edifices - in fact He's at the movies Sunday mornings on a regular basis.

I'll be there tomorrow too. I love to hang out where God is!

THEATER 13

Good news from Patchogue UA. Our theater - Theater 13 which is Worship Central - has had the roof fixed, is dried out and is all ready for us to use again on Sunday morning.

I'm still in awe of the way our guys got stuck in last Sunday morning and got everything up and running in a totally different theater. We didn't miss a beat!

STUFFED

Here was I thinking we were going to be for ever at Grace House tonight stuffing candy and toys into little plastic eggs ready for tomorrow, but I guess I wasn't reckoning on the incredible turnout. There were people everywhere and 2,000 eggs were taken care of in around 45 minutes, which is quite amazing since getting the two halves together would have taxed the skills of even Harry Houdini.

We have some great people. I think everyone's wired about tomorrow. What a great bridge event to connect with new people!

WAIT AND SEE

This has been a crazy day with a ton of stuff going on around me to prepare for the Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow, while I have been trying to focus on finishing Sunday's teaching.

We've had one eye on the weather too as yesterday they were predicitng morning showers for Saturday, though thankfully that threat appears to have lifted.

Since this is the first time we have ever done this, we have no idea what to expect. There may be 50 kids there and there may be 500. If there were 50 I'd be disappointed - 500 will be a zoo.

What a great opportunity to connect with the community.

I'm pumped!

Tonight I'll join a crowd of volunteers and we'll fill plastic eggs, that rumor has it are impossible to put together. I must keep an eye on which ones have the iPod vouchers and see if I can spot where they are hidden!

I love doing new stuff. This beats business as usual. It's what I signed on for!

REFLECTING

Varied day today -

+ Cut short my time at the gym as I discovered my running pants had a split in a potentially embarassing place.

+ Comiserated with Marie as she spent for ever with tech support as there was no internet access on her computer in the office. A lady from eastern Asia who speaks broken English eventually helped her out!

+ Went to the dentist for a checkup and cleaning. I hate the dentists. I have a real pathological fear of them - left there shaking!

+ Had a couple of meetings with good people - one of them included dinner which is always very acceptable, even if a Greek salad at the diner is not exactly haute cuisine.

+ Sent out invitations to a number of good people to join our Big Screen Cafe team. That place is rocking Sunday mornings and we've had to increase supplies for three weeks in a row now. Need to increase volunteers too.

+ Chatted to Ray about Easter Sunday worship. We've got some good stuff in the pipeline. I made a personal request for one song - any one - with some really funky guitar stuff. I want our guests to see how cool our band is!

+ Did some more preparations for Sunday's A.S.Q. - We're going to look at the question, Why do Christians hate gays? Might well get into the subject of suicide too.

+ Spent the evening at the Chamber of Commerce and met some interesting people. Passed on word about Saturday's Easter Egg Hunt. That thing is going to be huge.

+ This afternoon I picked up 1,000 Kidmo invitations for handing out on Saturday. Someone else could have gone, but the sun was shining and I hadn't taken the Mustang out in a week because of the snow and ice. So I took a ride down the Expressway to the printer's with a cup of 7-11 coffee and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

+ Talking coffee, I like the new Starbucks in Medford. It's very quiet though, which is probably not what the company planned.

+ BTW, the Chamber meets in the function room of the Comfort Inn where we started our church - it was called The Inn At Medford then. I looked around tonight and figured God has brought us a long way.

And thus to bed - it'll soon be gym time all over again!!!

CAN WE SAY SUCKS?

Down in the depths of the Bible-belt, there's a bit of a buzz going around about the latest advertising being done by GracePoint Church, Wichita, Kansas. Seems their billboard message is not at all appreciated by some.

The pastor of this five year old church, with over 400 in attendance every weekend, says he came up with the idea one Sunday when a young woman came to him after service and gave him her verdict on her first experience of GracePoint - This church doesn't suck!

I love the idea, but I haven't quite worked out whether the word "suck" is permissible. Is it a curse word? Personally I generally veer away from it and say something stinks instead, but I must admit I like this advertising.

It definitely says something to the people this church is looking to reach.

THIS IS A TEST

Let's see how many of you can come up with the right answer!

It's Wednesday night, so what am I going to talk about?

You can congratulate yourself and brag about your genius to the whole world if, without scrolling back to previous weeks, you came up with the response - my small group.

Just got back from darkest East Patchogue and sadly from the last small group meeting of this cycle. I missed the first couple of meetings as I was in India, but have thoroughly appreciated these past four weeks at Ken and Lenore Swaner's home. I've been going there alone as Gill committed to an all-ladies small group (I wonder that the ACLU allows that) before I had made a decision about what I was going to do, but we have had a great mix of people - twelve of us in total I think.

Our hosts are brilliant at leading a small group. They do all the essentials really well -

1. Lenore makes great coffee.
2. She puts on an incredible spread of goodies.
3. The house is warm and inviting.
4. They are both friendly and welcoming.
5. They clearly put time into preparing the material for the evening.
6. They take a lot of interest in what has been happening that week in group members' lives.
7. They keep things moving along and focused.
8. They don't get intense - we laugh a lot.
9. They keep a good prayer focus.
10. They get us home at a reasonable hour.

I've loved this small group. The material has been superb too. Hope they'll be hosting next time around - I'll be there!

LADY LIBERTY

In 1903, seventeen years after the completion of the Statue of Liberty, this outstanding poem by Emma Lazarus was made into a bronze plaque and mounted on the pedestal of this New York City landmark. It reads -

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The other day one of our ministry leaders told me that when trying to describe our church to someone, she said we're a Statue of Liberty kind of church. Then she quoted part of this poem - the last part of course - Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses ... the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Now I know how to describe us when I'm asked what kind of church we are. I'll carry the title with pride!

We're a Statue of Liberty kind of church!

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUP

I had a good time teaching on Sunday, adressing the first two questions that had been submitted to us for our A.S.Q. series and taking the opportunity to recast vision by saying some things that needed to be said.

We looked at the complaint that seekers occasionally make about there being so many churches who don't agree among themselves, so how should anyone know what to believe. I pointed out that our experience locally is far from that - we have a great relationship with a load of local pastors and their congregations, so there's a lot of agreement.

Then I threw out there the idea that most churches believe the same when it comes to the basics, but what often differs is their style.

That's where ice cream got into the picture. On Saturday evening I was in a local supermarket looking longingly into the freezers at the amazing choices that are available. A lady beside me was searching hungrily for Turkey Hill Banana Split ice cream and I was happy to find the very last half gallon for her. I knew that if I was shopping for Gill there would be no problem, she would just want Vanilla, which is about as much a flavor in my book as white is a color - boring!

But for me, it was a no-brainer Turkey Hill Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup is the food of heaven. No doubt it's the food of heart attacks too, but let's not spoil a good thing by getting health conscious. I love it. There's nothing like it. And I haven't tasted it for more than two years. So I bought a half gallon Saturday night, took it home and disposed of the whole thing...

... into the trash that is, because all I wanted was the container, to help me make a very important point the next morning.

Someone may come along and say, I like that ice cream, but I prefer dark chocolate, could you maybe change it a little? Then another says, I like chocolate chips, can we put a few of them in? Someone else wants just a hint of strawberry, the next person some pecans, while orios are on the wishlist for the cookies and cream lover. A hint of mint would whet another person's appetite, while black cherries would make someone else's day.

However, if you pleased all them you would end up with a concoction that in no way resembled what you had started out with and was nothing that anyone in their right mind would want to cross their lips.

Churches are all different, there's not necessarily a right and wrong - all kinds of churches for all kinds of people. Some major on teaching, some on music, others on charismatic experiences,etc,etc.

As for us, we do church for the unchurched. That's our flavor. Has been since day one. We don't add to it, don't apologize for it and won't change it.

If you want Rum & Raisin I'll tell you where you can get it. If it's Neopolitan I can give you directions.

But we are who we are - unmistakeably, unapologetically and unwaveringly Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup!

GREAT NEWS

We got some unexpected news from Texas this morning where our son Jonathan had visited his doctor's office for the results of a CT Scan he had last week to determine what impact twelve months of steroids had made on his sarcoidosis. The last test in October was not encouraging as there appeared to be little improvement. The best we were hoping for today was that the effects of the disease were diminishing, but what we got blew us away.

His lungs and lymph nodes are now totally clear and the disease has been officially pronounced "in remission". What a wonderful way to start the week after what has been a harrowing fifteen months journey for Jonathan, Donna and the family.

They will wean him off the steroids over the next six weeks and then do one final blood test. It is anticipated that as he leaves off the steroids he will also be able to drop all the other medications he has been taking to counter their side-affects.

Life may well be back to normal in the Blackmore household by the end of April.

Our sincere thanks to so many from all around the world who have been praying for Jonathan through this difficult period. We thank God that this season is passing.

FULL DAY

It was great to join the folks at Medford Assembly of God this afternoon for the dedication of their new building. It wasn't the most thrilling event I've been at lately, but what do you do? You have to have all the necessary speeches, expressions of thanks, etc.

It took them twice as long and cost them twice as much, but now they're enjoying the benefits of a very demanding three years and three months.

I liked the way they honored the founding pastor, John Keller who started the church, built the first building and pastored there until he retired in 1997.

When we started Grace Church, John and his wife Alice joined us, which always amazed me because I thought that we would be far too out there for an aging veteran AG pastor, but he seems to have really taken to our style and even after his poor health left him housebound, he still got recordings of the message every week. I haven't actually seen him since Alice's funeral last year, yet the first thing he did today was ask about our son's health. He's a classy guy and laid a great foundation for what is now a thriving Medford church.

I pulled out of that service a few minutes before it ended to get home and pick up Gill and then our neighbors so we could go and eat dinner together as planned. It was a really good evening. They are a great young couple (heck everyone is young nowadays) - he's a cop in Brooklyn and she's a PA for an oncologist. We talked a lot, laughed and ate some good Italian food (if you can call broiled tilapia over spring greens Italian!!!).

One thing we discovered about them is that they like Indian food - so that's the direction we'll be heading next time.

A very good day, but very full!

BTW, can't believe the emails I'm getting after this morning's teaching - all very positive stuff!

WHAT A TEAM!

I cannot believe how our guys took on the challenge of a whole new theater today with no dry run or prior knowledge of the footprint, yet they had every single thing up and running in plenty of time for our service to start.

This is the down-to-earth stuff that blesses me because it shows you that folks have really got the point and are supporting the vision.

I loved the way Jorge, having read my post last night about the damage to Theater 13, came in especially early this morning as he knew there would have to be a complete rewiring of our video feed for the Big Screen Cafe. (I had just figured we wouldn't be able to do it).

Our resident electrician, Dan was running around like crazy spotting outlets, running cables and getting sound, lights and whatever all under way without even blowing a circuit.

There were a ton of people who were all over what needed to be done - and that's just one of the reasons I love this church.

PUTTING THE "P" IN PORTABLE

Having done church in so many locations it's tough to recall them all at once, I reckon we could well be the congregation that put the "p" in portable. This afternoon I heard of a fresh challenge tomorrow.

It seems the thawing ice on the theater roof has led to serious leaks in Theater 13 where we have Worship Central, so that's out of commission in the morning, which means we'll be heading for Theater 4 for the first time and facing the challenges of setting up in a new place with no stage.

I love a challenge and know that from 7.00a.m. onwards we'll be pushing to get things the way they're meant to be with our great team of volunteers. It'll all be in place by the time we get to 9.30 and then we'll launch into our newest series A.S.Q., planned to help our folks share their faith.

We're doing our best to equip everyone to make this Easter the most effective outreach day yet and the way things are looking we're right on track!

A.S.Q.

My father was a WWII veteran, having served with the Royal Air Force for the whole six years of that conflict. So inevitably I guess, having been born in 1950 I grew up on war stories and Winston Churchill quotes.

One of his favorite sayings from Britain's wartime Prime Minister was Give us the tools and we will finish the job. The words were a plea contained in a speech to Parliament for President Roosevelt to bring the might of the United States forces alongside his own in the fight against tyranny that had been going on unaided for almost one and a half years.

I love that whole segment of this February 1941 classic -
We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

Sixty six years after that and living to enjoy the benefits of the commitment of both British and U.S. forces, I'm proud to lead an outstanding church that has no doubt what is the task at hand and who themselves will not weaken or tire. That's why it's such a blessing to do what Mr. Churchill said and give them the tools.

We've been doing that over the past few weeks as we've been reading Bill Hybel's book, Just Walk Across The Room, studying his small group material mid-week and taking Sundays to bring it all together so that we are all better equipped to lead others to faith.

Sunday we're going to start handing out some more tools as we look at some of the tough questions that sometimes stump people when they're discussing God or their own faith with those who don't know Jesus yet.

We'll be passing on some Answers to Serious Questions and I'm looking forward to teaching this series to so many people who are ready to just go for it. This is a year for taking great strides in plundering hell to populate heaven, the best yet in our brief history and to quote the man himself again -

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

This is our finest hour!

SMILE!

Here's an email I got from a new family to our church. It's the kind of stuff that makes any day into a really good one (the names have been removed to protect the innocent) -


My husband and I have given years of prayer and thought to finding the right church for us to raise our family in as well as for our own spiritual growth. We both feel that God has answered our prayers above and beyond our expectations by bringing us to Grace Church.

Our main goal is to live each and every day as the best Christians we can and with God's grace and to teach our children who and what God truly is.

We do appreciate your candor and your personal "one on one" relationships you take the time to have with all the members of the church.

Cool!

TODAY WAS A CRAP DAY

I thought that would get your attention!

The words are not mine. They were part of an email I received earlier from a friend of mine who pastors a great, growing church quite a distance from here. It seems that some religious and self-righteous people in his congregation had unloaded both barrels on him today, suggesting he knows squat, including knowing God or the Bible.

I understand how he is feeling, as does every pastor. Over the years I've been cursed out, threatened, physically attacked, etc., etc. - all by Christians of course.

My friend goes on to ask the quesion, Why am I doing this?

Every pastor I know has been there too, but sadly not all of them have come up with the answer that followed in today's email - It's not for them!

Sometimes it's tough to stay focused on who it is all about. Jesus said he didn't come for those who were healthy, his mission was to help those who were sick. And that is ours. That's what ministry is about and that's what church is about. It's all about reaching those that are lost and bringing them into relationship with God. We do it for them.

.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Sitting here, fighting sleep, with a cold drink and a WW muffin, reflecting back on a very good evening. We had our small group tonight and it was excellent. What a great group of people! I've got so that I really look forward to seeing each of them over in darkest East Patchogue.

We chatted for a while tonight about the encouragement to be radically inclusive that Bill Hybels gave in one section of the DVD teaching that made up Part 4 of Just Walk Across The Room. While we were discussing that I remembered a good example of it from Jonathan and Donna's wedding (our son and daughter-in-law for the uninitiated!).

Jonathan works in the fashion industry and had invited a number of friends from work to be guests, several of whom were gay. When one of them asked if it was okay for him and his friend to dance together, Jonathan told them to go ahead and they had a blast. We also had a good time getting to know them. We did not ostracize them because of a lifestyle we do not condone, we accepted them as people and were radically inclusive.

One of the guys there that day ultimately came to faith, was helped by a ministry that reaches out to homosexuals and was married last year. I dare to believe that the fact that Jonathan and others opened their hearts and homes to him played a significant role in his life being turned around.

Radically inclusive!

That's a great phrase.

THE RIGHT FIT

Excellent post by my friend Gary Lamb on his blog today - http://www.garylamb.org


I think one of the greatest lessons I learned while planting a church in Iowa was that you do NOT want everyone who comes through the doors. That might not be popular for a pastor to say but it is a valuable lesson.

When I planted our church in Iowa I wanted everyone who came through the doors to stay. As a result I tried to make our church a church that offered whatever you wanted. If you were a homeschooler, we had stuff for you. If you wanted Sunday school, we had that for you. If you wanted something we didn’t have, I was willing to start what you wanted to keep you. I ended up miserable and the church never grew beyond 150 people because we didn’t have laser focus.

BEFORE starting The Stone I determined through many hours of prayer and studying other churches the type of church Ridge Stone would be. Not that we are the only way to do church but I decided before we ever added ONE family what our vision would be and I decided before starting that I would close her down if we lost focus of that vision.

That has proven very valuable since starting. There have been many times I have been faced with changing the vision in order to keep people and to be honest I never even had to pray about it because before we started I knew we weren’t the church for everyone.

I honestly think this is one of the BIGGEST differences between a church that grows and one that doesn’t.

If you try and keep everyone you will stop your church from growing and lead yourself to an early grave.

Case in point: We recently had a family visit our church. I am convinced 99% of the church planters I know would have killed each other to have this family. They were very nice people, came from a large mega-church, brought a lot of ministry skill (just ask them ), gave financially, and had all their teeth.

We met with them as a staff and I knew literally within 2 minutes that we were the wrong church for them. They shared how long they had lived in the area and the number of churches they had “tried out,” they shared how they thought we should be doing church, they begin to ask more questions about policies then the vision, and then they informed me that in order to grow our vision would have to change from reaching unchurched people. I checked out about 5 minutes into the meeting but I kept quiet to see how our staff would respond. Needless to say our team got that while on paper this couple looked good, they were NOT a fit for us.

I loved that while our entire staff is consumed with reaching our community and growing that they all understood that as much as we want people, we didn’t want this family.

I honestly feel that their understanding of that is one of the reasons we have grown. Jim Collins talks in Good to Great about getting the right people on the bus. In growing a church this is also a huge key. You have to get the right people on the bus because if you fill the bus with the wrong people no matter how good they are, no matter their experience, no matter how much they give, you will never build a church.

Don’t be afraid to let people go.

I have learned who you let go is just as important as who you reach.

AMAZING

If you haven't seen it yet, you gotta go see Amazing Grace (not to be confused with Saving Grace which is about an English widow who starts growing pot to make ends meet).

This is the best movie I have seen in a long, long time. It's inspiring, challenging, heart-tugging, gut-wrenching stuff about how William Wilberforce fought and finally won to have the slave trade abolished by the British Parliament.

Kinda makes you embarassed to have a British heritage to tell you the truth, but maybe my roots go back to the handful of good guys who turned things around.

Pay your mother-in-law to babysit, cancel a business appointment, do whatever you have to do but make sure you catch this on the big screen before it leaves town.

If you see it and hate it, let me know and I'll refund your money personally.

ERIC'S STORY

Here's what one of the guys shared this morning -

I was born in Brooklyn N.Y and raised as a catholic. I even went to catholic school but my family was still very dysfunctional.

My mother was a psychiatrist and my father was an abusive and violent drug user and dealer. At the age of nine I was using all kinds of drugs with my father such as alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, cocaine and heroin.

By the age of thirteen I was a full time addict and dealing drugs for my father. It was at this age that I was sent to a juvenile facility because of a robbery and some gang related incidents. By the age of sixteen I was really acting out and it was also the year that I watched my mother shoot my father with the gun that I gave her.

By the age of eighteen I was incarcerated for five years because of dealing drugs. I was released at the age of twenty two. At this time we all moved to Puerto Rico where my drug use escalated. By the age of twenty seven I was alone, afraid and I hated my life so I tried to kill myself by overdoses and even jumping in front of a car on the highway. You would think that by now I would know that I had a guardian angel helping me, but I didn’t. After six months of recovery my mother sent for me to live with her in Brooklyn.

By now she had remarried and was doing well. I did well for about three years and fell in love with a great girl, just when everything was going good, I started to use again and lost everything. I lost my job my girlfriend and my mother’s respect again. It was at this time that God stepped into my life again and this time I listened.

I went to a rehabilitation program called Lake Grove and I met people that showed a great interest in my recovery. It was here that I went to school for my GED and I got it. I also was employed by this company as a house manager. It was here that I first met Roger the pastor at our church and from that moment on I started to know and learn about the love of Jesus and my God.

Two years have passed and today I am enrolled in college and I will be graduating in May of this year. I am also a member of this church and part of the small group called Celebrate Recovery, but most of all I found the love of God that I thought I had lost or didn’t deserve as well as the love and respect of my family. All in all I have three years and eight months of recovery

WOW!

That was the biggest crowd we have ever had on the morning that daylight savings starts. Despite the fact that it felt like 5.00am when my alarm went off today, we bucked the trend that I have noticed every one of the past fifteen Springs that we have been in the U.S.

There were people all over the place, new people, fresh faces, some folks I hadn't seen in a while and all the regular crowd of course. Our Big Screen Cafe ran out of bagels just after the service started, which is not really a good thing, but thankfully there were a few donuts still around for those who wanted to enjoy the service in that relaxed setting.

As I taught the final segment of Just Walk Across The Room, I included the faith stories of three very different people who have come to know Christ because someone took the time and made the effort to reach out to them. It was great to hear from them and to realize what God has done for them. We had a corporate VP, an ex-con, ex-drug addict and an educator or as I described them after they shared, a stressed out Italian, a strung out Puerto Rican and a confused Jew.

I am constantly amazed at the wonderful people who have joined us on our mission to reach those who are lost and today we committed ourselves to continue to walk across the room.

SHALL I?

I'm tempted to tell you a bit of one of the stories you'll hear in tomorrow's service -

There was this guy who was a drug dealer in Brooklyn, he had been an addict since he was nine years old and ...

- on second thoughts, you can hear it for the first time from the man himself in the morning!

JUST IN CASE

Just in case you have spent the last week on Mars, here's a reminder that tonight when the red hand gets to the 2 and the blue hand is all the way up to the 12, you need to move your clock forward one hour. This will make you very tired in the morning, but will at least ensure you're in church when I teach the final part of our Just Walk Across The Room series - and trust me if you snooze tomorrow you really do lose!

We are going to include some people's amazing faith stories as part of tomorrow's message and you definitely don't want to miss them.

By the way, you can always cheat by changing your clocks at 10.00pm, going to bed then and still getting your eight hours' sleep!!!

EASTER'S COMING

As I said on Wednesday, the Easter invitations are in - thanks Jonathan, nice job. Some of you may recall that a couple of months ago I conducted a straw poll here to ask if Long Islanders would be more inclined to use the word momma or mom.

To my surprise and chagrin there was only one person who agreed with my choice of words, so I went with the majority and we have Mom instead of Momma.

I thought with so many Italians around us, the word Momma makes the whole thing a little tongue-in-cheek, with a hint of The Sopranos.

Guess not!

Anyway, the bottom line is we have everything set now to invite hundreds of people to join us for one of our Easter Sunday services. The cards will be available next Sunday.

JUNK

Cards from my 50th birthday.

All the original packing for three cell phones, a Palm Pilot, an Ipaq, an iPod, a digital camera, a computer version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Bible College diplomas.

A spongey football,

And that was only under my desk. You would not believe the amount of junk that has accumulated in my office. I would because I cleared it out today in preparation for having it painted tomorrow - courtesy of some great folks in our church. Guess they reckon I'm shabby!

There's a pre-dinner parable here folks - junk accumulates so gradually we don't realize how much there is. Happens within us too if we're not careful.

Pork tenderloin - bye!

THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE

I love the way God orchestrates things so that people are right where he wants them to be. For instance ...

Among the many great people who have joined Church At The Movies over the past six months, we have a Madison Avenue marketing executive, who strangely enough has been looked upon with suspicion by some Christians in the past, as the representative of mammon, materialism and all this wicked world represents.

I think he was kind of surprised when his family got connected with our church and I suggested to him that maybe he could use his skills and experience to help advance God's kingdom. He really doesn't look much like Anti-Christ to me at all!

Needless to say, he is becoming my go-to-guy for advertising/marketing input and he has just about pulled off a sweet deal for us to do on-screen advertising in the Patchogue UA we worship in on Sundays.

Apparently there's a technical phrase for it, but the bottom line is that if people go to a place for one reason, they're likely to go there for something else too. So if you watch movies at the UA, there's a chance you'd go back for church.

Ian is getting them to put together this contract at less than half the price they offered it to me for a couple of years ago. The man is brilliant!

The company will produce our 15 seconds video clip and it will be shown repeatedly in each of the 13 theaters every day of the week. Plus they'll put it on the screen in Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale too.

Sounds like a plan and seems like God sent us just the person we needed to fill in a missing part of the jigsaw.

PRESSING POLITICAL BUTTONS

Long day - short post. Just got home.

There are several things I'll probably comment on in detail tomorrow, but here's a bit of news for nocturnal readers of these pages.

Tonight I attended my first meeting of the Executive of the Town of Brookhaven's Conservative Party where I have the honorary title of Chaplain and got to kick the proceedings off with prayer.

Tonight they were putting together the party's platform in preparation for interviewing candidates who want the Conservative line in November's local elections (which they all do!). The Party has established that issue numero uno will be where the politicians and wannabe politicians stand on the Anti-Church Law enacted eighteen months ago to stop us building.

So if anyone standing for the position of Town Supervisor or any of the six seats on the Town Board is to get the backing of this party, that person will have to agree to repeal this unconstitutional restriction.

I don't know about you, but that sounds great stuff to me. Kudos to the Conservatives for making this a major part of their platform - as promised.

BUILDING UP TO EASTER

Easter Sunday is going to be huge this year. The invitations just came in from the printer and we spent some time in our pastoral team meeting this morning going over the details of our pre-Easter community outreach on March 24th, The Great Big Easter Egg Hunt.

I'll show you the invites for our two services on resurrection day another time. At the moment I'm stoked about the fun with the kids and their families we're going to have on our church property in Medford on the 24th.

While our building dilemna rests with the Department of Justice in D.C. as they ponder suing the Town of Brookhaven, we do own the property we're planning to build on and so we can get good use out of it, especially for events like this.

One of the main questions this morning was how many people to cater for. Well, one thing's for sure, we won't make the mistake we did at our End Of Summer Festival when we ran out of food twice because the crowd of over 600 surprised us. So there'll be a mountain of eggs, bacon, sausage and rolls to make sure that there are breakfast sandwiches for everyone who shows up.

Add hundreds of donuts to the healthy menu, plus cotton candy and all the candy they can find and there should be enough hyper yougsters running around the place to send the Easter Bunny into permanent hiding.

We expect to springboard from that event into Easter Sunday itself, anticipating that a lot of our newfound friends will worship with us before going on to join their families.

I love this stuff. Is it Easter yet?

NORBIT

I was almost crying laughing at the opening scene of Eddie Murphy's latest offering. But that was it. It was the biggest load of nonsense I have endured for a long, long time.

I wondered why Gill and I were the total audience in the theater. I guess everyone else got the memo.

I LIKE KIDMO BECAUSE ...

We're getting some quotes from the kids in KIDMO to use in a new publicity piece we're putting together. Here's how some of last Sunday's crowd completed this sentence ...

It is fun and you get points by yelling and because Miss Charlotte is so fun.
Rebecca Age 8

Friends, fun, the songs, the teachers, the KIDMO store and God!
Ashley Age 10

You can buy things.
Isaiah Age 10

We get free stuff and Charlotte's cool.
Timothy Age 11

It is fun and Charlotte is cool.
Matthew Age 7

It is fun and a really cool way to learn God's way and word and Miss Charlotte is the coolest person ever.
Britney Age 10

We get to learn about God and we have fun because Miss Charlotte is the coolest.
Kristen Age 7

You get to sing and have fun all morning long and Miss Charlotte is cool
Selena Age 8

We get to sing and dance. I like to do the homework and get KIDMO points cause Charlotte is cool.
Rachel Age 8

You can jump up and down and scream.
Jacqui Age 8

It is fun, it is about God, you meet friends and you get points and get to watch a movie and Miss Charlotte is cool.
Jasmine Age 7

If you discern a common thread, rumor has it that the kids were promised bonus KIDMO points if their comments included the fact that the leader is cool!!!

MORE BIRTHDAYS

I have this idea that when God is in people making mode, his fiscal year runs from March 7th to March 6th. So on March 6th he has to use up all the good stuff he has left, ready for the start of a whole new run.

Dumping all that he has sitting around the place produces some exceptional March 6th babies and to prove my theory, let me cite the following evidence -

Daniel Summers, youngest son of one of our pastors, Frank Summers, was born on this very day several years ago (sorry to be vague about the number, but if I guessed I would inevitably get it wrong).

Linda Madden who is an essential and energetic part of our church's children's ministry celebrates her birthday today too. I know the number there, but I'm honestly not as stupid as to publish it on the worldwide web! You wouldn't believe me anyway - a lot of healthy genes there I reckon.

Gill Blackmore, my best friend, companion, helper for more than 37 years, first saw the light of day on March 6th somewhere back in the last century. I think I did good with her gift. Regular readers will recall that I visited the Mall on Saturday to get her something special, though I didn't say what. Well, what I found was a Journey necklace (she always admires them when we see them advertised on the TV, so I took note!), but this one is different. While it has the little diamonds and the curved shape to symbolize the journey we have shared through life, this one has a little cross piece, so it's a bit like a crucifix too.

Don't freak out, no one's going Catholic on you! I like it because I felt it suggests that this has not just been a two person journey. It has been a journey inspired by and in the light of the cross. Neat, eh? Well, I thought it was.

So tonight we'll go out and eat and probably take in a movie too. Nothing too thrilling, but then the heart can't take two much excitement at our age!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEX

Somewhere over on the other side of the world Rebekah Tait celebrated her 21st birthday today. Having arrived in Taiwan last week, she is adjusting to a whole new lifestyle and a myriad different sights, sounds, tastes and smells.

I have known Becky since she was born - heck, I married her mum and dad when I was younger than they both are now. Years ago at the end of a Sunday service this cute little curly-haired girl would insist on talking to me before she would go home. If I was busy with someone, she would wait and insist that she must say goodbye to me, show me the picture of the day she had drawn in children's church and often present it to me to take home.

Who would have guessed that same little girl would eventually become a student at Grays School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland? She's way more than good at art and a gifted photographer too, retaining the curly hair (most of the time) and an impish smile too.

One of the beauties of life is watching the young develop and grow. To see children become independent adults, embracing their own values and setting their own course. Becky's a great person. We keep in touch through email and Gill and I get to spend time with her on our occasional return visits to Scotland.

Today our Becky's all growed up, studying in Asia for a semester and then who knows what?

My concern though is this, that if this baby is now 21, could it possibly be that Iam getting a bit long in the tooth myself?

Impossible!

WHAT A CROWD!

Just finished a meeting with our ministry leaders. They're a great crowd. If anyone wants to see what is the secret to the strength of our church, they shouldn't be looking at the platform, they ought to cast an eye around our crowded living room tonight.

What an amazing group of dedicated volunteers, each heading up an area of ministry and every one of them totally committed to the vision of bringing unchurched people to a place of loving God, loving people and serving our world.

Tonight we pursued something Doug McIntyre raised in our leaders' training day last month. He asked the question "What would you do to fulfil the church's vision if an unexpected $100,000 was suddenly found in the church budget." After listing some good but predictable suggestions, Doug encouraged the leaders to think of some outrageous, irreligious answers.

We looked at those in detail tonight, bounced around the ideas and came up with some great innovative concepts to pursue. I love people with imagination. I thrive on pushing the limits. The status quo bores the pants off of me.

That's why I'm so glad to have a great group of God-loving, fun-loving people around me who are every bit as insane as I am!

ADVENTURES IN WALKING

I spent some time in the Mall today, thankfully my first visit there for many, many months. I don't mind shopping to a degree, but Smithaven Mall is not my idea of a fun place to spend a few hours. To each his own!

Anyway, with Gill's birthday looming (Tuesday), I went looking for a gift that hopefully will make the day special for her. Sorry, no clues. She never reads my ramblings here, but you never know when she might become enlightened.

I was there over lunch time and so checked out the food court and decided that a slice of pizza was probably going to do the least damage. Yes you can actually eat pizza on WW! Once I had my food, I wandered around like a lost sheep looking for a table to sit at. There was none.

So I politely asked an old lady if I might use a chair across from her at a round table. She started chatting immediately and I remembered the small group teaching about listening to others - walking across the room. So I decided this might be a God moment. However ...

Within minutes she told me how good she looked for 66, could have any man she wanted and was the envy of every other female in the universe. At that point I remembered that in the book Just Walk Across The Room, Bill Hybels makes the point that sometimes your best efforts are ultimately fruitless.

Trust me, they were and you never saw a slice of pizza eaten so fast.

MY BRACELET

Since early this afternoon I have been wearing a brand new fashion accessory - a red wristband with the letters K.I.S.S. on it.

I'm not wearing this red rubber thingy because I'm a groupie of the band by that name or because my wife wants me to see it when I'm preaching and remember Keep It Simple Stupid.

Our son sent us some that he had purchased to support research into the uncommon, unpleasant and potentially life-threatening disease he has been battling for over a year now - sarcoidosis (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/sarc/sar_whatis.html). KISS in this instance means Kick In to Stop Sarcoidosis.

Thanks to those who say a prayer for him and his family when they come to mind. It has been a draining year for them, but like God told Job, when it's over they'll be gleaming like gold.

IDENTITY CRISIS

Dan Kimball who knows a thing or six about church planting and growth has written an article for Outlook magazine in which he describes the six most common perceptions of the church among post-Christian 20- and 30- somethings.

Buckle up ...

1. The Church is an organized religion with a political agenda.

2. The Church is judgmental and negative.

3. The Church is dominated by males and opresses females.

4. The Church is homophobic.

5. The Church arrograntly claims all other religions are wrong.

6. The Church is full of fundamentalists who take the Bible literally.

We can protest all we like, but you can't argue with someone's perception. And of course to them perception is reality.

Not a pretty picture - even with #6.

I do take the Bible literally and I used to identify myself as a fundamentalist, but that's before the term was hijacked by right-wing, arrogant, uncompassionate, King James Bible waving bigots. So being referred to as a fundy by the unchurched is definitely not a good thing.

There's a lot of PR work to be done!

MONEY

I got a note in the mail from Bert Crabbe who pastors True North Church in nearby Port Jefferson Station (http://www.truenorthchurch.net). This is how it reads -

Roger,

Heard you guys couldn't have church last weekend cause of the heat. That must have been a killer financially speaking. Hope this helps.

Peace,

Bert

And there's a substantial check in there from their church to ours! Is that pretty amazing our what? I know it's how churches are meant to be with each other, but let's face it we all know it's not the way it generally works out.

Man, that blessed me.

You know what blessed me more? ... We don't really need it - because although we missed a Sunday service and that day's offering, our folks mailed in their checks, gave online, or put two weeks offering in last weekend. So we actually didn't miss a beat financially. That's not the way things generally work out either.

But we won't rob Bert and True North of the blessing they'll get from being generous!