NO GAME

I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is not really one of the most important issues in life. I appreciate that it shrinks into insignificance alongside the President's efforts at a new Middle East peace accord this week.

But I want to go on record as saying that the NFL are out of their tiny minds giving coverage of major games to a network most of the country has no access to. So while the 10-1 Packers are playing the 10-1 bears tonight in Dallas, the game is unavailable to most football fans anywhere across the nation. Me included.

I'm ticked.

Take games off your own NFL Channel and give them back to the people - people like me!

MYSTERY SERIES

We start our Christmas series, The Chocolate Box on December 9th. Chocolate donuts will be very prominent in our Big Screen Cafe, as will hot chocolate and our special seasonal offering - chocolate chip bagels.

People are asking what the series is all about and I'm enjoying keeping them guessing. You'll have to show up to find out, or to quote an Old Testament verse, Taste and see!!!

GREG

It's always interesting to see what parts of the world blog readers are logging in from. Over the past twenty four hours we've spanned from Cancun to Turkey.

Whether you're sunning yourself in Mexico, preparing for a European winter, or somewhere in between, there's good news here today.

This morning I took a quick trip to Stony Brook Hospital to check in with Greg Foley, the young man from our church who suffered serious brain trauma when he was hit by a car almost three weeks ago.

What a difference from my last visit!

A lot of the tubes and wires are gone, he's out of the coma and we had a conversation. Sure his speech is deliberate and he's reaching for some words, but Greg's on his way back folks. Please keep praying for him and his family as they continue the journey to complete recovery and thank God for his goodness to them all.

BIG WEEKEND

We have seen people commit their lives to Christ on both of the past two Sundays and that is the greatest miracle of all. I'm expecting to end our Miracles series this coming Sunday on a very high note, with more lives being transformed.

As I teach on healing and we take time to pray for those who need their own personal miracle, I am anticipating that prayers will be answered and the Christ who never changes will be with us to bring healing and wholeness to many lives.

So if you know someone who's sick and needs a personal miracle, be sure to invite them to be with us.

HEALING

For the finale of our Miracles series this coming Sunday, I'm going to focus on one of Jesus' healing miracles. Yesterday I invited our folks to share their stories of healing in an email of less than 200 words and I've had some great stuff come in already.

We'll share these testimonies on Sunday.

Man, I'm looking forward to the weekend!

HYPING IT UP

At the gym this morning I spent some time watching ESPN's review of the weekend's football. It seems there were a few good games around the country, while we were stuck with the Giants having a really bad day on our TV screens.

What followed just after dawn today was something my marketing executive friend Ian Baer should take a look at and maybe add to his portfolio. It was ESPN's effort to sell this evening's Monday Night Football game between the Steelers and the 0-10 lackluster, underscoring, underperforming, not-worth-watching Miami Dolphins.

ESPN went back to some footage of a Monday night game they had in the archives when the Dolphins achieved a stunning come from behind victory. Will they surprise us all again? Will this be Miami's night once more?

No, of course it won't.

They're sad. A franchise with an impressive history that has spent more than enough seasons lost in space.

But kudos to the writers at ESPN for their great effort at selling this pointless game. Their creativity is truly amazing.

One thing I strive for when we put together promotional pieces for our church is truth in advertising. We have to be able to produce what we promise and avoid the trap of loading ourselves with superlatives that describe the way we wish we were rather than the present reality.

I can't deal with hype in what we put out for those not yet in the church, or with hype inside for that matter!

SUNDAY RETROSPECT

+ It was cold early this morning, so I particularly appreciated the commitment of our set-up team who were out in the freezing temperatures to offload all our gear.

+ The theater opened for early shows at 10.30 today, but it didn't cramp our style too much. We couldn't have our prayer chapel or live video feed in the cafe, but apart from that it was business as usual. Good thing we have an excellent relationship with the manager.

+ After service I prayed with a young woman who wanted to commit her life to Christ. Great stuff - it's why we do what we do!

+ Good news from the hospital on Greg. He has come out of the induced coma and is showing signs of awareness.

+ More new folks around. It really is getting difficult to keep track. I don't know a lot of names, which is not good.

+ Watched the Giants this afternoon - waste of time as the Vikings blew them away.

+ My sister arrives on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to seeing her.

+ Peter Montana was in church today. He's the guy who raised the money for our Thanksgiving outreach which provided all the ingredients for a full dinner for sixty families.

+ We need to do another new friends lunch soon so we can get to know some of the folks who have started worshiping with us.

+ The house is weird without Maggie around. It's strange to come home and not have her jumping around as soon as you open the door.

+ This was the 15th consecutive dry Sunday - no rain yet since we moved to Ronkonkoma. Wet mornings would certainly make unloading and loading challenging.

LESSONS I'VE LEARNED WHEN LIFE STINKS

Someone askied for the outline of today's teaching, so I said I'd post it here - for him and the world to see!!!

It's based on Jesus stilling the storm in Mark 4.

1. THINGS AROUND US CAN CHANGE VERY QUICKLY
Mark 4:37 - A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.

2. IT’S EASY TO THINK GOD DOESN’T CARE
v38 - The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

3. THERE’S A SPIRITUAL BATTLE GOING ON
v39 - He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

4. GOD LOVES TO SURPRISE US
v41 - They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

5. JESUS IS NEVER ANXIOUS, SO WE DON’T NEED TO BE EITHER
v38 - Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

6. THOUGH OUR FAITH SEEMS INADEQUATE, IT’S OKAY
v40 - He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

7. JESUS ALWAYS TAKES US THROUGH
v35 - That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side."

ROUTINE

There's a lot to be said for getting back to routine and that's how today has been shaping up - with the one noted exception that I didn't go out with our Grace Care outreach team this afternoon to bring Thanksgiving meals to the homeless men we serve every Saturday.

I resumed my Weight Watchers classes this morning and although the turnout was predictably thin (no pun intended!) on this holiday weekend, it was good to reconnect with those who did make it and encourage them as we move into a demanding season.

The rest of the day has been spent completing everything for tomorrow and I must say I'm really looking forward to teaching the third part of our Miracles series.

The countdown to Christmas now starts in earnest and we reckon our two Christmas Sunday services may well draw an even bigger corwd than Easter Sunday.

This time of year presents some great opportunities, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

Just kidding about the white stuff God, honest!

SOUTHWEST ROCKS

Got home about an hour ago from our Thanksgiving in Florida and I have to say that I was superimpressed with Southwest's service. Not only do they treat passengers like human beings and act as though they're glad to see you, but going both ways the flights arrived almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule - which beats at least 3 hours after the designated time that seems to be the pattern for any airline you'll fly out of JFK!

They've adjusted their seating arrangements too, but it's interesting that however near to the 24 hours in advance you get on line, you're still some way down the line!

Today I got an exit row seat, excellent service, a short flight and even the coffee was marginally less disgusting than what is served on most planes.

So that's us back. As far as I know, I don't have to get on a plane again for a while, which is a relief.

Tonight we're having a Thanksgiving Dinner at Charlotte's, though she's serving chicken as turkey isn't among her favorite meats.

Are you allowed to do Thanksgiving with chicken???

THE FIRST PROCLAMATION

Thanksgiving Proclamation 1777 by the Continental Congress:the first national Thanksgiving proclamation

IN CONGRESSNovember 1, 1777

FORASMUCH as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending Providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for Benefits received, and to implore such farther Blessings as they stand in Need of:

And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common Providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defense and Establishment of our unalienable Rights and Liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased, in so great a Measure, to prosper the Means used for the Support of our Troops, and to crown our Arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for SOLEMN THANKSGIVING and PRAISE: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please GOD through the Merits of JESUS CHRIST, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance;

That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty GOD, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE:

That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth "in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost."

And it is further recommended, That servile Labor, and such Recreation, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion.

GETTING IN HOLIDAY MOOD

I love this time of year. This morning I sat out on the front porch with a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of coffee, watching the sun over the lake and letting my mind wander for a while.

You guessed it, I'm not in New York!

We're in Florida for a couple of days to have Thanksgiving with good friends down here in Dunedin, just north of Clearwater Beach, a practice we started a few years ago. I love watching the crowd shivering at Macy's Parade while it's 80 outside here!

I slept 10 1/2 hours last night, which I think means I'm catching up from the effects of my India trip, hopefully it will mean I'm totally coherent by the time we get home on Friday.

Sunday we're continuing the Miracles series and I'm really looking forward to this weekend when I'll be teaching on Lessons I've Learned When Life Stinks. Personally I think the word "sucks" fits better into that context, but I gather it's not really acceptable to use it in a church setting. So if you're reading this and will be there on Sunday, you'll know what I really mean!!!

I love pastoring a church where I can be honest. I don't have to pretend to be perfect, project that life is perfect and spend all my time beating on others for their imperfections. Lets face it, sometimes life sucks (sorry, I said it!), but it is often at those moments we get to know God better and see him coming through for us.

I think this will be a great Thanksgiving message, because while it's easy to be grateful for all the good stuff, it's another think to appreciate the bad times too.

WHAT DAY IS IT ANYWAY?

Okay, so I haven't been around here for a day or more!

It has been a weird few days since I got back from India. I think the time difference has hit me more this time than on any of the previous nine occasions I've made a visit to that sub-contient. Could it be age I wonder??? Of course not!

I managed to sleep until 4.20 this morning, which is almost two hours more than the previous two nights. Being wide awake at 2.30am stinks unless you're driving on the LIE at the time or pulling the night shift at Home Depot. With those exceptions - and maybe a few more - the night is definitely meant for sleeping.

Yesterday was traumatic of course, as I took Maggie to the vet and stayed with her while she was put to sleep. She was a great dog and the house is really weird without her around. The strange thing is that I protested loud and long that we shouldn't get a dog, but it turned out that I was generally the one she hung out with. She even sat on a chair in my office all day! I won't get too sentimental here - enough to say it was rough making that journey with her.

To add to the day's woes, I later tripped at home while I was carrying some boxes and fell face down on the floor, smashing my glasses and cutting my face. I put that down to weariness from the jet lag!

So it has been fun readjusting after the 10 1/2 hours time difference. Hopefully I'll be back in the land of the living by Thursday, but at the moment it's 4.30 and I'm tired!!!

SUNDAY REFLECTIONS

+ It was great to be back at church today. I missed everyone while I was in India and it was good to catch up with them. I love our people.

+ The temperature was 44 today, but with windchill it was in the 30's. That takes a bit of getting used to after ten days in Indian heat.

+ Watching the Patriots winning again - this is getting boring. Thankfully the Colts got back to wining ways today - not to mention the fact that the two New Jersey teams both won, Giants and Jets.

+ I continued the Miracles series this morning, talking about Jesus feeding the 5,000. I took the opportunity to share a pretty straightforward salvation message and four people made a first time commitment to Christ.

+ Have been awake since 2.30am - jet lag is a wonderful thing!!!

+ Our ten year old little dog, Maggie has never been the same since her bowel surgery in June. She has no proper control of her rear end and we are constantly cleaning up after her around the house. I talked to the vet a couple of weeks ago and we have reluctantly agreed with him that neither her quality of life or ours is good. Tomorrow morning I'm taking Maggie on a one way trip to the vet. Say a prayer for me if you remember - it will be tough. I realize if you never had a pet you won't understand!

+ Met some more new folks today. Looked like a pretty full house. Good job we're doing two services Christmas Sunday.

+ Visited Greg Foley in hospital. He was involved in a serious accident nine days ago and suffered major head trauma. Greg's still in a coma and the doctors can't say a lot yet about how they expect things to progress. Please pray for him and his family, especially his mom Liz.

+ I'm falling asleep as I sit here - guess it's time to give in.

HOME

Happy to be back. Had a great time in India - very worthwhile trip indeed. More on that tomorrow no doubt, but for the time being am very tired. Flight home was delayed considerably, which gave us 8 hours to wait in Mumbai airport before the 16 hours flight home - all that after a 5.5 hours drive to the airport in the first place.

Are you feeling sympathetic yet???

Looking forward to teaching tomorrow on the second Sunday of our Miracles series, but for now I can barely stay awake!

Later!

THE SKY IS FALLING

One final thought before I actually say au revoir -

On the internet lately I've seen a lot being made of the results of a study Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois made to see how well they were doing. The main finding seems to be this, from founding pastor Bill Hybels, some of the plans they implemented for discipleship were not as fruitful as they thought they had been while some things they had not put a lot of effort into were being well received.

Some of the enemies of Willow - and yes the Christian world is full of critics, especially when you are getting the job done - have misrepresented that comment all over the place.

Radio talkshow host Bob Burney from Chicago is making a meal of it, saying that Hybels states his focus on the unchurched and "seeker sensitive" approach has been wrong for a whole generation.

In reality Hybels says nothing of the kind. What he says is that once people came to Christ, their discipleship plans could have been better in some ways - and he's not alone in that.

Lashing out at Hybels may bring some satisfaction to Burney, who gave up pastoring himself so he could sit in front of a microphone for three hours a day instead. But if the man could stick to reporting the facts and not his interpretation of them, we would all be better served.

Reaching the lost was not a cosmic new revelation brought to the world by Bill Hybels, it is the sole mission of the church, the subject of the Great Commission and what Jesus gave his life for. If we are entangled with anything less then we are not followers of Christ at all.

GOING SOUTH

Things will be quiet here now for more than a week as I leave Mumbai tomorrow to travel to a remote former mission hospital outside of Pune for eight days of church camp. I'm doing the morning studies and evening teaching for the good folks from Covenant Blessings Church and there will be over 200 of them at their annual retreat in the hills.

There's no phone, internet, running water or a number of other basics there, so take a week off from my blog - but be sure to come back on the 17th.

WHAT NOW?

Looks like the Town Board elections went well but not well enough. Three candidates were elected who support amending the Town Code to restore the right of churches to build, however there are six board members plus the Supervisor.

We will wait and see if the fourth person with the Conservative line, Timothy Mazzei now complies and votes for us or if he would rather lose the line next time around.

God knows and whatever happened Tuesday, he still reigns and his plans are still being worked out.

Getting into a building of our own will be a wonderful thing, but in the meanwhile we continue to pursue our major objective of seeing people brought to Jesus.

ALL PACKED

I've got everything sorted out and packed, ready to board a Delta flight tomorrow night that will once again take me to India. Chris Kelly and I will be there for ten days, spending most of that time at the annual church camp of Covenant Blessings Church, pastored by our good friend Basil D.Souza.

After the fourteen and a half hours flight, we'll adjust to temperatures in the 90's and enjoy being with some very special people with whom we have developed a close relationship over the past five or six years.

I haven't counted accurately lately, but I think this will probably be my tenth visit to the country that I heard so much about growing up. I was born in 1950 and my father had served with the Royal Air Force in Calcutta throughout WWII, so the memories of this remarkable land were fresh in his mind and he often told us stories of India.

His wartime experiences added to what he could recall from spending the first nine years of his life in India while his own father served there in the British army during the glory days of the Empire.

So India was almost in my blood.

I guess it's not surprising then that I enjoy being over there.

Wish the flight was shorter though!!!

SOME DAYS

There are days when we do church, have a good time but in all honesty there was nothing too special about the event.

Then there are days like today - spectacular. I drove away from the theater this morning just amazed at the privilege I have to be a part of what God is doing through Church At The Movies.

This was our quarterly Celebration Sunday when we share communion, have baptisms and today we even had the dedication of a beautiful baby thrown in there for good measure.

I didn't get the official count yet, but it looked to me like we had the biggest crowd yet since we moved into the Regal Cinema in Ronkonkoma and eight of the nine people who were baptized have joined us since we made that transition.

Eight weeks ago we didn't even know these people and some of them did not know the Lord, but today they have committed their lives to Christ and have been baptized. I love this stuff. There's nothing on earth like it and as I said on more than one occasion today, this is why our church exists.

It's not a safe-house for world weary Christians and it's not a social club for superior-feeling zealots, we're passionate people with purpose.

Some days we just do the business and that's okay, but then some other days God rocks our world.

This has been the latter!

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Tomorrow afternoon the irresistible force meets the immovable object - the unbeaten Patriots travel to battle the unbeaten Colts. Of course this should have been the Superbowl, but never could be as both teams are in the same Conference.

The Patriots are full of themselves, arrogant, annoying and downright good.

I hope they get their butts kicked!

SLEEP WELL

Dont't forget to set your clocks back tonight and enjoy that extra hour. Something terrible could happen if you forget - you'll be early for church tomorrow!!!

PARTY TIME

Sunday's going to be a really special day - the first Celebration Sunday in our new location - and I'm really looking forward to it.

I love it when people get baptized, because it means they are taking a significant step forward in their walk with God and it also shows we're on target with getting the job done.

Working out all the logistics in Ronkonkoma could be challenging for this first time, but Frank reckons he has it all in hand. Doing communion in a theater with stadium seating will be a first too, which is why it's good that felxibility seems to be a built-in virtue with all of our folks.

FORGIVENESS

I just got back from my small group at the Swaners' home and found it to be a fascinating evening of asking myself tough questions. We were continuing to look at some of Rob Bell's NOOMA videos and tonight's was entitled Luggage, focusing on the soul-searching subject of forgiveness.

Here are a few quotes I wrote as he went through his off-beat teaching in this short movie -

+ Everyone I know has wounds.

+ It's like revenge is part of our world.

+ To really forgive someone I have to be able to wish them well.

+ Letting it go is a long process.

You don't spend 57 years on this earth without several people having caused you severe pain somewhere along the way. In fact sadly there are plenty of kids who barely make seven years without significant suffering.

It's what we do with it that matters.

Forgiving, letting go and moving on are not only Biblical, they're logical - even though sticking it to the jerk is what you really want to do!!!