The cloud hanging over us these past weeks just lifted. The final word from our son Jonathan, after getting the results of tests on his lymph nodes, is that nothing cancerous was found.

The thorasic surgeon is now opting for a diagnosis of an auto-immune disease, sarcoidosis, which is far from pleasant but not life-threatening. Prolonged treatment with steroids is in Jonathan’s immediate future.

Thanks to all who have prayed for him and Donna – and for us too!

Remember that old – and wise – saying about “Don’t bit the hand that feeds you”? There have been a lot of them around for the past week or so – hands feeding us, that is.

Rose Leone came to me a couple of years ago and said she thought it would be a great thing if the church could offer to provide meals for families in times of need. So in true Grace Church style, I threw it back on her and said, Great idea – you do it! And she did.

Made With Love has delivered hundreds of meals to folks in all kinds of circumstances and I have heard an amazing amount of stories of how blessed people have been by this practical ministry and the demonstration of love that it gives.

Of course I have never been on the receiving end of it – until Gill got home from hospital last week, that is. For over a week now, every day at dinner time, someone has come to the door with an outstanding meal to help ease the burden as she continues the slow process of recovery from her surgery.

We have been incredibly well fed, but the food itself is only part of the story, the care, love and support that are conveyed through the meals have been tremendously encouraging.

Most folks know I like good food and so it’s a no-brainer this Friday, our Supercool Person Of The Week is the person who had the vision, put it into practice and keeps the meals rolling, Rose Leone!

Her commitment to caring and her selfless serving of others make her one outstanding lady.

I have a bunch of CDs, a load of sermon series, podcasts from a number of churches, videocasts and several episodes of Commander In Chief on my Ipod now …

… and I’m still only using 2.78GB of its 30GB memory.

Still a lot of scope. Just like there is in all of us and especially in Grace Church!

Okay, here’s the deal. Yesterday I had lunch with a member of the Town Board to talk about our proposed building and the Town of Brookhaven’s illegal position on church buildings in general.

It wasn’t over-encouraging, but it did give me a some renewed direction. It seems that the new Town Board is overwhelmed with work and probably knows little or nothing about the fact that its predecessors (which includes some people still in office) took a lump out of the Constitution and decided to regulate worship for almost half a million people around us. While we were under the impression that the Town was pursuing necessary proceedures to right their own wrongs, the fact is there’s a good chance nothing at all has been done yet. This Board member is going to get an answer on that for me.

My response to all this is that we need to stop looking at the UA movie theater as a temporary home and realize that there’s a chance we’re going to be there for quite a while.

So I want to go all out to personalize it, improve our equipment, facilities and appearance and upgrade everything we do and offer so that it is the best it can be. I want people to come into the theater and say “Wow”. So instead of holding back until we can do all we want in a place of our own, I think we should look on Patchogue UA as the place of our own we have right now and give it all we’ve got.

Some day the Town of Brookhaven will sort itself out or maybe the Suffolk DA will do it for them. At some point they will either change their code or face us in Federal Court, but their ineptitude is a sideshow. Fighting them is necessary, but it is not the main event.

I want us to put 110% into the thing that really matters – sharing Christ in a way that is relevant to the 21st century. We may be renters, it may be temporary, but on Sunday mornings that movie theater is ours and it needs to be the most exciting thing for miles around.

I live for Sundays. It’s the main door that folks use to become a part of Grace Church and more importantly, of the family of God. There’s a build-up each week as I wait to see what God will do.

So I am really pumped about the next three weekends -

1. Next Sunday, April 2nd
It’s the finale of our Mad Money series and we’re going to end it with a bang. We’re going to do something I have never done in almost 36 years of pastoring. It will stretch some people, annoy the heck out of others, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do!

2. Palm Sunday, April 9th
This is our Celebration Sunday, which will have two main components. First of all we’re going to be celebrating with eleven people who will be baptized during the morning service. Then we’ll be remembering what Jesus has done for us by celebrating communion together. You will hardly believe some of the stories you’ll hear from those who are going to be baptized. They really are living miracles.

3. Easter Sunday, April 16th
It’s the church’s Superbowl Sunday! We’re gearing up for a great crowd this Easter and will be offering three simultaneous services. There’s a special Easter Promiseland program for kids from Pre-K through 6th Grade, plus the long-awaited return of our alternative service, Altered. In our main venue we’ll be kicking off a whole new series on parenting, You Must Be Kidding.

There’s a crazy three weeks ahead. I love this stuff!

Following the conclusion of our Mad Money series (Sunday), we are offering a six weeks class on financial management that is stirring up a lot of interest. I’m glad about that because freedom from fiscal pressure is a rare commodity nowadays and my take on the Christian life is that Jesus planned for it to be a happy thing that would attract others to adopt it, not the pitiful existence so many seem content to put up with.

Here’s my two cents – if it’s broken, get it fixed. Life’s too short to be tolerated substandard.

We’re having the classes in the Church of The Nazarene in Patchogue, just a block over from World Outreach Church of God where we have offer our study course The Journey At Grace Church every three months. That in turn is a couple of miles west of Christian Assembly which will host our bi-monthly worship night 4HIM tomorrow.

I’ve met a whole bunch of small-minded, self-centered pastors in my day and was one myself at one time. Nowadays I try to keep a far bigger view of things and love that we have so many local pastors working for the overall picture of building God’s kingdom and not just jealously protecting their own patch.

We may not have a building of our own, but we’ve never been stuck for a spot to do something – thanks to men with big minds and big hearts.

Now that I’m at my computer for a brief while, let me catch up. I love Grace Church! I don’t know about anyone else, but I had a blast Sunday morning – no wonder I’m always waiting impatiently for Sunday to roll around.

I’m enjoying teaching this series on finance, but I must admit to the fact that I was really nervous before service this week. It wasn’t because I was afraid I might upset some regulars – though I may well have done – it was because when I arrived at the theater (a lot later than usual) there were so many visitors around the place.

I don’t know where they all came from, but there were a bunch of new faces all over and then I started to get paranoid. I didn’t want first-time guests to think that I’m another charlatan who’s only interested in their money. I was afraid they’d be totally put off. So I probably apologized more than I needed to while I was speaking, because it was pretty heavy stuff. Bottom line – God knows!

I did like the clips from The King Of Queens that I used. I thought they were hilarious. I’ve only ever watched one episode of the show before and that was while I was on a plane, but I might be tempted to check it out a bit more.

In case you weren’t there, I did mention that next Sunday as I wrap up this series we’re going to look at tithing very thoroughly. I also said that if that’s likely to trouble you, feel free to take the morning off. Hey, last time I checked, the book said God loves cheerful givers!

It has been an interesting few days, which is why I haven’t contributed anything to these pages in a while. It has taken a while to get Gill’s medications balanced so that she doesn’t have another day like Saturday when she threw up everything she tried to eat, or Sunday/Monday when she was climbing the walls with pain.

Three times over the weekend we have needed a pharmacy at a weird time of day – 6.30am, 8.30pm, 9.30pm and our local friendly, neighborhood drug store at the end of the street was no use at all.

It’s real convenient to be able to go there for most things and we’ve got to know everyone who works there, most of whom come from Pakistan originally. I’ve had some great chats with them about the work our church is involved with in India, South Africa and the Domican Republic and we also took about the wonders of Asian food. They’re great folks and provide a great service – during regular hours.

But when you’re in a corner and need some extra help, it’s good to know that any time of the day or night you can drive down to Selden and chat to a bleary-eyed pharmacist who you hope is compus mentus enough to fill your prescription correctly.

I’ll take efficiency over convenience any day.

Makes me wonder how many people are sitting in churches that are convenient and friendly, but really just aren’t cutting it!!!

I have no idea who reads or doesn’t read this blog, though at least two people have told me that they have visited here at some point in time. Since both of those know my family, here’s the latest medical report from the Blackmores.

#1 BIG NEWS
Jonathan had minor surgery today to remove some lymph nodes for lab work to be done to determine whether lymphoma has been the cause of his recent bad health. The surgeon said nothing is definite until the reports come back but to his eye there is no sign of anything cancerous! Now that folks, is good news! Watch this space for the final celebration.

#2 MORE GOOD NEWS
Gill has had a busy day with visits from Home Care and the physical therapist. Starting Sunday she will be getting therapy every day at home and in the meanwhile she has a machine that works her knee four hours a day. The physical therapist says Gill is able to bend her leg like some people can’t do until two weeks after surgery. Not being one to sit around, she’ll be pushing herself for sure.

So that’s the update for the two of you about the two of them!

Millions of years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, American Idol had not been thought of and Gill and I were just dating, we had a particularly emotional discussion as we walked together along the banks of the River Exe in my home town one sultry summer evening.

I was still in Bible School and was looking forward to graduating and searching for a church dumb enough to take me on as its pastor. We planned to marry later that year and would then embark on this new adventure together. But suddenly everything was apparently torpedoed with a single sentence, “I don’t want to be a pastor’s wife.”

I had a pretty good idea of where she was coming from as we talked about the roles played by the spouses of pastors we knew. We had observed that -

1. Pastors’ wives tend to come in at number 101, 201, 501, 1001, etc., in their husband’s order of priorities, depending on the size of the church.

2. Pastors’ wives are expected to be unpaid assistants to their husbands in all that they do.

3. Regardless of what other responsibilities they have, pastors’ wives are expected to be at every single church function, organize women’s events, counsel whoever, even substitute for their husbands. Of course if they lead worship, teach children’s church and visit the seniors that is doing no more than what is expected of them.

4. Nowadays on Long Island, it seems automatic that if your husband is a pastor, you take the title too – Pastors John and Jane Doe! What nonsense! Marrying a pastor doesn’t automatically make you an Ephesians 4 gift of a pastor and no one should try to squeeze a woman into that role. That’s one reason why I meet so many unhappy pastors’ wives – attempting to be what they are not and feeling a failure because they aren’t Paula White.

We settled that issue on the banks of the Exe when I told Gill to forget about being a pastor’s wife and just be my wife. She has been that for over 36 years and has also been the best wife any pastor could have.

By the way, she’s my Supercool Person Of The Week too!