I’ve been trying to put myself in Xavier Nady’s shoes this evening.
Just imagine – yesterday he was a vital part of the National League leading Mets who had just swept their arch-rivals, the Braves for the first time since just before the Battle of Gettysburg.

One of his teamates is in an accident, will probably not pitch agan this season and suddenly the club has a major problem. So they get two mediocre pitchers from the Pittsburgh Pirates (they used to be a baseball team) and give them Nady in return.

From penthouse to outhouse in one phone call, which he apparently got while walking on the beach with his fiancee!

There’s no other way to put it, life does stinkl at times. It’s what we do with it all that is the making or otherwise of us.

Thanks for praying for Mike’s dad – he’s holding his own over in sunny Arizona, so let’s believe for continuing recovery.

We should have been leaving for JFK right now, heading for the peace of Scotland and some time with Gill’s sister-in-law who last month had more surgery for bowel cancer. Thankfully she is doing very well, so we’ll catch up with them at some point in the future since we now have a credit with good old British Airways.

Staying here was a no-brainer and to be honest, there’s so much going on in our preparations for our September relaunch that I’m sort of glad we won’t be going far. We’ll probably carve out a few days here and there over the next couple of weeks to kick back and enjoy one of the Island’s many beaches, but the main thing will be staying available to Charlotte and particularly to Mike’s family.

We’ve got a barrel-load of the stuff we need for September – video camera, plasma tv for Big Screen Cafe, furniture for The Chapel, invitations, etc, but there’s a lot that’s still in the works and if I’m nearer home we can keep pushing it along.

I love visiting Scotland and catching up with people I’ve known for 30 years in the tiny villages of Cairnbulg and Inverallochy, but they’ll be there another time as will the special memories of the past that are wrapped up over there.

Focusing on the future will continue to be front and center for the next few weeks!

Running on four hours sleep last night is catching up on me, but this has been a good day. Got to spend some more time with Jonathan, Donna and the kids before taking Jonathan into Manhattan this afternoon for him to prepare for the next few days of design shows, etc.

It was a great morning, with a bunch of good things going on -

1. A YWAM team was outstanding in our alternative service Altered. I’m looking forward to making that a part of our weekly schedule from September 10th.

2. In Worship Central we actually had a full band, which was quite a change from the decimated group we had last week. We even had a guest keyboard player who knew his way up and down the notes well!

3. I think my last part of the series went over reasonably well, sonsidering I was brain dead after an eventful night.

4. Although I arrived a lot later than usual today, everything was in place. I know my presence is not really needed at 7.00am on Sundays, but I just like to be there from the start of preparations. Every Sunday has been in preparation for several months – I love it when the time comes to get everything under way.

5. Our tailgate party after service was great. It was a treat not to have to rush away from the theater because Pirates Of The Caribbean was opening on seventeen screens. The parking lot was hot, but it was good to hang with everyone. It’s amazing that so many people eat burgers and dogs just after 11.00am!

6. I was delighted that almost all our new tee shirts were sold. It proves a ton of folks took on board the idea of being walking billboards for the next month or so.

7. There were a load of guests around today – they came on a good day. I do love doing what I do!!!

It’s always interesting when someone tells me they have missed my meanderings here. It’s good to know people actually stop by occasionally and read the random thoughts of a seriously over-the-hill pastor!

Yesterday evening we got word that our son-in-law’s father had been seriously injured in a skydiving accident whilst in Arizona with his work. Freddie is a great guy who got a thirst for this lunatic past-time a couple of years ago, so he loves to jump wherever he is around the country.

However his landing yesterday has him in a life-threatening condition after serious surgeries.

Please pray for him and for all the family right now. Gill and I were scheduled to leave for Scotland tomorrow on a 16 day vacation, but we have cancelled that trip and will be around for the forseeable future.

As you can tell, there’s a lot going on. I only had a few hours sleep last night, so am tired now. Church today was great – more about that later!

I got a great email from someone in our church in response to my blogging about change the other day. This lady who has been with us since the start related a conversation with a woman who had seen major conflict in her church because there were those who wanted to change the color of the sanctuary from the beige it had always been.

The email continues -

I am glad that our church will never be ‘just beige’. I love the fact that we can never get too comfortable. Just when things are going along, you spice things up and change a bit. The mission has always been the same, but I like the varied packaging. No one can say church is boring!

I love people who have got the point!

And there’s no plain beige around Church At The Movies!!!

Color is mandatory!

Yesterday I heard about a pastor who had been forced from his church because people didn’t like the fact that he used video clips and gleaned sermon material from other preachers.

I wish him well. That church will die and deserves to!

Forget the video clip part of this, I want to pass on some thoughts on how the better preachers do their research in 2006. I doubt if the church that’s stuck in the dark ages has a problem every time its pastor quotes from Spurgeon or some other dead church leader from bygone days, but sadly they have not come to appreciate the commitment of a teacher who pulls all he can from past and present for their benefit.

There was a time when my sole study resources were books published before my mother was even born. I still have many of them, but in all honesty, I look more to living preachers to get further insight than to those who went to see Jesus some time before World War 1.

Does a church really want a pastor who sits in a room alone and scratches notes on paper without referring to some of the greatest communicators and teachers of our time? If I’m going to preach on marriage, giving, missions or whatever, trust me I care enough about the people I am accountable to, to see what far bigger men than I have to say on the subject too.

Man, most mega-church pastors have whole research teams to glean material for them, so I’ll gladly plug into their resources until I have my own research team. I’ll willingly accumulate ideas, quotes, stories, sometimes even a whole outline from sources I use on the internet or those whose podcats I listen to.

Inspiration is not just found in dusty volumes, it can be drawn from people who are out there getting the job done in our world right now.

Sometimes I prepare a message without opening a single book. I have Bibles and study books on my computer, plus access to an unlimited number of the world’s best Bible teachers. It’s the way it’s done nowadays.

Welcome to the 21st Century!

Spent most of the day doing research for Sunday’s series finale – Seven Secrets Of A Successful Team. It was a tough day, driving all the way to Queens, sitting out in the baking sun for four hours and watching the Mets barely get a win over the Cubs with a tenth inning score.

You may call that a mid-week day off, but I call it in-depth preparation so that I can teach with authenticity at the weekend.

It’s tough but I’m that dedicated, I am willing to put myself through that kind of personal pain so I can do the best job that’s within my capabilities.

Someone dropped a real compliment the other day when talking to me about our church. She said, Grace Church is totally different from how it was when we started. I thought that was great – only problem was, it was intended as a complaint not a comment on the fact that we have kept moving forward since the fall of ‘98 instead of having rigor mortis starting to develop from Day One.

So what has changed?

1. We were a lot smaller then. Sure we had just over one hundred and fifty people there, but if everyone ever turned up on the same Sunday now there would be 500 of us.

2. We were a collection of people defining our mission. Now we are a committed group who are on mission.

3. The worship service was our whole focus. We didn’t even have decent facilities for children’s ministry. Now we have a well-equipped and staffed nursery, are about to launch Kidmo, Altered and a cafe-style video venue and are focusing on reaching whoever we can using as many hooks as possible.

4. There was one pastor who talked about leading the church eventually with a team of pastors. Now there is a four person pastoral team in place.

5. Then we were looking to survive – now we are expecting to thrive and multiply.

6. In the first few months we didn’t look a heck different from a bunch of other local churches that the unchurched have decided are not for them. Now we have our own identity as the un-church church.

7. Then we talked reaching the lost, but had little idea how to really achieve it. Now we are totally geared towards a Sunday service that becomes the gateway to relationship with Jesus as well as to our church.

8. At the start our services were a little more Charismatic/pentecostal. Now we defer to the unbelievers as Paul suggests we should in 1 Corinthians 14 and have a separate worship night which is for those who already know Jesus to worship him extravagently.

9. We were culturally relevant if you were still in the seventies. Now we use all that’s at our disposal to ensure we communicate reasonably with a short-attention-span, visually stimulated world.

10. When we started out, dissatisfied Christians came from elsewhere hoping for the kind of church they wanted and that served their requirements. Now if Christians come, they’d better care more about the lost than themselves, or they really won’t stick around.

I like our church now – guess not everyone does, but ask me if that keeps me awake at night.
Pleasing God is all that matters and in doing that, some long-time Christians are sure to cry “foul”. Pity I can’t hear them!

Got a call late this afternoon asking me if I wanted tickets for the Mets game tonight. Did I want them? Is the Pope a Catholic?

They included a reception before the game and two good tickets to see my favorite, division-leading team. Gill hurriedly pulled her David Wright shirt from the closet and I put on my Pedro Martinez shirt, then off we drove like a pair of senile groupies.

While we were on our way there we got a call from our benevolent friend, apologetically explaining that when he called ahead to say we would be there for free food and drinks and the game, he was told that he himself was the only person who could use the invitation.

The poor guy was so embarassed, but it was okay, because -

1. Gill and I got to go out for a while and had dinner together anyway, which had not been in the day’s plans.

3. We already have field level seats for Wednesday’s game, so will get to Shea once this week anyway.

And we get to have an early night instead of getting home around midnight.

I guess there’s a pretty good chance you didn’t check in here to learn that my knees are complaining like crazy about the extra load I’m putting on them by upping my exercise rate to try to be able to finish the 10K race with a time of anything under three weeks. But man, they’re sore! All that news is a freebie.

Anyway, I decided to check out True North Church in Port Jefferson Station this evening. It’s a while since I’ve been there, but Sunday evenings at this ten months old church rock. While you don’t need a special pass to get in there if you’re over 20, I must admit you’re pretty conspicuous in the young corwd that packs the place.

As ushers were desperately looking for seats for arriving guests, I decided to give mine up and see how the service was on the video link into the cafe area.

Mild complaint coming up here Bert – you really need to be serving java at night like you do in the mornings. Sitting at a table in a cafe area, something was missing without a coffee mug in my hand.

This church is outrageous. Bert Crabbe is one outstanding guy. He preached a great message too, though the toy summo wrestlers he showed us and said he keeps in his office, kind of freaked me out. Hey, each to his own!

It’s exciting to be in a young church that has come so far and will go a long way in the future.