As I mentioned on Sunday, we are looking to increase our total attendance by another 25% following Easter. Since the average long-term retention rate for church visitors in this country is 14%, that means we would need to have almost 900 people with us on Easter Sunday to achieve that first stage in this year’s growth.

And that folks while huge, is doable!

In preparation for that, I am already talking to one of the newer members of our church family, who runs a marketing company’s Manhattan operation on Madison Avenue. He and I were looking at some promotional materials that would include the wording -

SHOCK YOUR MAMA – Go To Church This Easter

Here’s a simple question.
I don’t think Mama is Long Island. Would Long Islanders say Momma? Or would Mom be better?

Answers in my email if you would be so kind (non-Long Islanders need not reply!) –
roger@churchatthemovies.com

Thanks – I’m pumped and we still have more than two months to go!

A couple of years ago, upon hearing that I was going to a conference in California, someone I know went into ecstacies over In-N-Out Burger and mentioned how blessed I was to be traveling to a part of the country where I could enjoy this delicasy.

So while I was there I visited the place. Small, packed and a very limited menu. There were only three things on offer apart from fries and drinks -

Burger

Double-Double (Two cheeseburgers in a bun)

What on earth drew so many people to a place where you had to wait at least five minutes for your order and there wasn’t much choice?

Easy, for sixty years now the company has stuck to doing a few things well. The reason you have to wait on your calorie and fat-laden treat is because everything is cooked upon request. Your burger has not been sitting for fifteen minutes in a warmer and it certainly has not recently been shoved into a microwave and zapped. Man, even the fries are fresh. What they do, they do very well.

We’ve taken that kind of approach to church ever since we launched. Our goal is to do a few things well. Now there have been a few tense moments over the years with people who came to us from churches that were dysfunctional and felt we should follow those dysfunctional ways.

Are we going to have a men’s ministry? No!

Are we going to have? Are we going to have? No! No! No!

Here’s what we have and where we want to excel-

1. Doing Sundays well.

3. Serving others well.

That’s enough. That’s it. That’s all we’re doing and I guess from the number of people coming in our doors too, we’re well on the way to achieving our goals. This year we’ll focus on doing them even better.

LOVING GOD – LOVING PEOPLE – SERVING OUR WORLD

Here’s where we’re going tomorrow with our Dangerous Church series. A focused church is a dangerous church – so here are the three things we are going to home in on in 2007.

It’s the coldest day in two years – the high is meant to be around 18f. That’s around -8c I think for my European friends who have no lives and so check in here from time to time.

Of course once you factor in windchill that’s reported to be making it feel like -5f (I’m smart enough to be staying indoors today!), you’ve got a celsius figure that you don’t even want to know.

This is a good day to eat chicken curry for dinner and that is exactly what the plan is in Gilly’s Kitchen. I made it a couple of nights ago, using spices I bought last time I was in India and though I say it myself, it is gooood! Throw in a few chapatis (Indian flat bread) from the Asia store in Selden and we’re all set – or we will be once dinner time actually rolls around.

Shivering here on Long Island, it’s hard to believe that two weeks from now I’ll be back in the heat of Bombay and that for the first time Gill will be making the trip with me. I’m teaching a seminar for key pastors, all of whom lead networks of churches. They will take the content of what I share and then teach it themselves to those pastors, a potential 2,000 churches being helped through my modest efforts.

I love helping Indian pastors and I love the country. I was raised on stories of India as my father had not only spent the first nine years of his life there (my grandfather was serving in the British army in the days of the Empire), but he was also there himself for most of WWII as a member of the Royal Air Force, based outside Calcutta.

While we thank God for all he is doing at Church At The Movies, we will never forget that we are debtors to others and must pass on to them the benefits of what God has done for us.

Missions is a major part of our DNA.

IT SAYS IT ALL!

Earlier this morning I took a ride over to MacArthur Airport to drop off two of our children’s ministry leaders who are escaping the January cold of New York and heading for Florida. It just so happens that the largest children’s ministry event of the year is in Orlando during the second half of this week, right inside Disney!

Charlotte and Jayne were not traveling alone. At the airport they hooked up with Kim and Tracy, so we have all those responsible for our kids’ programs heading south this morning to the sun. Not that they’ll see much of it as they’ll be in conference sessions all day until they board another Southwest flight on Saturday to come back and freeze with the rest of us as they implement all they have learned.

We have a brilliant team -

Charlotte in KIDMO
Tracy in LI’L K
Jayne & Kim in SMALLSTARS

There are 50% more children in these three areas combined than there were four months ago, so these ladies must be doing a whole bunch of things right.

We’re past the days when kids went where they were told, didn’t speak unless spoken to and were generally treated like children.

Today families go where the children want to go and do what the children want to do. The little dears eat what they want to eat, wear what they want to wear and watch what they want to watch and pity help the poor sucker who suggests otherwise. This is neither the time nor the place to go into a diatribe on how we’re raising a nation of monsters, sufficient to say kids rule.

With that in mind, if the offspring of a visiting family does not like our children’s ministry, chances are the whole family will not return. If on the other hand, the kids love it, the reverse is going to happen.

So the four ladies who even now are covering themselves in suntan lotion, deserve a lot of the credit for the continuing growth we are seeing. Whatever brings people in, what these areas of ministry are offering is helping us retain far above the average for US churches.

I hope they get to enjoy a bit of Florida and even Disney – they deserve it!

At some ungodly hour this morning, long before the sun had graced the skies or made any impact on the thin covering of snow on the ground, I took the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan.

Next month I will be teaching a major pastors’ conference in Mumbai, India and for the very first time my wife is going to make the 8,000 miles trip with me. I already have a ten year visa, but Gill needs one, so I have come into the city to battle through Indian bureacracy and get the necessary paperwork for her. Everything has been submitted to the Indian Consulate and I now have to return there at noon, hopefully to pick up the visa.

Anyway, en route to Penn Station this morning, we passed a huge church right beside the railroad track, just a couple of miles before you enter the tunnel to go under the East River. It’s a humungus building and someone had the brilliant idea of using their vantage point to say something to the hundreds of thousands of commuters whose journey takes them right past it twice a day.

So there’s an enormous sign with a Bible verse on it. It’s Lamentations 1:12 -

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

Lamentations is one of those more obscure Old Testament books, recording gthe response of the prophet Jeremiah to the destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem and the capture of its citizens who were then deported as prisoners of war.

The book opens in poetic fashion as if the broken down ruins themselves were talking. It speaks of the sin that had now been punished and how evil had brought the great city to its knees. Then comes a suggestion that those who see it should show some interest and learn from it, and this question, Is it nothing to you all ye who pass by.

Having explained that, maybe I’m making my point. What on earth does the average uninformed, unchurched LIRR passenger make of that huge sign?

I’m guessing here, but I reckon the answer is – very little indeed.

It might be a cute idea to put that verse there for people who pass by every day, but that’s about all it is.

When will the church in general wake up and realize that back in the real world all they know of Jeremiah is that he was a bullfrog?

We do not live in a Christian country, generally people do not even know what Christian values are, leave alone live them out themselves.

Throwing obscure Bible verses at people doesn’t work.

Let’s face it, Jesus didn’t do that even. He met, loved and helped people where they were at. We need to do that.

And when we do speak or write something, we need to try hard to make it relevant to the people we’re trying to communicate with.

As I’ve mentioned here before, one of the benefits of surviving (trust me, I use the word advisedly) in ministry for more than 35 years and still loving it, is that a lot of younger pastors (and let’s face it, most of them are) assume that I have some idea of what I am talking about.

Eager to tap into what they misgudedly consider to be a reservoir of wisdom, I find myself interacting with an incrReasing number of church leaders from all over the country on the internet, by phone or over Weightwatchers’ lunches at Applebees.

Among my list of FAQs is this one …

How long do you try to turn a church around when most of the people in it are not only totally content to remain in the Dark Ages, but are prepared to do you actual physical harm if you persist in suggesting that you sing something other than hymns written by Wesley, Martin Luther or some other body who put pen to paper before America declared independence?

Of course there’s a martyr mentality in some pastors. They think that the more it hurts the more godly it must be. These poor souls live under the misconception that serving God should make them miserable and so they should look for nothing more. They call it faithfulness and consider it a virtue.

So they spend years trying to bring an unwilling congregation into the 19th century, suffering all kinds of grief along the way and causing untold pain to their families.

If it sounds as if for once I know what I’m talking about, I do. Way back when, I gave four years or more to attempting to transition a very traditional church and experienced all that goes along with that.

I thank God for the day that I quietly decided enough was enough, extricated myself and those I love from that predicament and moved forward.

So when do you move on?

When you no longer have the vision to see and the faith to believe that things can turn around, it’s time to go.

That’s it, plain and simple.

The same goes for good Christians sitting in dying churches too.

When I started traveling to the USA for ministry in the early 80’s, I spent most of the time on the east coast, but did make several trips to San Francisco too. I loved it over there.

This was the decade of Bill Walsh’s Super Bowl winning 49ers, led by the inimitable Joe Montana.

Returning home, British TV had started showing a very limited amount of American Football at obscure times of the night and the 49ers featured more frequently than any other team. So they became the organization I rooted for and I maintained that loyalty right through the good years and the bad years … and the bad years … and the bad years.

Until January 1st 2006.

Entering RCA Stadium in Indianapolis that day, I was handed a small booklet which I was told was A gift from Coach Dungy. In it he shared his faith as did several of his players and the last page guided the reader how to come to faith in Christ.

I read in Newsday yesterday that when Dungy played for the Steelers, other players would bet against each other who could make him curse. They all lost their money. He’s a committed Christian, a family man, a role model.

He showed so much class that day we were there – his first Sunday back in charge since the suicide of his college-age son, that I decided that from then on I was going to root for the Colts and no longer for San Fran. It was more about the Coach than the team.

Look what a difference that has made to the teasm. Now they are bound for Super Bowl XLI!!!

What a game!

The biggest comeback in playoff history and the Colts win it over their arch rivals, New England. I doubt if the Superbowl will be as exciting as this championship game was, but who knows?

Who said Dungee can’t get it done in the playoffs?

Who said Manning just can’t get to the big game?

My team goes to Miami. I love this game!!!