A few random thoughts before I climb the basement stairs and emerge to spend what’s left of the day up in the real world -

+ My little sister is 56 today. That’s insane!

+ Thinking about what I wrote below and some recent conversations with pastors, how long will these guys go on doing what is not working while hoping, wishing and praying for a revival that will somehow make them relevant again?

+ Gill and I had an hour with Lesaya this afternoon, just to catch up as we didn’t have a pastoral team meeting this week. That lady does one heck of a lot of stuff – and the majority of it is things I’m no good at, which is the whole point of being a team!

+ Gill’s hosting a Tupperware Party here tonight. I didn’t know they even made the stuff any more.

+ I’m going out tonight.

+ Our Financial Freedom Class kicks off this evening and am I happy to know that so many people have signed up for it!

+ This cycle of small groups is doing especially well. That’s good news.

+ New graphics on the home page of our website – thanks Jon!

+ I’m discussing with the Weight Watchers Territory Manager how we can move from four groups to five on a Saturday morning to accommodate everyone. Great problem!

+ Haven’t finished my resume yet.

+ Today I got one of those letters you keep for a long time. Being appreciated is a wonderful thing – we all need it.

+ Got the new version of our Directory of regular attenders (who we call members) and am happy that I recognize at least two names on each page. I love new people, but learning names is not my strong point!

Earlier this week The Pew Forum published the findings from their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. After interviewing over 35,000 Americans ages 18+, researchers discovered that a startling 28% of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all.

Some of their key findings showed interesting growth trends – or lack thereof! -

So while Agnostics and Atheists are growing (though they still only make up 4% of the landscape) and even the Buddhists are enjoying a revival (bringing them up to 0.7% of the population), it seems Protestant Christianity is going downhill – I won’t even comment on the dire state of the Catholic Church!

So the bottom line is that Protestant Churches are not coming up with the goods, leaving them in a state of negative growth (which is gobbledygook for rapidly losing ground).

Seems that church as it has always been isn’t cutting it for the messed up families of the early 21st century. Looks like they are looked upon as irrelevant by the very people they are meant to be relating to. Instead of winning people to faith in Christ, they are being lost to agnosticism, atheism and false religions.

And the answer is??? ….

How about – Don’t change the message, but alter the packaging???

Who knows? It may even work!

It isn’t Matt Redman, Passion or Hillsong United, no it’s a compilation of motivational songs for the many of us trying to get in shape or stay that way. I got it here – www.amazon.com

I have never applied for a job in my life. Sounds weird I know, but I have been head-hunted for every position I have ever taken, then simply gone through an interview and that was it. I have no resume. Never have.

Yesterday I was asked to provide one for the first time ever.

Now don’t anyone get excited, I’m not going anywhere. Something very interesting has happened. I have been approached by members of the Town Board about sitting on the Town’s Accessory Apartments Board – which will consume all of one evening a month – and they need a resume in front of them as they discuss this.

Seems like we’ve come a long way way since a whole lot of us used to take regular trips up Independence Hill to get beat up in one public hearing or another. Now I’m being invited to actually participate in the process of local government.

But I must admit the resume issue is getting to me.

This afternoon I sat down and tried to summarize 38 years of ministry on a single sheet of paper.

It didn’t look much at all - but there’s an incredible amount you can’t see because it’s written between the lines.

Truth is – it’s been one heck of a ride! 

Some of my friends are going to a couple of conferences I’d like to be at too over the next few months, but the truth is you can become a professional conference-attender  if you’re not careful and pay less attention than you should to your main areas of responsibility. Sure there’s always a lot to learn and getting input is important for those of us who constantly give out, but the fact remains, it seems to be the same small circle of guys who speak at all these events. So if you’ve been to one you’ve been to them all!

I would like to go to the Multi-Site Conference in Seattle in April, but the dates don’t work for me as I’ll be in Florida for the wedding of a couple from our church who have decided to get wed in the sunshine – works for me!

My only other definite conference plans this year are to go to an invitation-only conference Rick Warren is hosting at Saddleback in May. Not sure how I came to be included on the guest list, which probably contains several thousand pastors, but if he was good enough to invite me, I’ll be good enough to go!

+ Oscars tonight. Ask me if I could give a darn!

+ Good morning – great crowd and a number of new guests alongside several old friends we haven’t seen in a while.

+ Week two of my new over-ear mike. I love it. Apparently it wasn’t all it might have been last week, so the sound engineer who had supplied this model and another for us to try out came for this morning’s service. A few tweaks and the sound was as clear as crystal. Seems he enjoyed the service too – and then he donated both mikes to us.

+ Received a special offering at the end of service for a new outreach van, in memory of Al Saponieri who drove our existing old wreck every Sunday to pick up friends contacted by our mobile soup kitchen and bring them to church. Then he would often take them out to lunch. I miss him. It was weird to see envelopes marked “Al’s Van’!

+ Introduced our 323 Prayer Wall where scores of people attached Post-Its with the names of three people they are praying will be with us on 3/23/08 – Easter Sunday. There will be a lot of prayers going up for these folks over the next few weeks. Easter will be exciting!

+ Taught on giving today. When you spell it out as clearly as the Bible presents it, I have a real issue with people who say they don’t believe in it. Guess they worked out God doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Must be great to be smarter than God! Selective faith is no faith at all.

+ Was able to work out at the gym more than I have for weeks. I guess the doctor’s pills are working. Maybe he was right and it was scyatica.

+ It impressed me to see Kirk Kaplan out on the street this morning putting out our signs in pretty thick snow that’s sticking around. Great guy – one of a big bunch of outstanding, dedicated people.

+ Drove the Mustang to the gym. Haven’t been able to use it for several days as rear wheel drive and a huge engine up front don’t do well when the roads are snowy or slick. So it was fun to get it out.

+ Booked tickets to go to Texas for a couple of days next month for our granddaughter’s birthday. Part of the commitment to prioritize family this year.

+ Booked tickets to go to Puerto Rico for eleven days in August. Part of the commitment to prioritize marriage this year.

+ Our Getting In Shape series winds up next week. We’re concluding with a talk on sex, to be followed by a couple of weeks with open teaching (no series, that is), Easter and then whole new series I’m really looking forward to – more on that later.

My friend Gary lamb – www.garylamb.org – is going to be disappearing!

Well, maybe not disappearing completely, but he is determined to return to the slimline figure of his earlier life. Seems Shawn Lovejoy’s talk on The Healthy Leader at the conference we were at earlier this week provided the final incentive to get Gary into gear. Or maybe it was that he and some friends challenged one another, put money on it and that he stands to gain $1,000 if he’s the biggest loser by May 1st.

Gary thrives on a challenge – he’s fired up. I got a couple of emails and a phone call from him yesterday asking for input. Hey, Oprah’s got a personal trainer and a private chef  and Gary’s got me!!!

BTW, do visit Gary’s blog – he has written some good stuff there on church portability.

This is the invitation with the understated announcement of our shift to two services that will be available for distribution from next Sunday.

A collaborative effort from Ian Baer and Jonathan Blackmore.

This morning I woke up to far more snow than was forecast and decided that rather than drive the treacherous roads to the gym, I’d have my workout with a shovel once the white stuff stopped falling. So I took the morning to finish my message for Sunday and then set about digging out.

It’s weird to be in freezing temperatures with snow all around you and still falling on you and be sweating nevertheless, but I did manage to lose an ounce or two as I cleared my drive and then headed over to our daughter’s house to take care of hers.

Digging out is what Sunday’s all about too.

Digging out of financial chaos. Digging out of debt. Digging out of fear and frustration.

Yes, folks it’s the second part of Getting in Shape Financially – and it really will be lifechanging.

A couple of years ago I was probably a little unkind in comments I made here about the conference Mark Batterson hosted at his National Community Church in D.C. I can’t even remember what it was called, just that it didn’t live up to the hype by a long stretch and wasn’t worth the trip to Washington, especially since at the time Gill had not altogether recovered from knee replacement surgery.

However, on Tuesday morning I elected to sit in on his breakout session at the Church Planters’ Conference I attended and though there wasn’t too much that was earth shattering in his talk on Multi-Site Church, I did like this statement he made -

Life’s too short – play offense.

While I may not always credit it to Mark – hey if Obama can plagerize, so can I – I guarantee that statement will be heard in our church on more than one future occasion.

You can never afford to wait until everyone is on board, everyone understands and everyone is fully supportive, because the truth is that’s never going to happen.

You can’t sit around anxiously waiting to see what fallout there will be as you follow God’s direction, because there will always be good people who just don’t get it.

You can’t let fear dictate the agenda, success comes to brave people, making bold moves which most of those looking on expect to end in disaster.

I’ll be 58 this summer – there’s definitely no time left to hesitate.

Offense it is!