So I don’t know whether I dropped my iPod in the DR or left it in the hotel room and one of the staff repossessed it, but the bottom line is I have concluded that in 2008 no pastor should be trying to live without an iPod.

With that in mind I am now the proud ownder of an iPod Touch, which is quite an amazing piece of technology, especially for someone born long before even cassettes were invented, or come to think of it, color televisions, cell phones, home computers and a million other things that have either come and gone or come and stayed to be frequently re-invented.

The iPod Touch is a further development of an amazing tool and in addition to keeping me up with good preaching thanks to iTunes and podcasting, providing me with a great mix of music and some videos too, this one gives me internet access (just in case my phone fails to do so I guess!), tells me the weather and will even provide me with a map that pinpoints exactly where I am – which is very useful at my age. As soon as they add the program that tells me what I’m there for, trust me I’ll rush out to buy it.

Loving my iPod Touch – glad to have my iPod library back at my fingertips!

I’d love to have Gary Lamb – www.garylamb.org – come preach for us one Sunday at Church At The Movies,  but he likes being away from Revolution Church about as much as I enjoy Sundays I’m not with our folks – which is not very much at all.

But One Prayer opened up the possibility of bringing his teaching to Yankee country (talking geography there and not baseball of course) and we had a great morning with his video teaching on Make Us Revolutionary.

I knew what Gary was going to be  preaching about because we have talked about it over the past couple of months and also because I watched the entire recording of his message twice over before today. He was talking about stuff he’s passionate about and is out there doing – building church for the unchurched.

He started today where we started our very first service almost ten years ago, embracing Jesus’ own summary of what he was about – The son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus was focused on reaching lost people – and we should be too. Hardly rocket science, is it? But in 2008 much of Christendom has lost sight of the whole point. They’ve forgotten what it’s about.

I liked Gary’s statement that doing church for the unchurched is messy – and of course I agree 100%.

He was also right on with the fact that if Christians don’t like the way church is being done, that’s okay because they’re not our target. There are a zillion places out there doing church for them.

It was also great that he pointed out we don’t wear casual clothes, have good music, etc, etc, just to be cool. We do it to create an environment that will be comfortable to those we are keen to see come and join us.

I did ask Gary a couple of months ago to help me out and not curse during his teaching – and he almost did it. He recovered well from his one slip of the tongue!

Best of all about this morning was that while much of what Gary preached had been said in our church before, he did it in a different way, with a different accent, at 90mph and so effectively that some people who had really not grasped the point before actually had an epiphany today.

Great job Gary - but call me “old man” one more time and I’ll slap you!

We left Montauk around 9.30 this morning and headed for home. The plan had been to spend the day on the beach if the weather was promising, but it wasn’t, so we took the second option and got back here with more time to get everything in line for the weekend.

This will be the last Sunday of One Prayer and while we’ve got some outstanding things in the pipeline for the rest of summer, I must confess this seems to be one of those series that feels like it’s over when it only just started. I’m glad our folks got the opportunity to hear Craig Groeschel and Perry Noble, but this final message is very special indeed as they’ll get to listen to a good friend of mine, Gary Lamb – www.garylamb.org

Gary will bring a great message on Make Us Revolutionary and he’s so on our wavelength that it may be some people will think I wrote his message for him. I didn’t, though we have occasionally exchanged ideas on other topics we were planning to preach on.

I generally get to see Gary a couple of times a year and really look forward to those opportunities. He’s fun to hang out with and his enthusiasm for reaching the unchurched is contagious. I like a guy who’s focused, knows what he’s meant to be doing and won’t be distracted from his vision. Add to that he’s almost half my age, so he brings a whole different perspective on planting and developing church.

If you’re within traveling distance of Church At The Movies, you really don’t want to miss Sunday morning.

So here I am sitting out at Montauk on a gray and not too warm afternoon, reflecting on turning 58.

+ This morning I turned in my best time of the week for my early-ish run along the hills of Old Montauk Highway – a good way to start the day. I guess I must be far healthier now than I was at 48 and probably even 38 0r 28!

+ My parents planned things very well. A June 26th birthday means the two big celebrations of the year – birthday and Christmas – are perfectly spaced. Of course they didn’t plan much back then – in fact the doctor had told my mother that she wasn’t pregnant at all … surprise!

+ Our grandchildren are on their way out to see us – with their mothers of course. I appreciate family far more with each passing year.

+ Forty years ago today I attended an Open Day at the Bible College I was enrolled in for the fall of ‘68. That was when I saw Gill for the first time and hoped I’d get to meet her when I returned at the end of summer for the start of classes. And the rest, as they say, is history.

+ I have no grasp whatever of the fact that I am aging – is that denial, stupidity or some other definable psychiatric condition?

+ My vacation reading has been interesting. More about that another time.

+ No, Billy – www.billyritchie.org – though you may have heard it often lately, my one message is not The Mets suck!

+ Looking back to this time last summer, this has been a good year. Last June as a church we were about to make a significant change of location and it has turned out to be a very helpful one for us – though I had my concerns at the time.

+ I have a wonderful wife. a great family, outstanding friends and a remarkable church. Life is good – even as the clock continues ticking towards 59!

Check out this post on my old buddy Gary Lamb’s Blog (he’s preaching for us Sunday and you’re going to love it!) -

http://www.garylamb.org/2008/06/24/whats-your-message/

He suggests that with most preachers, there is one major point that comes through in their teaching time after tiome after time. I’ve been thinking about this and wondering what my recurring message is or if I have one.

Answers to – roger@churchatthemovies.com please!

Not looking for compliments, just clarification!

There are three very significant things that I’ve learned so far from doing our One Prayer series -

1. When it comes to technology, it doesn’t pay to be cheap! Those who were with us for Craig Groeschel’s teaching will know what that’s about – BTW I learned today that loads of churches faced the same issues as we did, which doesn’t make me feel any better, it just makes me feel bad for them too!

2. There’s a 21st Century way to get some of the best preachers in the country to come and teach in our church.

3. People will watch, enter into and appreciate good video teaching. This is the first time I have ever used video on a Sunday morning, so I was keen to observe how it went over. It was a homerun! – Which to remind Mets fans, is when the batter hits the ball and manages to run round all the bases! Most multi-site churches use video teaching on their campuses, but I wondered if that would really fly in New York. Looks like that’s an affirmative … very interesting!

For new fans of Perry Noble’s ministry, check out -

Perry’s blog – www.perrynoble.com

His church website – www.newspring.cc

You can hear him every week by going to iTunes and subscribing to his podcast of course.

+ Glad I’m not preaching next Sunday – who’d want to follow Perry Noble?

+ Perry was brilliant today. Okay, he’s hilarious, but he’s a great teacher too.

+ Looks like we seriously underestimated how many copies of his DVD we’d need. If you can’t wait till next week to get one, here’s a link – http://pastors.oneprayer.com/church/newspring-church/en

+ Liz Foley is my hero – or is that heroine? – she worked out all the technical side for this morning so that we didn’t have a recurrence of last Sunday’s issues.

+ Man, Perry was funny! He really connected with our folks – guess he’s our kind of preacher.

+ Did Perry record this at Lifechurch.tv in Oklahoma or did he just copy their backdrop?

+ Gary Lamb’s on next week – www.garylamb.org – he didn’t copy their set design.

+ We experimented with a later start to set-up this morning and it worked pretty well. Made me nervous though!

+ I can’t believe this series is almost over. It feels like it only just started.

+ Gill and I are in Montauk right now. One of the things I love about this place (the easternmost point of Long Island for the uninitiated) is that it’s so close to home, yet like a different state. There’s nothing much out here apart from beaches and sun, so thanks to friends who have been allowing us to use their condo every summer for years now, I’m going to do little more than sit and read for the next few days.

+ Together with the books I brought with me, I do plan to read the Bible quite a bit and get my thoughts straight for our Keepin’ It Real II series that starts the second Sunday in July. We’re going to spend the rest of the summer looking through the second half of the book of Acts (did the first thirteen chapters last year) and reminding ourselves how church looked in its early years so we ensure we keep track of how we want to be.

+ Mets won today. Do I look excited?

+ Sitting here looking out over the ocean. What a great location for getting away from the activity of the office so that I can study for a few days!

A friend of mine is considering ditching his church building and moving into a movie theater and of course I’m encouraging him to go for it. To some people that might seem like taking ten steps back, but I think it could be a brilliant transition.

Older style church buildings are exactly what the words convey – older style church buildings – and to the unchurched they represent something they rejected a long time ago.

I sat in a church a while back and decided I wouldn’t want it if it was a free gift in a box of Crackerjacks, because I couldn’t see how on earth you could bring the building into the 21st century without completely demolishing it and starting all over again.

The facility to which we invite people plays a huge part in our marketing – sorry if that word turns you off, but that’s what we’re trying to do – so I’d rather rent a movie theater than own an old church. Of course if you want to throw a contemporary building my way, I’ll buy you coffee while we talk about it.

So I hope my friend goes for it, but it would be a tough deal to sell to an exisiting congregation, some of whom have probably sat in the same pew to worship every Sunday since 1746.

Hopefully they will catch the vision and realize it’s all about other people – first, last and everything in between.

In case you’re wondering just which churches are joining us in the One Prayer adventure this month. Here they are – all 1505 of them -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkndzKxQJIU&eurl=http://tonymccollum.com/

You’ll see us there if you don’t blink!

Why not pray for these congregations as you see their names and ask God to make this Sunday a special day for them too?