Man, am I wired for the start of our new series One To 21 on Sunday. I want to make it clear right now that I honestly don’t set out to tick people off when I teach, but I know it’s going to happen this weekend!

Haven’t slept too well this week – The Fat Guy was on my mind and then for some reason, early this morning when it was all over, I was still wide awake at 5.00am!

Years ago I went to a seminar on Spiritual Warfare. I was a good pentecostal then, thriving on the weird and the spectacular, so I was a bit deflated when the speaker said the first lesson in spiritual warfare is to ensure you don’t get too tired.

I didn’t fully appreciate it then, but he was right. Things can go really nutso when you’re weary.

So I’m going to bed early tonight and I’ll take a couple of Tylenol PM to knock me out. It’s okay, I don’t have a problem, it’s just that there’s an important weekend ahead and I want to be sure I don’t go into it worn out before it even starts.

We’re at our best for God when we’re sharp and He knows I need all the help I can get!

+ Haven’t posted for a couple of days on purpose. I wanted to keep my last post right at the top so that everyone who visits here was sure to see it. I need to establish the fact that God is going to come through for us in some remarkable ways as we move forward to launch our second campus.

+ New series starts Sunday and I’m all ready to go. One To 21 is going to shake up a lot of people’s priorities, breathe hope into a load of lives and help us to understand part of the Book of Revelation a heck of a lot better as we think about being 1st Century Christ-followers in the 21st Century world.

+ Had a blast with Where’s The Fat Guy? last night. Great crowd, exciting feedback. I spent the last couple of days wondering what I had gotten myself into, but once I got going I had a ball. Couldn’t have pulled it off without a great team of helpers.

+ The Bridge starts Sunday morning – I’m excited for our 6th thru 9th Graders. Wish I could be there with them, but I’ll be teaching myself in the main service.

+ Sunday starts our prayer meetings for the new campus – we’ll be starting that part of the preparation in the Prayer Chapel from 9.00 to 9.30. We haven’t even decided where our next congregation will be planted, but we’re going for it and praying for it!

+ I think I’ll be slowly dying by the time the Super Bowl starts – crazy weekend ahead. My grandson, Benjamin, is besotted by the Steelers – always has been. I’m not telling him I hope the Cardinals win! I always love the underdog.

+ Had a glitch with our video last night, so Where’s The Fat Guy? will not be available on DVD. So I can’t sell a million copies, make a fortune, retire to the Bahamas and play golf all day. Plan B – I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.

+ Did I mention I had some great help last night. Can’t believe how supportive so many friends from both church and Weight Watchers were.

+ I’m thinking about starting the series in Revelation by recommending that everyone burns their Tim LaHaye books. Better to look at the facts than expand his bank account even further by buying into his fiction.

+ Anyway, I’m writing now because I’m not sure when I’ll get back here. Time to get on with next. Enjoy the day – it’s a gift from God. 

I was listening to Perry Noble teaching while I was sweating like crazy at the gym this morning. He said there are two ways you can tell when God is about to do something very special through what you are planning -

1. A whole load of people get really fired up about the idea that’s being presented.

2. Another whole load of people get ticked off about it (he actually said pissed off, but I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to say that here!).

Looking back over my years in ministry, I think that’s a pretty shrewd assessment of how things pan out. The secret is to hang tight with the people who dare to believe God and not to pay attention to the naysayers.

I must admit I haven’t heard any negativity about our plans to start a second campus this fall, but just in case some develops, I figured I’d lay out the best reasons I can think of why it won’t work, just to save detractors the time and energy.

If they realize I know these things already, they won’t need to call me, email me or lecture me on how ridiculous the whole thing is!

10. We’re already totally stretched doing what we do now.

9. The economy is bad and porobably getting worse.

8. We don’t have the money to pull this off.

7. We don’t have the personnel to pull this off.

6. We don’t even have one spare musician to be the start of a second worship band.

5. It has never been tried before on Long Island.

4. This is a tough place to get one congregation up and running, leave alone two.

3. We don’t know anyone will even want to come.

2. Just because theater church works in Ronkonkoma, there’s no telling it will in Mastic or Deer Park.

1. Things are okay the way they are, it may unsettle everyone if we shake things up.

Enough said? It’s impossible – without God!!! 

My old friend Douglas McIntyre blogged recently about how churches can have a big front door -

1. Do not try to be all things to all people. Not everyone will like who you are.

2. Identify who you are and consistently communicate it and live it

3. Get rid of the inside jokes.

4. Don’t make off hand and potentially offensive comments

5. Make sure people who attend every week are commissioned to welcome new people

6. Make sure that everything that goes on in the service is understood and makes sense to the visitors.

7. Be organized

8. Have a desire to embrace everyone who shows up – celebrate diversity

9. Life is not a formula that can be replicated

10. Don’t be risk adverse – make the necessary changes to make your group relevant

11. Keep it real – non religious is probably best

12. Open up your homes to the new people – let them see you outside of the services

13. Meet round the table – food and fun go a long way to breaking down the barriers

14. New people centric, not self serving and self indulgent

15. Talk about things that are meaningful to people

Smart guy – good stuff!

+ I generally spend Mondays half dead because after all the activity of the weekend, I start the day by running ten miles. Last night I decided to give myself a break today, so took two Tylenol PM and slept right through to 8.30, forgetting about the gym. It was good – back on track tomorrow.

+ Last night was great, hanging out with a bunch of people who are new to the church. I always ask them how they found out about us and why they came back a second time. Interesting answers!

+ Getting all set for our next small groups cycle. We’ve got a connection morning planned for Sunday. Some interesting looking groups planned.

+ I keep hearing from people who are coming to Where’s The Fat Guy? on Thursday evening. You can tell I’m a little uptight at doing something totally different – that would be why I was awake at 3.00am yesterday wondering where we could get staging!

+ So today Congress appointed a Secretary to the Treasury who cheats on his taxes! I know he says he simply forgot, but I’d rather believe the man in charge of our economic recovery is a thief than an incompetent. Of course I’d rather they hadn’t chosen him at all!

+ Had some new helpers on the set-up team yesterday morning. It’s amazing the difference a couple more hard workers makes.

+ Still waiting for word from the owner of Island Cinemas in Mastic. Once we have his response to my proposal we’ll know whether our next campus will be east or west. I’m already hearing about interested people in the Mastic area.

+ My grandson called last night to say he had taken communion for the first time. Without stopping for breath, he went on to explain the significance of the bread and wine. That’s my boy, Ben!

+ New series starts next Sunday and I’m getting ready to go – 1 TO 21 is about being 1st Century Christ-followers in the 21st Century and we’re going to be  drawing our teaching from the Book of Revelation … though not the weird bits!

+ Quiet evening ahead and then a non-stop week starts tomorrow with a visit to the gym. I love this stuff!

It was freezing cold when I got out of the van at Regal Cinemas just after 7.30 this morning. The sign outside the firehouse near our home had been reading 11f when I set out.

The manager was uncharacteristically a few minutes late opening up for us today and so a bunch of us stood in a frozen huddle for a couple of minutes until he came, suddenly springing to life once the doors were unloicked and we were enjoying the heat of the building.

From then on it was a non-stop 90 minutes of banter and activity until everything was in place for another Sunday of sharing Jesus with folks who don’t know him. It was a good day, with two people committing their lives to Christ that I know of and another two signing up for baptism on March 1st. The music was good, the preacher was even half-decent (if long-winded) and there were a number of first-time visitors with us again.

But it’s that banter that I’m thinking about sitting here this afternoon. The good-natured fun that permeated the place, not only during the set-up process, but throughout the whole morning.

You have to be tough to survive in our church – or thick-skinned – or both. Or maybe it’s just that you need to have a sense of humor and mustn’t take yourself too seriously.

I thought my rendition of Dancing Queen during sound checks was pretty impressive, but no praise from any of our gang, just abuse! They laugh at me and I poke fun at them, but the truth is I think the world of them and I reckon I’m okay in their eyes too.

I love being with our folks. Sunday mornings are so special. It’s like everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief at being among friends, doing something they love doing and just relaxes.

So we work, we worship, we pray, we preach and through it all, man do we have fun!

And I think God likes it that way too!!!

I recently came across the temporary passport I got in 1966 to make my first missions trip to Belgium with my pastor and a couple of friends from my home church in Exeter, England. The over-the-counter six months document was all I thought I needed as I had no idea when or whether I’d use a passport again.

Forty some years later, my existing passport needs more pages as it is full of stamps from immigration officials in so many countries and on so many occasions.

Missions became part of my life and what I am about. Not surprisingly then, it is a core value in our church’s DNA. We often joke that the only thing you need to join our church is a passport.

My passion for missions stems from a very literal interpretation of these words of Jesus I read when in my early teens – Go into all the world and preach the gospel. I figured Jesus meant us to do what he said we should do and have therefore continued to accept invitations and be aware of opportunities to share Jesus’ love wherever they might crop up.

Of all the places I have been privileged to preach, none has captivated my heart like India. I love the country, the people and above all the church family at Covenant Blessings Church with which I have formed a very special bond. The church is located in Thane, a city that is right next to Mumbai (Bombay) and is so close that there is no distinguishable separation between the two.

Last weekend I was reading through my father’s war-time diaries, describing his years in India with the RAF and I was riveted by his writings about the journey back to that country for his second tour of duty. Disembarking from his ship in Bombay, he eventually boarded a train for the three days ride to Calcutta. For whatever reason, he chronicled every station they stopped at along the way and it was a little weird for me to read that the second stop after they pulled out of Bombay’s Victoria Station was a place called Thane.

My father was in Thane – albeit very briefly – almost sixty years before I was. I have taken a train from Thane Station – and my father was in that same place back in 1944.

Why do I do missions? – Because my heavenly Father loves people who need Jesus and so do I.

Why do I love India? – Could it be in my DNA???

Today is my oldest brother’s birthday – he was born on January 23rd 1940. Sadly he isn’t here to celebrate it as he passed away five years ago. His death was totally unexpected, despite the fact that he had suffered two heart attacks earlier in his life – he collapsed during a routine visit to his cardiologist for a stress test!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting here feeling morbid, but I am definitely reminding myself that none of us knows the length of our days.

And my conclusion is that I need to live every day to the full, to press now for the things I really want to experience and accomplish and be very careful what I put off for another time and another place.

I remember an old preacher I knew years ago who used to say, “I’m going to live to be one hundred … or die in the attempt.”

That’s me – one more day, one more week, four more years or forty more years, I intend to live them.

From time to time I am encouraged to rest more, reduce my schedule or take more time for myself. My answer is generally,”I’ll be dead a long time and can do nothing then.”

Life is uncertain but it’s for pushing the limits, doing 120mph, living!

Looks like everything is in shape for the new program, The Bridge, for Grades 6 thru 9 that we’re kicking off on Superbowl Sunday, February 1st.

There’s some great material from www.youthbytes.com with the slightly zany teaching of Chad Daniel.

Looks like an ideal way to bridge the gap between KIDMO and regular service for our olders kids.

They’ll be able to see everything very clearly too, courtesy of the gift of a brand new 42″ flat-screen TV that was just delivered here by a couple in our church. Jesus loves children, so I reckon he’s going to bless people with huge hearts for kids in a special way!

Superbowl Sunday will be a super day – especially for Grades 6-9!

+ Wednesday night already – it’ll be non-stop now into the weekend.

+ Good pastoral team meeting today. I enjoy getting together – pity they don’t always agree with everything I say! Tough thing is they’re generally right!

+ Looks like we’ll have a fair crowd for our New Friends get-together on Sunday evening. They’re always fun and it really is an opportunity to get to know a bunch of people better.

+ Jets have a new coach. Same old organization, so I’m expecting little more than the same old shambles next season.

+ Had another meeting with the owner of Island Cinemas in Mastic tonight. Not the best of buildings, certainly a world away from the brand new, state of the art Stadium 16 in Deer Park, but bang in the middle of a very needy area. Still a lot to think about.

+ Ask me if I really care what Michelle Obama was wearing yesterday!

+ Things are shaping up well for our new program for 6th to 9th Graders, The Bridge, that starts on February 1st. The kids will have a blast!

+ Calling it a day – I overslept this morning, so didn’t get to the gym. Can’t do that tomorrow!