One hundred years ago today in his Inaugural Address, President Taft declared, The negroes are now Americans. A fact that presumably very much needed to be stated in the early years of the 20th century.

Exactly a century later an African-American is now our President.

Man, that took a long time and involved a lot of pain, but perhaps in the 21st Century we will actually become “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”, instead of merely reciting it.

Perhaps.

We can but hope – and pray.

Here’s part of an email I got from Rick Warren a couple of days ago about his role in President Obama’s inauguration ceremony -

The upcoming U.S. presidential inauguration on Tuesday has received so much attention, and regardless of how each of us voted, we all can celebrate the historic installation of our first African-American President. To live in a free nation of unlimited possibility where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of leadership is a privilege we must never take for granted.

But, in God’s eyes, and in the perspective of his eternal purposes, what you are doing will actually last longer than what any political leader will do. Your ministry will impact eternity. Think about that! While no nation lasts forever, God’s family will. Remember, prominence and significance are not synonymous.

Why am I writing? To urge you to keep on, no matter what you’re facing right now. 30 years ago this week, as a 25 year old, I started Saddleback with a public commitment to stay 40 years. It’s never been without it’s challenges, but God-willing, I’ll fulfill my commitment to pastor this local congregation that I love so much.

Please pray that I’ll bring glory to God and represent all pastors well on Tuesday.

Never give up! Love God, and everyone else! Fear nothing on earth. Overcome evil with good!

+ It’s snowing again out – as it was this morning. Why on earth does the Person who’s in charge of all this allow it to snow two Sunday mornings in a row? If I was in charge, I’d make it snow on Mondays instead – or Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays, but not church days!

+ Not a bad crowd considering, but thin.

+ Band did a good job today. We did a great new song I thought I didn’t like at first, but it was excellent. If I could remember the title I’d tell you!

+ Recorded a short bit of video for News 12 who are going to do something about the Where’s The Fat Guy? show. The interest in that is blowing me away. Looks like there will be a crowd.

+ I enjoyed teaching today. I love encouraging people to recognize who they are in God and reach for their full potential.

+ Despite what Mario thinks, the fact I was rooting for the Giants last week is not the reason they lost.

+ I was pulling for the Cardinals today and look what they did. I like Kurt Warner – strong Christian, great character, does a heck of a lot to give back to others. Hope they win it all in Tampa.

+ Started reading my father’s wartime diaries I got from my sister. He spent most of WWII in India with the Royal Air Force, working on spitfires. He was on a ship returning for another tour of duty over Christmas of 1944. When he eventually got to his base outside of Calcutta, the journey had taken almost three months by bus, ship, train and bus.

+ When Gill and I go to India next month, it will take us 24 hours from leaving our house to arriving at Basil D’Souza’s apartment in Mumbai. Remind me not to complain about the length of the flight!

+ Had a couple of guys from New York Academy of Film doing some shooting during service this morning for a project they’re working on. Doing church in a movie theater almost blew their minds.

+ Sold another stack of Mark Batterson’s book Wild Goose Chase. I really want everyone in the church to read it – talk about vision-casting! It’s a masterpeice!

+ Gill and I watched Slum Dog Millionaire Friday night. Excellent movie. Gruesome in parts, but a pretty realistic portrayal of life in the slums of Mumbai from what I gather.

+ Martin Luther King Day tomorrow and President Obama’s inauguration Tuesday. I didn’t vote for the man and am not excited at the thought of his huge ego leading the nation, but I am very proud to live in a country where an African-American is no longer seen as second-class individual, but can in fact hold the hightest office in the land. We all owe a tremendous debt to Dr.King.

I’m looking forward to this Sunday especially, as I’m going to start to flesh out the vision I shared last Sunday. We’re still way short on specifics as to how we’re going to develop the other campuses I outlined, but there are a couple of general issues to get a handle on that are essential to making it happen. So we’ll tackle the first of them this weekend.

As to where we’ll be setting up shop for our next campus come September, I have a second appointment on Tuesday with the guy in charge at one of the two locations I said we have in our sights – Deer Park or Mastic.

Don’t look for the outcome here. We’ll announce it in service when we’re ready – hopefully on February 1st.

As someone who flies out of New York’s airports fairly often and is well aquainted with flight paths up and down the Hudson River that offer breathtaking views of Manhattan, I must confess I have never thought of what it would be like if the plane actually landed in the waters below us.

But that idea has been going through my mind over and over again as I have watched various news reports on the USAirways flight that went down in the freezing river this afternoon.

Though I pretty much know the flight attendants’ spiel about water evacuations, I have thought for years that the words were really fairly pointless, as if we went down out of reach of dry land, we’d be done for anyway.

Thankfully that was not the case today.

It seems the pilot not only did a masterful job in making the landing, but I was also impressed by the fact that Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger walked the sinking plane twice to check for remaining passengers before leaving himself.

Challenging situations have a way of bringing the very best out of people.

None of us would choose them, but when they do occur we too may shine.

Here’s a link to the video of yesterday morning’s teaching for those who were unable to come because of the bad weather. I’m laying out some of the things we’re planning for 2009.

Thanks Noe for setting this up.

Someone remind me not to wear that jacket again on Sundays - it makes me look fat, the way it falls off my round shoulders!!!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5913892499238265573&hl=en

+ Not as much snow last night as expected, but the freezing rain made roads lethal in some spots this morning.

+ Understandably, it was thin at church – amazingly it was not as thin as I expected!

+ I loved the row of guys who stood outside the main doors to escort ladies across the icy parking lot. They looked like bouncers. I wonder if they scared anyone off!!!

+ Shared some of our plans for ’09, especially our new Sunday program for grades 6-9. The YouthBytes material looks insane – fits our church well.

+ It’s going to be cold all week – high of 14 on Friday. How do you call that a high?

+ Giants are out – they stunk. Looks like Plaxico didn’t only shoot himself in the foot.

+ Am I the only person in the world not watching 24 tonight? I have never seen a single episode.

+ So, word is out – we’re planning to start our second campus in September.

+ Not sure where, but we’ve narrowed it down to Deer Park or Mastic. East or west first? God knows and we hope he’ll give us a nudge!

+ After that we’re contracting for movie theaters in Farmingdale, Garden City, Hampton Bays and Southampton. We’re also getting right of first refusal on every new movie theater to be built on Long Island and Riverhead will be a major target.

+ We don’t have the people, the money or anything else needed to make this all happen, apart from the one essential ingredient, we are a church with a passion to show and share the love of God with those who are hurting.

+ We also have a very big God who can do more than we can ever dream of.

+ I thought Dan Ricci was going to break his 100% attendance record today, never missing a Sunday since we started over ten years ago. At 86, it’s fair enough that he got a ride instead of driving himself in the ice and I gather he was heard saying Only a crazy Englishman would have church on a day like this! Only a crazy Italian would come!

During this morning’s service I was commenting on the fact that the Bible says God can do immeasurably more than we ask or think. If God can just do what I’m thinking about I’ll be happy, so I hope I’m not selling Him short!

Here’s the visual of what I’m thinking about – it’s the re-drawn map of Long Island with each red dot representing a campus of Church At The Movies.

The central location with our graphic is the current home base, Regal Cinemas, Ronkonkoma. Then to the left (west) we have movie theaters in Deer Park, Farmingdale and Garden City which are in the contract we are currently negotiating with National Cinemedia.

To the right (east) of us we have a private theater in Mastic and theaters in Hampton Bays and Southampton which are also in the contract talks. There is not decent movie theater in Riverhead, but there has to be one in the not-too-distant future and when it is we’ll go there as our contract includes every new movie theater to be built on the Island.

I reckon we’re thinking big, but fear God may be saying “Not big enough”!

Just in case you’re checking in  here to find out the status of tomorrow’s service, here’s the word. We’re going ahead. There is certainly going to be some more snow later this evening, but since we really have to make the call tonight and don’t know how accurate the forecast will be, let’s do it.

Life’s short – play offense!