I was scheduled to be preaching for my old friend Wally Odum down in North Carolina this weekend and Gill and I were looking forward to having a few days at the Odum residence on the Outer Banks, but that isn’t going to happen after all. It seems to take for ever to schedule a funeral back in the UK and despite the fact that my sister-in-law passed away Monday at 1.00am, the service will not be until Thursday of next week. So I leave for England on Monday, which means the long weekend at the beach (and in church of course!) has had to be re-scheduled.

I first met Wally 25 years ago when I came to the USA for the very first time to speak at a pastors’ conference he was hosting at his church in Virginia Beach. What struck me most about him then was that he was the clean opposite of the stereotypical American preacher. Instead of being loud, obnoxious and full of his own importance, Wally was funny, self-deprecating, generous, warm and down-to-earth.

He’s still the same after all this time and though we don’t see a lot of each other and neither of us is good at picking up the phone, I jump at every opportunity I get to hang out with him.

My life is enriched by real friends who are good friends and Wally and Gwen are definitely in that category.

See you guys in June!!!

I went to see an orthopedic doctor this evening to get him to look at my right arm which has been troubling me for weeks now. Unfortunately most doctors seem to have the impression that their time is valuable, but ours is not, so they have no problem leaving patients sitting around for ever waiting for the promised consultation.

I decided a while ago that I could either let the frustration annoy me or recognize that these guys are unlikely to change and use the time wisely instead.

So I took a book with me today – The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It’s written by a college professor dying of cancer who has one last chance to speak to his students and peers. He takes the opportunuty to speak on life’s values, anticipating that this talk will live on as his legacy to his three children who are so young they will probably not even remember their father a few years after his death.

Pausch tells stories about his life that portray his values and one tale from his own childhood made a real impact on me.

He records how his parents permitted him to decorate his own bedroom as a teenager and how he and his friends took months to personalize that space in a very special way. One of the features was that they painted an elevator door on one wall with buttons to the side numbered from one to six, showing that there were six floors.

Randy Pausch actually lived in a ranch, so the joke was that there was a pretend elevator that could take you far higher. But the writer admitted he later wondered why he didn’t number the floors to 75 or even 95. Why did he stop at 6? – it was all imaginary, so his imagination should have soared higher.

I never want my own lack of vision, faith or imagination to keep me from going as far as God intends.

Let’s paint our elevators with buttons all the way to the very top.

I decided today that I should stop referring to Monday as my day off and instead call it my presonal day, because the truth is it’s anything but “off”!

+Started this morning by working out for two hours at the gym and then went to weigh in at WW. Lowest scale reading in nine months, so that made me happy.

+ Had several calls about my sister-in-laws death and the funeral arrangements. Nothing is final yet, but it looks like it will be the end of next week (these things take for ever over there). We are already booked ot go over to England the following week as I am conducting my niece’s wedding, so I may be going over and back twice. The alternative is to go for much longer than anticipated, which I’m not that keen on.

+ Had to do some paperwork this afternoon and get some stuff mailed out.

+ Around 4.00, Gill and I headed out to TARP Field to watch the Mets. I don’t like to call it by the name of the bankthat was bailed out to the tune of billions of dollars in tax payers money and then spent millions of it on buying the naming rights for a ballpark. If Yankee Stadium was the House That Ruth Built, I guess we sat in The House That Obama built.

+ Watching a ballgame is relaxing, a complete diversion. It was a warm summer-like evening and very enjoyable.

+ Got to see the first grand slam homerun in the new park – thankfully it was scored by the Mets, albeit the back-up, back-up catcher!

+ Bedtime now!

I just got word from my niece that my sister-in-law, Eileen, has passed away. We knew that time was near, though it came very quickly in the end.

She was a great woman who was like a big sister to me, especially in the early years of her marriage to my eldest brother, when I was still a teenager. Back then whenever my brother was working night shifts I’d sleep over at their house because she didn’t like to be there alone and I’d pick her brain on the meaning of life.

She was a nurse ever since I first met her and fitted in very well in such a caring profession, because she was always concerned for others. Another example of that was that she spent the last few years raising two of her grandchildren when their parents split up.

At 67 years of age, after months of uncomplaining suffering, she is now at peace – and will be sorely missed.

Got word from England this afternoon that my sister-in-law, Eileen, (my late eldest brother’s wife) is not doing well at all in her battle with lung cancer. She has been hospitalized for several days and her family have agreed with the doctors that they will stop all treatment.

Eileen is not conscious, but please pray with me that she will know peace as she prepares to pass from this world.

+ It’s a great few days here on Long Island, unseasonally hot, with temperatures way into the 80’s today.

+ Watching the Mets trailing to the pathetic Washington Nationals. What does that make them???

+ Good morning at church. Taught on God, in the second part of our Anchored series.

+ Highlight of the morning? Seeing a young woman come in the door whom I did not recognize. Several of our CR team welcomed her warmly, so I asked who she was. One of them told me, “That’s _______, she has been clean for a week.” I love that we’re reaching people who really need Jesus. CR is huge.

+ Music was kind of unplugged, which was a good change of tempo.

+ My sister’s coming in June – looking forward to that.

+ My son’s coming in June – looking forward to that.

+ My Texas grandchildren are coming in June – really looking forward to that!

+ Can’t believe how much stuff we get through in our cafe – it’s a huge part of who we are. That place is buzzing for an hour before service starts.

+ I’m going to be chatting with Rich Anderson on WLIX Radio Tuesday morning from 9.00 to 10.00. If you’re out of range of his FM station, you can pick it up here – www.wlixradio.com

+ Tuesday evening I see the orthopedic surgeon to get some help with my elbow issues.

+ Got a couple of tickets for tomorrow night’s Mets game, so Gill and I will get our first visit to TARP Field. They should have called it Jackie Robinson Stadium

+ Had another good family commit to helping us get the Mastic campus under way in September. Good looking team coming together.

+ Back to the game and then a short run in the sun – 2.5 miles – later!

I generally go to bed early on Saturday evenings, because I’m tired from a full day and want to be fresh for Sunday mornings. So since our church softball team is playing a double-header tonight, starting at 8.00pm, guess where I am not!!! That’s right – sitting on the bleachers at Granny Road Field in Gordon Heights cheering them on

My Saturday routine is pretty fixed, if unexciting. I really try not to go out, so please don’t take it personally if I declined an invitation to your graduation pary, great grandmother’s 115th birthday or your son’s Bar Mitzvah. I have to prioritize, which means while your functions are important, bringing my best to the table for people who don’t know Jesus and for those who need to know him better has to be more important to me than anything.

As I’ve said here before, I dislike Saturday evenings – with a passion. I want it to be Sunday. I want to see who’s going to show up this week. I want to check which visitors have come back from last Sunday morning. I want to hang out with friends. I want to enjoy the banter with all the volunteers. I want to hear the band. I want to sing praise to Jesus. I want to teach – I love teaching. I want to see what God is going to do in people’s lives. I want to see people leaving, built up, encouraged and with faith for the week ahead.

Simply put – I wish it was already tomorrow!

+ That’s it, Friday’s almost done, so here we go into the weekend, wheeeee!

+ I am really ready to teach on Sunday morning. This second part of our Anchored series is going to be life-changing for a lot of people. I’m happy about that because we pray for folks to have God-encounters, not just a happy time at a religious social club.

+ Full day today, from a run in the sun early this morning to manning the office and finishing my teaching (Charlotte was off). I got done early afternoon and decided to take advantage of the good weather by getting some essential work done in the yard.

+ My right arm is still complaining about that and sadly the left one isn’t that happy at the moment either! I see the orthopedic guy on Tuesday.

+ I just read that the average church in America has 75 worshipers on a Sunday morning. I guess we’re a nation of small churches – thankfully there are serious exceptions to that rule.

+ Watching the Mets. Could they be about to win? Beating the Nationals isn’t exactly a great victory, but I’ll take anything right now.

+ We’re getting close to firming up our fall teaching series, which will be the first we do on two campuses. I’m excited about all of them!

+ Going to England next month for my niece’s wedding and have a very full week there planned, catching up with family and friends.

+ Have been reading a lot of feedback from this week’s Exponential Conference in Florida. Would have been good to have been there – maybe I’ll make their fall conference in Atlanta.

+ Looking forward to teaching my Weight Watchers classes in the morning. For me it’s a break, something totally different, almost a hobby. I love it. Long morning, leaving home at 6.30 and getting back around 2.00, but I get to meet some fun people – help them too.

+ Took Gill to see Soloist tonight – her call. Wasn’t exactly riveting, but then again I had some heavy stuff on my mind.

+ Wow, the Mets almost blew it, but got the win. That’s enough excitement for one day.

Forty years ago I was a freshman in Bible College. I guess I was a junior too, because they only offered a two year course. I met a bunch of great people there and established a number of friendships that continue to this day.

I also had the privilege of meeting and studying under some outstanding lecturers – plus a few mediocre ones too of course, but let’s be kind!

The main focus of the college was to prepare people for pastoral ministry and I certainly picked up a lot of good pointers. I remember being given some instruction on the 101 things a pastor needs to be able to do – preach of course, conduct communiuon, do funerals, visit sick people in hospital, counsel in a zillion different situations, pray, study the Bible, preach to the unchurched, preach to the churched, lead worship, sing, do children’s ministry, do youth ministry, etc., etc., etc.

Time to call Superman for sure.

Over the years I have come to terms with the fact that not only am I not capable of excelling in all of the above, but God never intended me to anyway.

If you chip away at everything else, there is really only one thing that it is essential for a leader to do – lead.

There are a lot of people in every congregation who are totally capable of doing many of the things traditionally expected of a pastor, but there is no one who can be substituted for the person who carries the vision, guards the vision and pushes the vision to fulfilment.

Leaders must lead.

Here’s the initial announcement card we’re going to have available soon to start getting the word out about our second campus -