Grandchildren are the best - Jace, Emily and Benjamin.

My thanks to John Fierro for these shots. I posted all of his pictures on my Facebook page.

+ It was sunny today, the Mets lost and everyone is either sneezing or painfully congested with allergies. Spring in New York!

+ That apart, I’m having a great day so far and it isn’t over yet.

+ Had fun this morning, starting with Blessing Of The Bikes for a great bunch of local bikers, most of whom joined us for church too.

+ On my way over there, I still didn’t really know what to do to bless bikes. I know that when priests do it they use “holy water”, but we’re not really big on that. So I had the brainwave of using some oil and putting some on every bike before praying for the bikers. Seemed to work well – I just pretended I knew what I was doing.

+ About 50 bikers added to our regular crowd gave us a full house, which is unusual for the Sunday after Easter.

+ Great atmosphere – our folks really welcomed the bikers.

+ Amazing Grace has got to be the oldest song out there, but our band did an incredible job with it today. Sounded good.

+ On my way to a funeral service soon. Pearl Cicale couldn’t get to church much because of serious health issues she has had for years, but it was always good to see her when she was up to it. Today her health is perfect and she is enjoying the blessings prepared for every faithful follower of Jesus.

+ I feel bad even talking about what happened to the Yankees yesterday, but can you believe how bad they were?

+ Our church softball team split a double-header last night in their first games of the season. Some of those guys are beginning to look old, but they’ve still got the goods.

+ Pumped about Mastic – did I say that recently? Already thinking beyond there.

+ Saw some old friends in our service today – great to have them around. I’d love to have them stick with us .. am I allowed to say that?

+ Got a call this afternoon from someone needing to connect with Celebrate Recovery. Seems like we have this huge thing happening right now – Sundays provide the entry point for people and then we pass them on to CR. If you’re doing church for the unchurched, everyone who comes in is going to be messed up in one way or another – so it’s over to CR to help them get straightened out.

+ There are plenty of churches for perfect people – we’re just not one!

+ Working on a whole new look to our “image”. Word has it from the design industry that color is about to make a comeback – so we may well move away from the black and red into something with a more 80′s feel.

+ If you’re still frustrated that our podcasts aren’t online yet, imagine how I’m feeling – especially when I’ve been preaching some half-decent messages recently!!!

+ Great day. And now we start the build-up, because we do it all again in 6 1/2 days from now!!!

Just got back from the first meeting of the potential launch team for our second campus, starting in Mastic in September. I say potential team because no one can commit to something before they have a reasonable idea of what it’s all about – and that was what I clarified this evening. So hopefully the “potential” can be dropped now for all of this great group of people.

It has been a long day and I’m tired, so pardon me if I say little more than, it was an outstanding evening, attended by some remarkable people and it is one that we will be proud to look back to one day and say,”I was there from the very start.”

Campus #2 is taking shape – and of course numbers 3, 4 and 5 got more than a fleeting mention too.

Great days ahead!

I got a call this afternoon asking if I could go on News 12 this evening to be interviewed about our Governor’s proposal to legalize gay marriages in New York State. I declined because I was already fully committed from 4.30pm to 10.00pm and just couldn’t fit it in.

I’m glad it didn’t work out, because I’m not sure what slant they would put on things and I think I may well have been misrepresented. Unfortunately the aggressive, very small group of people who are so vocal in pushing the gay agenda, tend to demonize anyone who disagrees with them. They propogate tolerance but refuse to show it towards people whose opinions run counter to theirs.

If you oppose gay marriage, you are looked upon as bigoted, homophobic and uncaring.

So, just for the record, I can care about someone as a person without agreeing with everything they do or believing exactly the same as they do.

=

I suggested last night that maybe the Mets’ new home – TARP Stadium in Queens – should be renamed Roger Stadium because my tax dollars helped pay for it. While I have waited in vain for a call from the Mets’ owners, the Wilpons all day, north of the border they jumped at the idea.

My friend Brandon Duff sent me this picture of where the Toronto Blue Jays play – Rogers Centre!

If only New York was as progressive.

+ So every month last year my pay check came to me with a hefty chunk of it already removed. Yet yesterday, as per my accountant’s instructions, I mailed off a large tax check to keep our government running and keep me out of jail. Why are we taxed so much? Well, there’s AIG and GM for starters and then there’s the fact that someone had to come up with the money the treasury gave to CitiBank so they could stay current with the payments on the naming rights of the Mets new ballpark. Maybe if I sent my tax payment direct to the Mets, they’d call the place Roger Stadium!

+ Watched my grandson’s baseball practice tonight. Man, it was cold. Isn’t this meant to be a summer sport?

+ Looks like one damp day ahead and then the temperatures may turn to spring.

+ Got my iPod back from Charlotte, who had borrowed it to go to the DR. Got to listen to Tony McCollum’s podcast at the gym this morning. He was good – he’s funny too.

+ We have around 20 bikes confirmed for the Blessing of The Bikes on Sunday morning. Pastors, please feel free to email me your normal program for these events. I know priests sprinkle holy water, but that stuff’s in short supply with us.

+ Had lunch with the co-chairs of the Town’s Conservative Party. Interesting days ahead.

+ Getting very frustrated with our webhosting company who have still not repaired the podcast part of our site. It’s interesting to hear from people who are missing being able to listen in to the teaching at Church At The Movies – annoying too that they can’t get what they are looking for.

+ Why do so many of the Fox News anchors sound like they are shouting at viewers? I like their fair and balanced perspective, but a summer course at charm school would do some of them the world of good.

+ Mets didn’t lose tonight – didn’t play.

+ I’ll be 60 next summer, so Gill and I are starting to plan a Farewell Tour of the UK (just my sick sense of humor). We figured we’d like to visit the places we grew up and the towns we lived in through the years. Who knows when or whether we’ll get chance to do it again? T-Shirts will be available – Gill & Roger – The Farewell Tour.

I’ve done a lot of praying over the past two weeks – way more than normal. I’ve also done a heck of a lot of thinking and re-thinking. It has been good for me.

As I’ve hinted here a couple of times lately, I was thrown a huge curve ball that I never saw coming. It drove me to my knees, kept me awake at night and made me re-examine who I am and what I’m about.

I can’t go into detail here, though I will clarify things on Sunday morning. Sufficient to say that I received an unexpected invitation to take a prominent role in something that would have enabled me to influence the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

But it would have pulled me away from total commitment to what God has called me to and so, while I settled the issue in my heart last week, I finally had the meeting today that laid the matter to rest.

Sitting here right now, I am grateful for that unwanted interruption because it has helped me to clarify my vision, set out my priorities and know the peace of mind that comes when you know without a shadow of doubt you’re moving in the direction God has ordained.

And anyway, it was nice to be asked!!!

Spent a couple of hours over in Mastic this evening at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, which gave me the opportunity to meet some of the local business community. Town Councilman, Keith Romaine was speaking there tonight and he kindly introduced me to several people, including the owner of the South Shore Press.

The paper wants to carry a story about our new campus that opens in Mastic in September, so that will be a good piece of early publicity for us. I was even offered some free advertising in the paper when we get nearer to our starting date – that’s generous.

I like the feel I have for this next move and am getting ready for our first launch team meeting on Friday evening. We are definitely getting in gear and are headed in the right direction – forward!