+ Enjoying being with Basil and Cathy in their new apartment. They’ve had internet issues, but thankfully are now back in touch with the world.

+ Hot and humid here as it’s the monsoon season. Not too much rain since I arrived late Monday night. I was expecting much worse, but there’s still time.

+ After a sleepless second night – there’s a 9.5 hours time difference – I’ve been making up for it. Have slept a lot. Guess I needed it.

+ Wednesday night I got to teach a group of 24 young people from the Hindi congregation who are being trained for further involvement in ministry. Great people. I know most of them.

+ Yesterday we went over to Vasai which is about a 45 minutes drive away. We were checking out a building the church (another of CBC’s congregations) is going to rent, which will enable them to move out of the school they currently use on Sundays. Looks excellent and the price is right – $100 per month. Trust me, that’s more to an Indian than it is to us Americans, but it’s still a steal.

+ We had a meeting at the pastor’s home with about 20 people from the church and I encouraged them to stay focused on and committed to the one purpose of the church – to glorify God by reaching the lost.

+ Took us over two hours to get back last night as we were stuck in a horrendous traffic jam for ever. Turns out just one broken down truck was the problem. Reminded me of the LIE.

+ Tonight we have a service at CBC with the English-speaking congregation and then tomorrow I am spending a half day teaching the church’s ministry leaders. They’re a fun group. Gill and I did a retreat for them in February.

+ Getting regular updates on a great week for the Mets – maybe I should leave the country more often?

+ Eating very well, but watching the portion sizes. It’s no secret that I love Indian food. Have been running a couple of mornings, which helps even if it attracts puzzled looks from the people on the streets.

+ The guys here have got all the banners ready for me, folded for my suitcases. Can’t believe they get them done for 25c per square foot when it costs $4 in the U.S.A. Both campuses will look very sharp.

+ Flying home Sunday night. Air India turned out to be very good after a shakey start. The fact the flight is direct makes it so much easier. 16 hours out of Mumbai and I’ll be home.

I would probably blow a circuit if I tried to think about some of the major changes in life in 2009 compared with 1970, but here’s one that is particularly pertinent as I sit at this keyboard.

Way back then, if I wanted to communicate with someone, I would take a sheet of something we used to call “paper” and then I would put the words on it using a long thin cylinder containing a thick black liquid call ink. I know, it’s barbaric and people could hardly read what I wrote anyway, heck I could hardly read it myself.

But the best is still to come. When you were out of words or patience, you folded the paper and put it into a little paper packet. Then you used that same cylinder to write the address of the person you wanted to get your message and licked the back of a little picture of the Queen, sticking it to the corner of the packet. You dropped it into a slot in the wall at the Post Office and sometimes the person you wanted to send a message to eventually received it.

I know, it’s pretty incredible, but it’s true. We really didn’t have email, Facebook, Skype, texting or Twitter.

It’s a different world. Some churches have made the painful transition into the 21st century, while many still linger in the 1950’s. The churches that are still in the 20th century are generally led by pastors who lost touch with reality somewhere back then.

If you want to keep going, stay relevant, otherwise you become the disillusioned curator of a museum.

I’m not the pastor I was 39 years ago. I know how to pastor a 1970’s church, but since this isn’t 1972, that doesn’t do me a blind bit of good. So how to re-invent yourself?

1. I keep in touch with the world outside church, spending time in the regular workplace through working very part-time for Weight Watchers and I stay connected with the community through my political involvements.

2. I read books by guys who are getting it done right now. I can learn from Spurgeon and do, but I need to read Mark Driscoll too.

3. I attend conferences because after 39 years I know less now than I thought I knew when I started.

4. I interact with local pastors – eat a lot of breakfasts at diners.

5. I purposely stay connected with young pastors – some of them seem to think I know a lot of stuff, but I hang with them for my own well-being. If I want to be able to minister to their world too, I need to know it.

6. I listen to plenty of preachers – iPods and podcasts are God’s special gifts to preachers.

7. I visit other churches to see what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. I’ve stolen ideas from all over the place.

8. I recognize that change is here to stay.

9. I love to hear the words, “We never did it this way before” – means we’re moving in the right direction.

10. I refuse to be satisfied – content, maybe. Satisfied, never!

I guess I came to faith in Christ and subsequently spent my teenage years in a pretty small church, though to be honest in England during the 60’s our congregation of up to 120 people every Sunday was fairly respectable.

I can’t have been much more than 13 years old when my pastor asked me to preach a 5-minute “mini-sermon” in the youth service and I guess I did pretty well because he got me to do it several more times in the months that followed. Then I got a longer Sunday stint, which developed until at the age of 16 I was preaching a full sermon in other churches in the area every now and again, with a regular once a month booking at the Assembly of God in Teignmouth.

I was a big fish in a small pond, assured by all around me that within just a few years I would be the national leader of the denomination.

Leaving the denomination in the early 80’s put the kibosh on that, but not before I had come to realize that I was not likely to become Britain’s answer to Billy Graham anyway.

I had an over-inflated opinion of myself in those early years of ministry, but pastoring in a couple of challenging situations helped bring me down to earth.

I’m no longer ambitious for myself, but as everyone knows, I do have big dreams for our church and for reaching the lost. Many years ago I developed the ability to laugh at myself and encouraged others to laugh with me. I’m more self-depracating than self-assertive and I think that’s a good thing.

I’m not God’s answer to the spiritual needs of Long Island, I’m an Englishman, out of Scotland who is doing a bit here to try to help a few people. God’s purposes don’t depend on me and neither does our church. I’m a very small cog in the huge wheel of God’s eternal purposes.

That takes a huge load off my shoulders and means I can shrug a ton of stuff off.

If you want to survive, learn to laugh at yourself – let’s face it, you’re funny!

Unless you’re seriously mathematically challenged, you can probably work out for yourself that next July will actually be my 40th anniversary of starting in pastoral ministry, but there’s a much more meaningful ruby celebration before then. On Sunday December 20th Gill and I will have been married for 40 years.

We met in Bible College and while she started there with an eye to missionary work, she ended up marrying a wannabee pastor six months before he graduated – not that I was kept back, Gill had started there before me and so graduated before I did.

So every step of these years in ministry, I have had this wonderful woman by my side. What a smart move that was on my part, though I do wonder if marrying me calls her judgement into question.

I’ve pastored several churches and have shared parts of my life with thousands of people along the way. We’ve lived in England, Scotland and the USA. There have been a lot of people in those churches we didn’t know so well and others we poured our lives into. We keep in touch wiith a handful of folks in each of those situations, but there has only been one real constant and that’s the relationship Gill and I have. Only one person has been there every step of the way and that’s her.

A wise person will realize that when all is said and done, the lasting, most reliable source of love, support and encouragement will be his own family.

Have I neglected my family for the sake of my ministry? I feel I have at times, though several years ago when I was apologizing to my son because I spent a lot of his childhood traveling the world and preaching, he politely heard me out and then commented, “That was the biggest load of crap I have heard in my life.” His memory of those days was that when I was home, he and his sister had my undivided attention and so in the longrun I spent more time with him than any of his friends’ fathers.

When others don’t understand you, your family knows you inside out and still loves you.

When you feel a failure, they think you’re a hero.

When things aren’t going well, they bring a smile to your face.

When you’re getting too full of yourself, they bring you down to earth.

There’s a place I’m always welcome, there are people who are always glad to see me, there’s a group that I can be totally relaxed with – and that’s my family.

Part of the secret to longevity in ministry has been valuing them above all others.

I celebrated my 20th birthday on June 26th 1970 and exactly one month later – July 26th 1970 – assumed my responsibilities as pastor of the Assemblies of God church in Birtley, Co. Durham, England.

I had spent two years in a non-accredited Bible College preparing for this day, studying systematic theology, Old Testament history, Homiletics (how to preach), Hermeneutics (how to interpret the Bible), focused studies of a number of Bible books and a mind-numbing, seemingly endless, number of months focusing entirely on the symbolism of the Old Testament Tabernacle.

Most of it was good, foundational stuff, the one exception being the Tabernacle stuff which has been of precious little use to me in any shape or form in the 40+ years since I sat and listened to dear old John Carter’s lectures.

The big gap in the whole course, designed specifically to prepare people for pastoral ministry in the denomination, was a bit of basic information about how to actually do the job, should any unsuspecting congregation be gracious or dumb enough to take you on.

So when I arrived in Birtley, all I knew to do was what I had seen my pastors do and thankfully I had sat under two outstanding leaders during my teenage years.

I tried to preach like Terry Hanford, mimicing his Welsh passion as I shared God’s word and gave an altar call. Then I did everything I could to care for the people like Don Walker, my first pastor. Add into that mix that I was influenced too by a great pastor in the nearest major city, Herbert Harrison, who came over to see me in Birtley one day and told me how the key to developing his large church was house to house visitation.

So I shouted more than Terry, drank more cups of tea with old ladies than Don and the day after my meeting with Herbert I went ringing door bells to introduce myself to uninterested homeowners and invite them to our dying church – something I hated doing with a passion.

But you can’t spend your life being someone else, nor can you try to morph into the person who will satisfy the varying demands of every member of your congregation. It took me six or seven years until I was brave enough to be myself, to live like Roger, act like Roger, preach like Roger and pastor like Roger.

That means there are some things I’m good at, some I’m working on and others I’m never even going to try because they’re just not me.

By the way, that was about the time when I dropped the whole “title” thing. I decided I am Roger and pastoring is what I do. I am not Pastor Blackmore, Pastor Roger, Reverend Blackmore or anybody else. I started being Roger first and pastoring second.

So another thing that has kept me going is that I’m not playing pastors – and there’s a ridiculous amount of that around – I’m just me.

I love my family. I struggle with my weight. I talk too much. I mean well, but don’t always produce. I love speaking to a crowd, but tend to be an introvert when away from that. I like baseball. I love helping others. Travel exhausts me, but excites me. I’m not a great team player. I’m a dreamer, a visonary, an optimist. I can’t sit still for long. I don’t see that I’m getting older. I love ice cream. My sanctification is easily challenged by other drivers. I always put the toilet seat down. I drink inordinate amounts of coffee. Indian food is my favorite. I love going to Montauk with my wife and a book. Did I say I love my family?

Take it or leave it – that’s me!

BE YOURSELF!

This coming Sunday will be July 26th, a date of varying significance or none at all to different people, depending on where you’re coming from. It’s a noteworthy day for me, especially since July 26th fell on a Sunday in 1970 too, since that was when I took responsibility for my first service as the pastor of a church. Yep, I’ve been pastoring for 39 years this weekend.

I know that will take some people by surprise because they will justifiably think that I should have learned a heck of a lot more in all that time, but it is what it is. In fact the longer I pastor, the less I know.

Yet this anniversary suggests to me that there is one thing I might actually know a lot about – and that’s longevity. How to survive in the ministry. That may sound like a dramatic way to phrase it, but with 1500 pastors leaving the ministry every month in this country, it may be that this calling is far more demanding than many folks – including those taking it up - could every imagine.

So, I must know something about how to keep going, but I’m darned if I know what it is.

I figured I’d give it some serious thought over the next few days and air my discoveries here, with the hope that something I write may might someone out there.Let me start by stating the obvious -

THE BEST WAY TO KEEP GOING IS NOT TO QUIT

Trust me, there have been days. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve told God, “I can’t do this any more.” I’ve thought about alternative careers – which is tough when pastoring is what you studied to do and is all you’ve ever done. By the way long-distance truck driving always came out as the most appealing option to me. I liked the idea of being out on the open road with no one to annoy me and nothing else to think about except getting from one place to the next. Then they invented cell phones!

I’ve been tired, disappointed, betrayed, frustrated, lied to, lied about. We spent most of the years that we were raising our kids pretty much broke, seriously underpaid and living below the poverty line.

At times I was totally disgusted, feeling under-appreciated and used.

But in it all and through it all, there was the awareness of something God dropped into my heart as a teenager, that if I was willing, he would use my life to help people find Jesus. I really wanted to do that.

In fact, that’s all I ever wanted to do and that passion burned stronger than all the problems. Still does.

So how do you keep going – no matter how much you want to give in, no matter how attractive it may seem to call it a day, no matter how much greener the grass looks on the other side?

That’s easy, if you’re going to last - never, never, never quit!

+ Several interesting people at Gill’s work concluded there was now irrefutable proof that God did not exist, as men had been to the moon and had not seen him.

+ I was on summer break from Bible College, preparing to go back for my senior year.

+ I had declined an offer to leave college that summer and pastor a church in a small village in Kent, England. Smart move, especially for the folks in the church that would have been stuck with me!

+ I was engaged to an amazing young woman and we were planning a December wedding – that happened. Ruby Anniversary pending.

+ I sat on planet earth and watched history unfold before me on a black and white TV screen. I was in the home of an elderly couple from a Staffordshire church, who had given me accommodation while three fellow students and I helped that church doing some outreach for a week.

+ Thunderclap Newman had a chart-topping hit, Something In The Air. Don’t ask me, I have no recollection whatever of these one-hit wonders or the song they took to #1. I guess the title was right on though!

+ I thought the town I was staying in was a long way from home. Never thought I’d be living in New York!

+ I stayed in touch with several college friends throughout the summer – and am in touch with them still. Good friends!

+ I weighed 60lb more than I do now.

+ I was praying that God would use my life to help people come into a relationship with Jesus.

+ I had no idea that the son of the head engineer/designer of the lunar module would be a good friend of mine.

+ I had an increased respect for the USA – that has since grown exponentially.

+ Today that all seems a very long time ago – and it was. The intervening years have not all been easy, but there has been an incredible amount of good stuff. Life has been good – and it’s getting better!

Looking forward to having Michelle Margiotta as a guest worship leader next Sunday. To listen to her ahead of time , hit the Media button on her website – www.michellemargiotta.com

+ Had a number of visitors at church again, which is always good during the thin summer months! Met a couple who were returning after coming for the first time last week. Turns out he was our waiter at TGI Fridays a couple of times earlier this year. Good job I make it a point to tip well!

+ Band did a great job – good to have all the regulars back. Have a guest worship leader next Sunday, so our guys get a well-deserved and all-too-rare break.

+ I shared some of our plans for making our fall activities known, including the 10,000 door hangers we intend getting out in Mastic and Shirley in two hours on Sunday September 6th. I’m challenging all the teens that I’ll buy dinner for any of them who can put out more hangers than me. One of them said all he’ll lose if I beat him is a meal, but he won’t – he’ll miss the bragging rights and it would kill the young man concerned to hear me telling the world I beat him … and I will!

+ Mets just watched another pitcher go off injured. This is some season.

+ I hear Billy Joel made a not-too-surprising guest appearance at Paul McCartney’s concert Friday night after we had left. The duo did I saw her standing there, my favorite Beatles song.

+ Started getting our September Task Force together to cover events in Ronkonkoma and Mastic – looking good. This is going to be a momentous fall.

+ Apparently it’s cooler in Texas today – Gill says it’s only in the 80’s. Personally I prefer our July to the summer they’ve been getting.

+ Will be at JFK this time next Sunday, on my way to India. I miss the folks over there, so although it will be a very short visit, it will be great to see them.

Twelve hours from now I’ll be leaving for Regal Cinemas, Ronkonkoma, waiting to see what God will do to change lives, lift people up and generally blow my mind. It’s the X-Factor that has me counting the hours every weekend, because you never know what’s going to happen – beats the predictability of church as usual!

Must get a good rest tonight. Had a late night at Paul McCartney’s concert last night (even though we left early in the rain), add in a very full day today and I’d better sleep so that I bring my best game tomorrow.

So many people will give it all they’ve got in the morning, but it’s what God does when we’ve done our bit that really counts!