IT'S A SIGN

Part of the equipment we'll need for the Mastic campus is banners and signage for inside and outside the building, which is a huge item. We're going to renew all the signage on the Ronkonkoma campus too as it's definitely showing signs of wear and tear, so we need two of everything.

With the best prices we are aware of, this would all cost over $4,000 (yes, we do have a lot of signs - not many wonders, but plenty of signs).

So rather than spend that kind of money, I sent the graphics files to my friend Basil D'Souza in Mumbai and he has got everything done for me for $267. No typo folks, $267!

Tonight I'm taking a little trip in the interests of sound economics, flying over to Mumbai with Air India. I'll stay there a few days, catch up with Basil, spend some time with the good folks at his church and come home next weekend with all the banners, saving at least $3,000 in the process.

I know it's out-sourcing and we're not meant to encourage that, but the chances are that your shirt was made over there too.

16,574

Demographic studies reveal there are 16,574 homes in the Tri-Village area - Mastic, Mastic Beach and Shirley. When wse decided to go with door hangers rather than direct mailing, my goal was to cover every one of those houses, but my ambitions were trimmed by the other members of our pastoral team who felt that was unrealistic.

I was disappointed at the time, but they were right. We finally settled for 10,000 and as I wrote yesterday, we have alm ost all the people we need to put them out.

Today I had breakfast with my friend Tony Balsamo, who pastors Integrity Christian Fellowship in Yaphank - http://www.integrityfellowship.com/ It has been a while since we sat down together, so there was a lot to catch up on, including the fact that Tony wanted to be updated on our preparations for the launch of our new campus.

He came up with an outrageous and brilliant idea that will enable us to go way beyond hitting the 10,000 homes we had planned and actually covering every house in the final few days before we kick off.

I'd like to share it with our folks first on Sunday and I'll write it here later that day.

Tonight I am a very happy camper!

DELIVERY TEAM

Here's the deal, totally trusting the information I got from my friend, professional church-planter Tim Fowler, I went with the fact we can deliver 90 door hangers an hour. That gives us 180 homes covered by everyone who will join in the 2 hour push right after our Pre-Launch Service in Mastic on September 6th.

All of that means that 50 people can deliver 9,000 in two hours and that's the goal.

So today I finally got to check through the response cards from last Sunday when I floated the fact we need a delivery team for that weekend, a team to work the Street Fair in Ronkonkoma and a team to make the End Of Summer Festival happen in Mastic on Labor Day.

Our folks are the best, because on a very thin Sunday for attendance, we got responses that just about put us there in every category.

Now we'll go for more than 50 door hanging helpers so that the task becomes easier for all concerned.

Anyway, the reason I'm so happy this evening is not that the work will be done, it's that so many people have clearly caught the vision - that folks, is HUGE!

WHEN TO LAUNCH

There are three key times in the year for launching a church plant or a new campus - the end of summer, January or Easter and without a doubt September would be my pick every time here on Long Island.

I've never been a great fan of starting on Easter Sunday, because it doesn't make too good an impression the following week when the attendance is halved. Add to that the fact that it only gives you a couple of months max before you hit summer and everyone heads off for the beach, graduations, family gatherings, vacations or whatever.

January would be an insane month to try anything here. You could start one week, then have a snowstorm the next and be forced to cancel church altogether. Not the best way to kick things off.

So September comes out best, with a run of almost three months before Thanksgiving and Christmas hit. It's also the time when life is getting back to normal here as the kids return to school.

That's why we've opted to open our next campus the Sunday after Labor Day, but it does have its drawbacks too, like the fact that the final preparations are done during the summer with key people coming and going.

I'm off to India myself on Sunday - we're getting all our banners printed over there and its cheaper to go get them (by a long way) than get them all done here.

But once I get back, it will be ready, steady, run.

I guess there's no perfect time to start, but September comes out as first choice.

EVERYWHERE YOUR FEET TOUCH

Back in the Old Testament, when Joshua was getting ready to lead the Israelites into the Promised Lnad, God told him he would give him everywhere the soles of his feet touched.

It was a sunny afternoon and Monday is my day off, so I decided to try an experiment and see if my 21st century version of that works. I drove up and down streets all around Mastic, Mastic Beach and Shirley, praying for the people I saw walking around and those living in the homes I passed.

I'm asking God to give us everywhere the tires of my Mustang covered!

TEEN CHALLENGE

Today in church I talked about the 10,000 door hangers we want to get out in Mastic/Shirley on Sunday September 6th right after we do our first run-through service there before launching the following week.

I challenged our teens that if they can put out more door hangers than me, I'll buy them dinner.

Some of them won't sweat the thought of losing out on a free dinner, but it would kill most of them for me to beat them - and I will!

SEPTEMBER TASKFORCE

As part of my teaching in tomorrow's service, I'm going to be inviting massive involvement in our major efforts to make our presence known at the start of September.

That means that in Ronkonkoma we're looking for a load of volunteers to take care of our booth at the Street Fair on Sunday 6th.

Over in Mastic on the same day - we'll be doing our service there so that the team can do a run through of everything - we face the challenge of getting out 9,000 door hangers.

Then, of course we have to man the End Of Summer Festival on Labor Day.

Looking for huge buy-in - and expecting it from our folks!

IS ANYONE OUT THERE?

I read something once in a really good book about writing your vision down. I opted for doing that and also drawing a picture, or maybe I should call it decorating a map. The red dots are mainly in our county (just one exception) and they represent the movie theaters we have expressed interest in renting in the future through National Cinemedia. (For the purists, the dot near the fork in our county should have been on Riverhead).

There is a ton of scope in Suffolk County, with its 1.5 million, mainly unchurched people. I couldn't help smiling yesterday when I read that a prominent preacher and an internationally known worship leader had teamed up to start a church in the spiritually bereft city of Atlanta and had a crowd of 3,000 at their first service. God bless them - may they prosper and reach a lot of unchurched people for Jesus.

But God, please send some people to Long Island and save them from falling over each other in the Bible Belt!

I joined an online social network for multi-site church pastors today. There are 406 leaders participating and not one of them is from New York. Now I do know a couple of pastors in our state who are either multi-site or looking to go multi-site, but that's about it.

New York needs passionate, sane visionaries who are sold out to reaching the lost.

Long Island does too - and I could give you 3,000,000 reasons why!

END OF SUMMER FESTIVAL

Labor Day will give us a great opportunity to make an impact on the Mastic community, just six days before our launch, with our End Of Summer Festival.

We're planning three hours of family fun in the front parking lot of Island Cinemas, right on Montauk Highway, which is about as high profile as you could get.

We've got the basics booked - the bouncy stuff - and now we need to add on the bits and pieces like face painting, cartoon charatcters, balloon giveaway and of course the food. We plan to give away hundreds of burgers, hot dogs and cold sodas that afternoon.

We'll maximize the opportunity the holiday presents us with and fervently pray for sunshine!

EARLY FRUIT

Just to remind us that we're on the right track. think about this -

+ When I got to see the Communication Slips from Sunday's service I found that three people had trusted Christ as their Savior. One of those was a man who has been worshiping with us since Easter. His wife has been praying for him for 30 years. And they live in ... Yep, you guessed right, Mastic.

+ Sunday I was delighted to see a lady who had been part of our church a while back, but like so many others had moved south. I thought she was back for a summer break, but it turns out she is back to Long Island for good - and living in Mastic.

+ When I took the messages off the office phone this morning - we close on Mondays - the first call had been from someone wanting information about our campus in Mastic.

It's amaziing what happens once you get out of the boat!

DUDE WE'RE GETTIN' A DELL

I liked those DELL commercials a couple of years ago with what's-his-name, but that wasn't why I ordered one for Mastic today. My technical know-how is basic to say the least, so I asked for help.

Where do you look for support on computer-related matters? India - Duh!

I asked my friend Yashwant in Mumbai (techy wiz guy and renowned researcher) where we could get what we need at the best price. And he came back with dear old DELL.

Hey, I'm using one now, each of the four workstations in our church offices is equipped with one, so I'm not going to argue wiith that - especially since Yashwant found me a great deal.

They know a lot of stuff in India - I like their cooking too!

DO THE MATH!

I started this blog three days ago when there were just 55 days to go until the launch of our Mastic campus and as things stand now, there are 63 days to go.

You may think I'm counting backwards or that God is miraculously giving us more time, but the truth is that when I was thinking this morning about how long to go until we start, I realized it was exactly nine weeks.

I have no idea where I got 55 from - it must have been 66 days when I started writing.

But I'll retain the blog title if you promise not to tell anyone I can't cope with basic math an more!

ADVERTISING FOR THE LAUNCH

We're adopting the theme of a nationwide fall campaign for the launch of our Mastic campus and we'll also be using this material in Ronkonkoma at the end of summer too.

We reckon this will strike a cord with people in an area with a strong Catholic tradition. We need 60 people to give two hours to get the door hangers out in Mastic over Labor Day weekend - email me if you're ready to commit now.

roger@churchatthemovies.com

THIS BOOK WILL BE OUT TOO LATE FOR MASTIC, BUT WILL HELP US IN PLANNING FURTHER CAMPUSES

You can pre-order it over at www.amazon.com - I did!

HOW MANY?

I've been more than a little obsessed with numbers this past couple of days. I am aware of the fact that we need to hit critical mass right out of the gate. Go big or go home doesn't always apply, but it's certainly my mindset when it comes to planting a new campus.

So what advertising is going to make maximum impact without breaking the bank?

We've opted for door hangers over direct mailing as the returns on direct mail nowadays are generally minimal. It's a couple of years now since I read a book entitled Your Marketing Sucks by someone or other and they said if you want to do direct marketing, just cut out all the effort, open a window and throw your money out -the end result will be the same.

The problem with doing door hangers is that it's labor intensive, so how many can we realistically expect to be able to do?

There are 16,400 and change homes in the tri-village area - Mastic, Mastic Beach and Shirley and I would dearly like to cover them all. Our pastoral team advise that it may be unrealistic to go for that, so the question of the week is how many can we expect to do and therefore how many do we buy?

We talked about 5,000 - not a number I was happy with - but then I did a little more research. My friend Tim Fowler who is launching a new church in western Texas the week before we start in Mastic, gave me some very good input.

He reckons you can do a minimum of 90 door hangers an hour, so I reckon for each person giving us two hours we can get 180 out. That means that 50 people could get through 9,000 in two hours, which is a number I like a bit more. Add in 1,000 for a church that has offered to help us and we should be able to cope pretty easily with 10,000 door hangers.

So that's my latest thinking. Nothing ordered yet!

TODAY'S GOOD NEWS

I spent some nights last week wondering what the heck we were gettiing into, but thankfully to balance that, I have ended every day this week thanking God for his provision and blessing as we continue with our preparations.

Sunday we were given $2,000 worth of 7-11 coupons to distribute in the community as part of our PR in the run-up to opening day.

Tuesday we were able to buy thousands of dollars worth of brand new equipment for just $855 - two video projectors and a flat screen TV.

Wednesday I met with a guy who is fairly new to our church who looks like he will play a significant part in worship leading in Mastic. He's also a state certified sound engineer who will get all that area set up for us.

Today I took a ride over to Mastic to show my sister the theatre before she returned to the UK this evening. We had lunch in the diner right beside the theater and the owner asked me for posters to put in his window there and also in the pizzeria he has next door. We don't even have them yet, but I loved the fact that he asked me! I did give him some of the cards we have announcing the launch day and he's putting them in both stores.

I took the rest of the cards I had - probably 800 to the movie theater and the manager immediately agreed to start handing them out to customers as they purchase their tickets.

I love it when a plan comes together!

55 DAYS TO GO

So, that's how long before Church At The Movies holds its first public service in a second campus - Island Cinemas, Mastic, NY.

I've been picking the brains of church planters I know in getting everything in shape and several of them have told me, "Let me know how things go." But I'll forget most of the details of this part of the journey unless I write them down - so here goes.

Also, I figure this blog will give me a record of what we did this time around so that we can draw from it when we launch our next campus.

Welcome!