Trust

Been meaning to write this one for awhile now...

My son and I were in a pool in Texas a few weeks ago and I was trying to get him to come swim with me. He's almost 5 and has swum before.

For some reason, he was scared. I'm not sure what spooked him, but he didn't want to come out even with floaties on! I thought this was going to be a cool lesson of overcoming adversity and seeing that we can do anything. I was wrong

He kept freaking out.

And freaking out.

He was screaming at me to not let him go. I knew he'd be fine, I knew the floaties would work. I knew I would rescue him at the first sign of danger.

I started whispering in his ear, "Why don't you trust me?" "You'll be fine" "I'll won't let you drown"

Truth was, in that moment, he only saw the unknown waters and didn't hear my voice. He didn't trust me. He was acting like he would die if I let him go.

You may already be able to see the spiritual implications forming her. How often is this our mentality towards God. We see our own inadequacies. We see the deep waters. We don't hear His voice. We don't feel the floaties. We don't trust. We fear. Perfect love has driven out fear yet we don't believe that either. We do when we are in the kids pool with control and we can feel the ground.

What my son didn't realize is that there was so much more fun to be had! Diving, swimming, splashing, we could have had a ton of joy out there.

Instead fear won, trust lost.

What are you fearing now? Do you realize that God desires pure joy for you. Trust Him.

iPhone 4 vs Mytouch 4G

Crazy life at the end of the year...sorry to the few people who may read this.

Anyways, I have saved the best for first this year. Topic - iPhone vs Android.

Story goes, I started a new job on December 12th and my company generously gave me an iPhone 4 as my work phone. Having had a 2g, 3g, and 3gs, I was excited for the new phone! I was rolling with a Mytouch 4g for awhile and thought I would thoroughly love me new venture back to Apple products. Sadly, I have been very disappointed in it. Here's the comparison:

Functionality:
This has long been the arguement for the iPhone. It just works. What I have found though, is that the iPhone basically gives you the middle finger and says, "I'm an Apple product and you do as I say!" Sure it works well, but it has next to 0 versatility. It's Google integration is sub par, the apps are so-so, and the keyboard...well, we'll get to that. The thing I'm finding I loved about my Android phone was that if something didn't work quite the way I wanted it to, I could change it. A tweak here, widget there and my problem was solved. If I want to change the iPhone, tough luck. You have to adjust to it.

Keyboard:
Until Apple can integrate the Swype technology into their phone, they will be LIGHT YEARS behind Android. I can type almost 50 words a minute on my laptop and can almost type that fast on my swype keyboard. And...I know you're not supposed to text and drive, but when you inevitably do, the Swype keyboard lets you keep your eyes on the road when you do it.

Battery Life:
Neither one is all that great, but I kept hearing how much better the iPhone was. Then I get one, and it's the exact same or worse! Somebody told me I had to close all of my open applications and that would help. Surely there was an app to do this...! Nope, you have to do in manually. Again, on my Android, just put the Juice Defender app and power control widget and you could extend your battery life to 10-12 hours with heavy usage. My iPhone just yesterday lasted me 5 hours with heavy usage from 6-11 am.

Network:
My android was on TMobile and iPhone on AT&T. I'll just say this 4G > 3G. It's not even close. Sure I dropped calls on TMobile, but it's the same thing on AT&T.

Speed:
Once I rooted my Mytouch 4G and removed all the crap that comes preloaded on their, my phone was lightning quick. The iPhone 4 is quick, but the Mytouch had it beat. Mostly because I could put things/widgets where I wanted them.

Screen size:
Again, the Mytouch's size and resolution beat out the iPhone 4 in my opinion. Plus adjusting the screen brightness was a simple widget on my home screen, not 3 steps into the settings.

Camera:
Probably a wash here.

Computer connectivity:
The fact that you can mount the Android phones as disk drives and use them to transport data and drag and drop media files is very nice. I know that there's drop box and air sync and all that, but when you want something from a coworker/friends computer, then those become a bit of a hassle. With my Android, just plug it in, drag, and drop. Simple.

Overall, if you can't tell, I can't really find a single thing that is better on the iPhone than on the Mytouch 4G. My personal opinion is that because of all the flexibility of the Android phones, people get scared. The iPhone is like In and Out (which I do love, btw), you know what you are getting. As much as I love In and Out though, I don't want to eat fast food everyday. The Android phones are like cooking your own food to meet your diet at your house. Is it a bit more work? Absolutely! But is it a better way of life? You bet.

So do yourself a favor, next time you are thinking about getting a new phone, don't be an Apple robot. Expand your horizons a bit and engage in the better technology (unless your company gives you an iPhone, then just grin and bear it and relish the times when your wife asks you to send a text on her Mytouch 4g)

Alethia Church and Timothy Richard Tebow

I'm a pastor. at a church. called Alethia
Timothy is a qb. on a team. called the Broncos

I have finally found where our worlds collide. That is neat.

Our church (www.alethiachurch.org) has taken a unique approach to our leadership since day 1. Shared pastoral leadership with men who have full time jobs. 6 of our 7 pastors all work full time outside of the church. Most of us also have a wife and children. Our 7th pastor receives a full time paycheck, but also has responsibilities at home as his wife teaches, making him bivocational as well. Guess what? It's working. Well. I would dare say, it's a Biblical approach to elder led churches. The principles are this:
1) Shared leadership provides accountability
2) Shared leadership guards against ministerial burn out
3) Shared leadership provides a community of teachers
4) Shared leadership can lead to greater financial stewardship

This matter of leadership means that when I get up to preach, there's a sense of acceptance from men in the congregation. They know that I have been not only working my job, raising my kids, and loving my wife, but I have also spent time serving and studying. I believe this is one of the reasons why we have so many strong men in our church. Jesus is a savior that we can relate to. Our pastors are men that other men can relate to in this season of their life.

I believe this model is scary to vocational pastors.

It says that we can accomplish great things as a church without having to pay staff. If you have oriented your entire professional career around being a paid pastor and then a successful model comes along that renders most of those jobs in an unpaid capacity, that could be devastating. What happens if Alethia becomes a church of 1,000+ with one full time paid pastor? Churches that size typically have 5-8 full time paid pastors. What if this whole thing works?

Tim Tebow and the Broncos are winning football games using basic football principles.
1) Running the ball shortens the length of the game
2) Running the ball means less turnovers
3) Running the ball provides rest for your defense
4) Running the ball wins games

Brian Xanders, the Broncos GM, said that the team that wins the turnover differential and sack differential will win almost 90% of their games. It has been no secret that running the ball, stopping the run, and not turning the ball over will win football games. So why is everyone so shocked that they are winning?

Here's why.

The "NFL prototype" qb's are afraid that there's another way. The pundits think that they have it figured out. You need Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees to win super bowls. You have to be able to throw the ball with speed and accuracy. Nobody likes to be wrong, and Timmy Touchdown and the Broncos are proving them wrong.

What's going to happen if this works? Fullbacks will become Qb's. Coaches who have trained to have complex passing attacks will no longer be needed at the level they are. 16 year old kids who dream of playing QB in the league will have to start learning how to run and read LB's rather than coverages. The established elite in the football world are scared that the Broncos may actually win. Suddenly Tim Jefferson at AFA becomes just as coveted as Andrew Luck.

If Alethia and the Broncos are successful in winning souls and football games respectively using non traditional methods, the traditional methodists (pun intended) will have their cores shaken.

The days of the superstar pastor and superstar QB may be on their way out...or at least becoming less necessary.

Let us pray

#OccupytheBCS

WARNING: THE CONTENT ON THIS POST HAS PROBABLY ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN. THERE ARE LIKELY NO NEW THOUGHTS HERE. JUST THE RAMBLINGS OF AN IDIOT WHO THINKS IT'S FUN TO WEAR A SWEATER VEST EVERY WEDNESDAY

Since I have no dog in the fight nor will I for awhile (CSU just fired Fairchild and I don't know if we will ever be in the mix for a national championship), I think I'm a fairly impartial and fair observer to the BCS. Plain and simple, it's horrible. As an athlete, I couldn't imagine playing in a sport where at the beginning of the year I knew I didn't have the chance to win the final prize. Yet, for the mid major and small conferences, that's exactly what we have. 70% of the teams know that they cannot win the National Championship no matter how well they play. There will be no Butler Bulldog stories in college football. Ever. Under this current system.

Here's the other thing that really bugs me. Every pundit I listen to who says that the whole season is a playoff is full of it. There's only one scenario where that is true and that's if there are only 2 unbeaten teams from BCS conferences. Forget the non-BCS teams, they don't really count. They're like the AAA to the Majors. How often do we have 2 clear cut, unbeaten, BCS teams play one another? This year is no exception. LSU played Alabama. LSU won. If the whole season is a playoff, why does Alabama get another shot? Is it a double elimination whole season playoff? What if Bama beats LSU in the bowl game? Is there a rematch? Nope, Bama is the Major BCS school football as determined by votes and computers Champion (I refuse to say National Champion because it's a lie and Revelations 21:8 says Liars go to hell...I have a T Shirt to prove it). How is it that every single sport has a champion that is determined on the field of play except college football?

You may have read all the reports about money and prestige. You may have seen that most BCS bowl CEO's make over $500k to plan one football game. That's probably all the reason why, but how can we end it.

Occupy the BCS.

Like the current movement, I have no idea where it would go or how it would start. However, a few hashtags on twitter and some signs at the BCS games could get us started. Maybe it will take down the BCS empire and crown an actual champion or maybe it will end in some drunk nincompoop (that's right, I said nincompoop, deal with it) streaking at the Fiesta Bowl, either way, I think we are on to something here.

#OccupytheBCS phase one - find out who runs to bowl games

#OccupytheBCS phase two - camp outside their ridiculously nice home(s)

#OccupytheBCS phase three - order Godfather Pizza in memory of Herman Cain

#OccupytheBCS phase four - eat pizza and wait for the media coverage

#OccupytheBCS phase five - topple the BCS and live in glory

#OccupytheBCS phase six - #Tebowing at the end of the victory

We can't go wrong here people. End the BCS, give sanity to college football, never buy a drink in Boise again.

Hooray!

What a crazy month...

If you have noticed, my last two posts have been about how down and out it is to be an NBA fan and Denver fan. Maybe I haven't gotten around to writing anything because I am so intoxicated with happiness that things have turned a corner.

So the NBA has kick started again starting December 9th and the Nuggets are...well...1 player is going to sign elsewhere, 3 players are stuck in China, and we need to spend money to get back to the salary cap floor. How that's going to happen I have no idea, but I am so glad that basketball is back and I have no idea what the Nuggets are going to look like.

The fighting Tebows. I love them. I think they are going to lose every time, but I love them. I can't wait to continue being surprised.

That's all. Carry on.

An open letter to the NBA

Dearest NBA,
First and foremost, I have been a fan of your product since about 1986 when I fell in love with the Chicago Bulls and Denver Nuggets. In 1988 I was a ball boy for a game and couldn't wait to meet Michael Adams and Fat Lever. I was caught up. I fell in love. The past few years, I haven't missed a Nuggets game on TV. Even when I lived in Cali, I would log in to my dad's sling box and watch them. Needless to say, I'm the fan you can't lose. I'm the customer to whom your advertisers cater. I'm the person who buys the jerseys.

Also, I'm in the business of customer addition and retention (outside sales). I know how difficult it is to get a loyal customer like myself. You will do anything to keep them. When college basketball is on, I watched the NBA. When the Thursday night NFL game was on, I'd watch the NBA. I cared about the Broncos, but the Nuggets and NBA basketball were my top sports priority. If I could choose between going to the Super Bowl or a home game against the Bucks in Denver, I'd have chosen to stay here. Seriously.

What you have decided to do (the players and owners combined) is open up your competition. You are in the sports and entertainment business. You have no longer captured my attention. I should be hanging out on denverstiffs.com today talking about the return of Carmelo to Denver. Instead, I'll be turning my attention to college basketball, Arsenal football (thanks to the Kroenke's), and college/professional football (we all know college is professional these days). Guess what, I like what I'm seeing.

Now, if you can find a way to resuscitate this season, I will probably be back...unlike KMart, Chandler, and JR. If you give me a whole year to get emotionally invested in other sports, you run the danger of losing the fan like me. A die hard who has serious opinions about why Priest Lauderdale failed in the NBA. And it will be a hard death.

To the owners, I get it. I'm not happy about it, but I get it. You are in business to make money and you aren't (supposedly). You have a product that the better it does, the more money some teams lose because popularity is in the Miami Heat's of the world and not the Bucks. If the NFL had the same thing going, the Dolphins and Packers would have changed position. However, you knew what you were buying into. Your fellow owners are the one's who gave Brian Cardinal a crazy amount of money and paid Darko (KAHNNNNN!!!). You are asking the players to give up money because you overpaid them. The answer. Sign a 50/50 split and keep the soft cap and player transitions they way they are and STOP OVERSPENDING!

To the players, I get it. I'm not happy about it, but I get it. You, unlike the owners, have a very short period of time to maximize your product. You need to sign the best deal possible. However, you have severely overvalued the product you put out there. Most people aren't like me. You are opening up the door for the purity of college basketball to overtake the physicality of the NBA. Maybe that's OK. But realize this, a lot of fans may not come back. A lot already think it's a game of tatted up thugs. I dispute that claim all the time, but that's the perception and this lockout/strike ain't helping. I say slash strike because the moment you refused to sign the owner's proposal, you decided to strike and refuse to play under those parameters. Also, you have to realize that you are negotiating against billionaires. They signed a bad deal and want a new one. Bad news, you're not going to win. It's America and those with more money tend to come out victorious.

While I'm sad the season might be cancelled, I'm not as sad as I thought. Premier league footy is gripping and intense and Van Persie is killing it this year after a rough start by the Gunners. College basketball just had a tremendous day. The Fighting Tebows are making things interesting in Denver. I have realized I can live without the NBA.

And you can't live without fans like me.

Church - Jesus = Country Club

As I was reading through Acts 5 this morning, I was struck with this thought that isn't new to anyone...however, I think it should never be forgotten. A church with all the great human bells and whistles, organizational structure, great food, good community without Jesus at it's center is no more than a social club. You know, like a country club where all the blue hairs sit around talk about how terrible the world is but never actually do anything to change it? A women's book club where the book is briefly discussed, then the wine breaks out along with the latest community gossip so that they don't have to engage in their own hurts. "Guy's night" which is really just an excuse to let our tongue's loosen up and be one of the guy's and not really a time for Biblically defined, Jesus centered community.

I could go on and on...but I'll let God have a word here (Acts 5:35-39):
³⁵ He said, “Fellow Israelites, consider carefully what you intend to do to these people. ³⁶ Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and some four hundred men joined him. After he was killed, all of his followers scattered, and nothing came of that. ³⁷ Afterward, at the time of the census, Judas the Galilean appeared and got some people to follow him in a revolt. He was killed too, and all his followers scattered far and wide. ³⁸ Here’s my recommendation in this case: Distance yourselves from these men. Let them go! If their plan or activity is of human origin, it will end in ruin. ³⁹ If it originates with God, you won’t be able to stop them. Instead, you would actually find yourselves fighting God!” The council was convinced by his reasoning.

What is your church about? Are we becoming a church more like Theudas's or Judas the Galilean's? Are you more about social justice than the Gospel of Jesus? Are you more about proper theology than the Resurrection? Does human judgment reign more than the Grace of God? You see, my fear is that we can figure out ways to get people into our churches without actually bringing them into an encounter with the living Christ. Don't get me wrong, community groups, social justice, sound doctrine, good singing, solid teaching, etc are all great things. But they are not God things. If they are from human origin, they will fail.

Community that arises out of a desire to live Biblically as God intended will not be stopped
Justice that is done in the name of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit will not be stopped
Sound doctrine that is rooted and established in the love of Jesus will not be stopped
Singing that is done in churches as unto the Lord will not be stopped
Solid teaching from the pulpit down under the authority of God for the glory of God because of the sacrifice of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit will not be stopped

We could go on and on and on about good things that we make God things and not the Godly good things that they are. So what is your church about? What are you about?

My prayer for my church, family, and self is that I will one day be stripped down to where Paul came to and say, "I consider my life (my church, my family) worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." My church, my family, my life are all apart of this process to be sure. But I pray that they are a means to the end goal of seeing as many lives changed through the grace of Jesus on account of whatever faithfulness God grants to me.

Will you join me in praying for your church, pastors, leaders, and fellow members? Pray that will all be gripped by the love of Jesus. That His love will compel us. Pray that we will not be churches that are built by human traditions and origins. Pray that the movement of Jesus will never be stopped on account of our flesh getting in the way.

No more country clubs.