June Bug

Hey-o last week from Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon I experienced what was called Umpire Boot Camp. It was some serious training that I went through to be a better umpire. Because of the training, I'll get a number on my sleeve and a logo on my pocket from the group called CCUA. Those two things will act as notification to the coaches that I'm not just someone that came out to umpire for the money. CCUA actually stands for Colorado Collegiate Umpires Association. I don't have any college games lined up right now, but the top graduate (not me) will be the Umpire in Chief at the Colorado High School All Star game this year and it will be held at Coors Field which is where the Rockies play. I was one of the top graduates that was chosen to work some extra games, just not THE top. Our instructors flew in from Florida, Missouri, Canada, and many just came from Colorado. The lead instructors were Bob Jones and Bill Davis. Bob worked in the MLB for a bit in the late 70's and early 80's. He has also been an umpire in 3 of the College World Series. Bill has also umpired in the College World Series and was also a part of the staff during the Olympic games in Atlanta in 96. The other instructors are a little less stellar, but by no means , came out to teach us about umpiring the little league summer games. It was a good experience for me - now I just need to get some more games.

God - Man

Hello - it's been a while. You know, stuff has been happening. I just wanted to talk about God's work for a minute. Maybe you've heard of or been a part of spiritual warfare. Here's the way I see it:
Satan sits around watching the people. If someone gets rambunctious and starts to do something that goes against what he is doing, he gets a little upset. The stuff that he hates to see is God stuff being done - that motivates him to take action. His action can be something that seems cool (David checking out Bathsheba taking a bath) to something awful (Job loses family, home - everything). He is a smart dude (God is smarter). His actions to stop God's work are where the idea of the warfare comes in.
We are free to follow Christ or do nothing and be on Satan's team. That is why he does nothing if we are doing no God Stuff. Now, going to church doesn't necessarily count as God stuff. Many times it ends up just being a place where people can have their consciences soothed by the thought that they had been at the church once this week. Beyond that, at church sometimes lives are changed. Outside those building walls, the church is working in the community shining Christ. That is God fighting back.
Well, we are in a place where there is considerable warfare going on. Our church is small, our income is not quite what it should be to survive, over the past month the people in our church have had some really weird illnesses to some more common, but many in our family have spent time in the hospital. The devil is working hard against what we have going on - or life would be easy. I love that most of our family is committed to seeing God glorified through our meetings and community involvement. I love that as each person is healed or a problem is solved, we can see that it was God at work and not just some stroke of luck.
God rocks and He is rocking in our church family as I write this now. It is hard to see some of the casualties that come from committing completely to God, and it is nerve wracking to follow Isaiah 40:31 and wait on God to be awesome, but He will be - He always is. Our hearts feel nearly torn out because of the struggles, but that last string of nerves, tendons, and muscles that holds each heart in place we tend to see as our best attempt to hold on to God.
Of course there is no way we could hold on without Him--we would just slip and let go - He's the one holding on to us. He is the one that sees the beauty in our struggle. He is the one that loves our efforts. At this point we can begin to fall back on the names of God that have been said for many more moons than I've lived. He is the Comfort! He is the Healer! He is the Patience! He is the Power! He is the Glory! He is the Life! He is the Way! He is the Truth! He is the Hope! He is the Completion!

Movie Night

We are going to be having a movie night at our church on Sunday night. It is a place where people can come and get to know us without being preached or "religionated" It should be pretty fun - we will be watching "The Game Plan" We are having popcorn and sodas (cokes or pop for everyone else) and we will be using one of the projectors to get a giant screen. Well, since it costs money to get the popcorn and drinks - and since we aren't the most loaded of churches, the movie is free, but the popcorn and drinks won't be. This is the poster that I made that has been produced for our movie night. There will not be any 3D glasses, but if someone does come up with $18 I could probably come up with a pair. For Sunday morning, I've made two "radio-style" commercials. You've got to listen to them in order or they won't make sense. I'm all of the voices, except - Miss Chopsticks did her acting role to help the people in the church know that movie night is for families. So during the service these two commercials will be played at least two times. Enjoy - I know I do every time I hear them.

Monster Truck Ad #1
Pumped ad #2

Leprechaun

Today I sent Miss Chopsticks to school. Here She is...

When I went to pick her up, this little leprechaun was all I found.

Welcome

Hey, you know I have the outstandingly, fantastical, unbelievably, superbly, amazing opportunity to lead worship at our church here in Aurora --- www.newdayaurora.com --- Well, I've started having the sound guys record the whole service - including music - so that I can hear what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong as a band. Well, some of the talking that I did struck me as funny - I know that I said it, but it still was pretty funny. So, I thought that I would share it with you. So what you will be hearing is the welcome that I give to the church to get us started. This week we set out tables for most of the congregation to sit at as a new approach to "doing church", but left a couple of rows of chairs for those who didn't want anything to do with the table.The first set of cards that I talk about are Prayer/Info cards that are about 2"x8". The worship folder is a sheet of paper that is folded into thirds. So take a listen and see if you enjoy coming to my church.

CLICKY HERE TO HEAR