Sunday Night Brain Download

Dear Mosaic,

I’m sitting here reflecting on this morning and I thought I would put it down on “paper”, so here goes:

1. This morning was AMAZING!  I had a blast at church today.
2. The worship team was ON POINT!  Everyone was on cue and the presence of God was real and obvious.  Today’s worship experience was one that I’ll remember for a long time.
3. Watching three people step forward to be baptized was the highlight of my week.  I will never get tired of watching people make a public declaration of faith in Christ.  
4. I LOVE MY JOB!!  See # 3.
5. I had a blast speaking today.  
6. Don’t forget to add some rest into your rhythm this week.  None of us can go forever without rest so don’t put it off.
7. Remember, sometimes you gotta say no.
8. Looking forward to having dinner with several Mosaic couples tomorrow night.

Well, that’s about it for now.  I’m loving this journey and I know God has big things in store for all of us in 2012!

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon. 

Bringing Sexy Back 2012

This year I’m turning 40.  I know, I know, I don’t look a day over 50. 

Anyway, I’m surprised how reflective this has made me.  I think age is just a number but in a way, it’s also a way to keep score.  Have I done what I set out to do?  Have I done the important stuff?  Have I focused my time and energy on the things that really matter?  

Maybe age isn’t the scoreboard, but it is the timer and if I live a normal life, I’m about halfway through the dance, maybe more.  With this coming up, a few years ago I set myself a few goals to reach before I turned 40.

1.  Finish my Master’s Degree: If all goes according to plan, I’ll graduate 9 days after my 40^th Birthday.
2. Visit all 50 States: As of today, I still lack 3 – North Dakota, West Virginia and Alaska.  I don’t think I’ll accomplish this one by 40 but you never know, I still have 4 months.
3. Finish a Triathlon Sprint. 

This brings me to the reason for this post.  About six or seven years ago, I saw an ad in Men’s Health for the Nautica Challenge in Southern California.  It’s a mini triathlon or a sprint.  It starts with a ½ mile ocean swim, then an 18 mile bike ride and finishes with a 4 mile run.  This is one of the goals I set for myself before I turned 40. 

What was I thinking?

Anyway, I’ve decided to lower my sights a bit and sign up for the Greeley Triathlon in June.  It’s also a sprint, but I won’t have to travel to do this one.  It’s a 500 yard swim, 10 mile bike ride and 5k run.

So I have a goal, and I’m training. 

I’ve been working out at Phoenix Training Studios in downtown Greeley.  A friend owns this gym, the classes are small and the workouts are tough.  

I think this is just the incentive I need to Bring Sexy Back in 2012.  Sexy has been gone for a LONG time but if I reach my goal, I’ll no doubt lose a few pounds and BRING SEXY BACK! 

I’d like to invite you to join me.  My friend at Phoenix has given me a bunch of free one week passes to the gym.  If you’d like to try it out for a week, just call them and ask for Kris.  Tell him Angel sent you and you’ll get your free week.

http://www.phoenixtrainingstudios.com  970-356-1109

Let’s Bring Sexy Back!! 

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

My first tumblr blog post.

Mosaic Church and The Bikini Bike Wash

A few weeks ago our associate pastor Ray was contacted by the local Harley-Davidson dealer.  They asked if our church would be interested in hosting a bike-blessing booth at their dealership for their big summer bar-b-que kickoff event.  It took us about 2 seconds to say yes: we love bikes and bikers and annually host Biker Sunday at Mosaic (This year it’s July 10^th). 

As the event moved closer we found out we would be positioned right next to the bikini bike wash…..um, oooo.kay.  This can present a unique position for a church.  Should we participate in an event that some see as degrading to women or should we politely decline?  We decided to move forward.

I heard it said once that light shines the brightest in the darkest places. 

We set up our booth and sure enough, we were RIGHT NEXT to the bikini bike wash: complete with about a half-dozen bikini clad women in their late teens and early 20’s washing motorcycles while men stood around taking pictures.  Is this any kind of a place for a church to be?

I say YES!!

I think this is exactly where the church SHOULD be.  Too often Christians become insulated from people around them who desperately need Jesus.  They, under the guise of “avoiding the appearance of evil” choose to retreat from those who need the light the most.  Was the day uncomfortable?  Not really, it was actually a lot of fun.  We prayed with several bikers and blessed a bunch of bikes.  All in all, it was a great day and I hope to do it again next year.

I think you should ask yourself: What is it that God might be wanting me to do?  Maybe you’ve overlooked it because you thought: “There’s no way God would want me to do that, to go there or to reach out to that person.”

I say go for it, because if you don’t, who will?

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

10,000 Hours and Justin Bieber’s New Movie

This afternoon I went and watched Justin Bieber’s documentary: “Never Say Never.”  I must admit, I enjoyed it.  The kid is very talented and he goes for it when he performs.  He puts on a good show and his story was inspirational: unknown kid in small town gets discovered on Youtube and is now selling out Madison Square Garden.  Awesome story.

But that wasn’t what struck me the most.  

There’s a scene where he’s sitting in front of a theater playing his guitar before he’s discovered.  His mom said he would sit out there and just sing and play for people walking by, FOR HOURS. This scene reminded me of the 10,000 hour rule in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers.  The rule is basically this: if you want to become great at something, practice it for 10,000 hours.  Sounds simple on the surface but imagine the power in practicing something, ANYTHING for 10,000 hours.  

To put this in perspective, if you work a 40 hour week for a year and take 2 weeks of vacation, you will work 2,000 hours.  If you do this for 5 years straight, you’ll hit that 10,000 hours.  Now imagine that instead of working a job for all that time you:

• Played your guitar
• Practiced singing
• Practiced public speaking
• Worked on math
• Shot free-throws
• Programmed computers
• Perfected your cooking
• Studied and practiced whatever it is that you love to do… for 10,000 hours.

“Oh, Angel, I couldn’t ever make time to work on that, I’m too busy.”  I know, I know. That’s why there are only a few Justin Biebers, because only a few people are willing to put everything into their craft, into their calling.  I say: No more excuses.  Just get going on your 10,000 hours.

God’s Miraculous Provision

Today we announced at Mosaic Church & Amanecer Cristiano the incredible miracle that God performed this week.  This is how it unfolded:

A couple of months ago we were contacted by Rick White of the Agur Foundation out of Denver.  The Agur Foundation’s mission statement is: To build up the body of Christ around the world by providing properties for new Christian churches to develop, grow and flourish.  With this mission in mind, after a series of conversations with Rick and his team, it was decided that the Agur Foundation would donate a piece of land to Mosaic/Amanecer Cristiano.  The land is less than an acre in size but is in a high traffic area in Greeley and is valued at between $401,000 and $461,000.  The intent of the donation is that we would either sell or somehow leverage the property to get into our own building. 

This past Monday, we closed on the property and it is now ours.  I cannot say enough good things about Rick White and the Agur Foundation.  They are some of the most kingdom-minded people I’ve ever met and only eternity will fully reveal the far-reaching effects of their generosity.

God has continued to amaze us on this 3 year church planting journey and I can’t wait to see how this chapter will unfold. 

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

Staycation 2010

Today is day 3 of our Staycation (Stay at home vacation).  We planned several vacations for this summer but each time one or two details didn’t work out.  Sometimes it was conflicting schedules for me, sometimes for my active kids and sometimes we couldn’t find the deal we wanted.  This week we had family come in from South Texas and it worked out that we could take this week off and enjoy a staycation. 

On Monday we drove up to Estes Park and spent the afternoon there.  Then we went into Rocky Mountain National Park ($20 per car!) and saw the Aluvian fan.  The waterfall was incredible!  Tuesday we drove to the Royal Gorge.  It was amazing.  If you’ve never been there, you should go, it’s awesome.  Today we just hung around Centerra in Loveland and did some school clothes shopping. A relaxing day.  Tomorrow: Elitch Gardens Amusement Park in Denver. 

Diane and I have been extremely blessed in the travel department.  We recently visited our 46th state and are anxious to get those last four (Alaska, North Dakota, Michigan and West Virginia in case you were wondering.)  I love to travel and see new places, experience new things and try new food but  I never realized how much fun a staycation could be.  It’s been awesome.

That’s kind of how life can be sometimes.  We spend so much time looking out past the horizon that we miss what’s right around us.  We miss what’s close by.  It’s easy to give the majority of our time and attention to climbing the ladder and getting ahead.  I have nothing against progress, but don’t move forward at the expense of missing what’s all around you.  Time has a way of sneaking past us.  Don’t miss what’s around you.

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

A Mosaic Milestone and The Worship Team

Last night we had the worship and media team over for a backyard BBQ.  It was a great time with an amazing, self-sacrificing team.  We even bought the good hamburgers and non-generic chips (oh yeah baby, it was that wild.) 

I love these guys for a couple of reasons:

1. They’re willing to try anything.  We’ve tried all kinds of stuff on Sundays.  Some have worked well, some not so well.  They’re not afraid to try cover tunes, mixing arrangements, whatever it takes to get people connected with God.

2. They work to improve.  They practice with their own instruments and are all open to get better.  No primadonnas on this team, just a bunch of people who love worship and love God.

3. They don’t just show up at Mosaic to perform or “do their thing”, they are coming to church and are a part of the church, not their own sub-group.

4. The A/V team rarely get to sit with their families during service.  Without what they do, no one enjoys the service or the online worship experience.  Their sacrifice allows people to connect with God every week both live and online.

5. I also appreciate Zach, our worship pastor.  Pastor Perry Noble said it best when he describes what a true worship pastor does: ”If a worship leaders thinks “their job” is to just sing then you don’t have a worship leader…you have an arrogant performer who wants people to worship them rather than leading them to worship Jesus.  Worship is WAY more than singing…it’s serving Jesus by doing whatever it takes to make His Name known!”  Zach goes above and beyond all the time.  That’s why the team he’s leading is so outstanding.

What made the night even more awesome is that 2 years ago we had a backyard BBQ for all of the people who volunteered in the church.  It was a fun time with a handful of people.  As I recall, we were all able to share one watermelon. :-)

Last night we had more people at our BBQ from just one ministry team than we did from the entire church volunteer team 2 years ago.  What a cool moment! 

One element I knew was important when we started the church was creating teams.  I wasn’t intentional enough about it though but we’re learning.  I’m really excited about what God is doing at Mosaic.  Later on this summer we’re doing similar BBQ’s for all the teams.  Can’t wait.

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.