Thursday, March 19, 2009 @ 9:52 am by Josh Burcham

Heard a quote this week from Francis Chan, “we can build churches without God, get the right communicator and pastors and people can build “successful” growing churches.” Bill Hybels has said he built a majority of Willow Creek without God.

It’s possible to be successful without God. The story of the Tower of Babel comes to mind.

How much do we rely on your gifts and how much do we rely on the Holy Spirit?

Just think what God could accomplish with our churches and lives changed if we stopped and waited for the holy spirit to move. I think churches would look much different than they do today.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 @ 10:11 pm by Josh Burcham

the weekend was: uneventful. other than having to work late Friday and all day Sunday. not much of a weekend.

tech that caught my attention: easy iPhone 3.0 OS. I’m stoked about this. If you haven’t seen he new features coming in the iPhone 3.0 OS, check out this video.

where i am at the moment: sitting at my desk at home. drinking RC Cola that was $1.20 for a 2-liter (I can hear my mom saying, “i thought you quit drinking soda” not sure where she got this idea, but i never quit. she keeps trying to convince me i did) and listening to some iTunes.

on my to-do list this week: nothing! school stuff is done from my end and nothing else really going on. my dad gets into town this Friday and I have the weekend off. nothing planned but hanging with my Dad!

procrastinating about: procrastinating…had to think about this one. cleaning my house. I had to think about it, because i really don’t want to do it and have blocked the need out of my head. tomorrow morning, i’ll do it. hopefully.

how am I seeing God work: right now i’m on deck when it comes to God moving me to the next step. went for a drive yesterday before heading into work to talk with God. then last night it was confirmed that i’m waiting. waiting for what, not sure. but i know where i’ll eventually be headed. i can see God is moving around me and i’m stoked in where and how He is moving. i’m trusting His plan is perfect and just waiting.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: weird but Mark Schultz is. not a huge fan of his type of music, but there is one song that is really speaking to my heart!

how i’m feeling about this week: i’m stoked. dad in town this weekend, mom in town next week.

how did God speak through your group on tuesday: talked about church membership and where and how to plug in. i’m struggling with this one and erik was nice enough to share his thoughts. actually he wasn’t really nice about it. i think my issue is i’m wired to plugin somewhere for the long haul and i know that whatever church i plug into now isn’t going to be a long haul, but a resting place for a short time. i guess, i don’t think it’s fair to the church. i don’t know. still walking down that road. next week we are talking about slowing down (chapter 11 of i became a christian and all i got was a lousy t-shirt)

random: Burj Dubai Tower. 818 meters tall. that almost 300 meters on the CN Tower!

Monday, March 16, 2009 @ 10:37 am by Josh Burcham

I’m thinking about changing my blog style. Not sure I like the current one and looking for a little change.

What do you think?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 @ 1:43 pm by Josh Burcham

I did a three year stint in South Dakota getting there in a February Blizzard and leaving in another February Blizzard. I capitalize them like they were the blizzards of all blizzards, but once winter starts, its basically a blizzard till its over. In my opinion. And FREAKING cold! My brother, Steve, posted some pictures and a video of Fargo, ND today. And in love and good spirits. I’ll post Phoenix, AZ today. And I’ll let my readers choose which city they would like to live.

Fargo, North Dakota:

Phoenix, Arizona:

Weather Reports for March 10th, 2009:

Monday, March 9, 2009 @ 10:16 pm by Josh Burcham

the weekend that was: rather full. Friday played some XBOX with some guys, which is alway a great night of deep conversation and murderous rampages in Call of Duty. Saturday was just odds and ends around the house and that night was a time I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. I’ll leave it at that. Sunday was FULL! Church at Parkway (still decieding if I want to make this my church home), then up to Radiant to hear Mark Batterson from National Community teach and then work till close.

tech that caught my attention: kindle 2 still has my attention. There won’t be one in my near future for the fact that it carries a $359 price tag and I can’t justify it with the amount of books I buy. Amazon’s Kindle Site. Recommended books for the Kindle 2.

where i am at the moment: I’m at home in my newly design office. Pretty happy with it. Still need to put up from pictures and purchase a couple more bookshelves, but it is all coming together. The living room is looking very nice as well.

on my to-do list this week: graphics work, planning out next week, work and cleaning the upstairs. Hopefully fitting in some reading.

procrastinating about: paying bills. waiting for money to come in.

book i’m in the midst of: picked up some new ones, churched by Matthew Turner, Branding Faith by Phil Cooke and a classic leadership gem, Visioneering by Stanley,  to add to my selves when I was in Colorado last weekend, but still reading through It by Groeschel. That one I’ve picked up, put down and picked up again.

music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: Going back to some great ’90′s music. Green Day’s Dookie (all around great CD), Weezer, etc. Still listening to a lot of Chris Tomlin and Mark Schultz.

how i’m feeling about this week: uh, good question. Not really feeling any particitual way about it. I’m doing some heavy praying this week for next steps, but not really expecting an answer just yet. I’m thinking He is still working on some things. I am looking forward to Tuesday and Wednesday for ovious reasons.

Monday, March 9, 2009 @ 5:57 pm by Josh Burcham

Tony Morgan over at Newspring Church posts a great personal story and commented truth about leadership. If you are in any type or form of leadership, this is worth its weight in gold! Excerpt from Are you really the leader? below:

Leadership looks a lot different these days.

• It doesn’t necessarily reside in the corner office.
• It’s something that’s earned rather than bestowed.
• It rarely tells people what to do, but rather asks how can I serve?
• It can’t be bought, because most people ultimately care very little about the money.
• It’s focused more on the mission than the tasks.
• It’s concerned more about fostering influence instead of wielding power.
• It recognizes the next new idea will come from someone else.
• It doesn’t necessarily require words.

Monday, March 9, 2009 @ 2:18 pm by Josh Burcham

I’ve been apart of a lot of small groups of people for bible study and accountability, but this group I’m in now with @john_popovich and Erik is one of the best. Truth is talked about every week and I leave challenged to walk with Christ. Accountability and next steps are always a must. These kinds of groups don’t happen often, but I encourage you to find one!

We’re reading through I Became a Christian and All I Got Was a Lousy T-Shirt. Worth the read and Vince is a funny dude. Very challenging and funny book. It will mess you up.

Our group really isn’t an open-for-anyone group, but if one of us invites you, you need to make the time and say yes! You will be forever changed if you walk in with the right attitude. And if you walk in with the wrong attitude, you might be asked to walk out.

Monday, March 2, 2009 @ 8:12 pm by Josh Burcham

Nathan, my youngest brother, plays Bantam AA and his team is actually pretty good. Took the season in first place with only 11 loses in just shy of 70 games. Pretty impressive. I came up here to Colorado to watch him play and make it to regionals down in Phoenix. Well, it didn’t happen. Their team just couldn’t get it together. Here is a letter one of the fathers sent out after the game. It was too good to not post:

Jaguars,

You won’t believe the nightmare I had last night. I dreamed that we were in the semi-finals of the state championships and the boys looked like they were playing in the ice instead of on the ice. They could barely move their feet in the frozen water, and the pucks kept wafting by their sticks, like tiny, intangible clouds driven by irregular, shifting puffs of wind. They were confused and disorganized—like the stock market. To make matters worse, three angry-looking harpies wearing striped black and white shirts kept hooking our boys with their razor-sharp talons and tossing them into the penalty box. Pretty soon, there wasn’t any more room for me. I could barely move, barely breathe. And here’s the weirdest part: We were losing to Arapahoe, one of the sloppiest teams in the league and four-time losers to the Jaguars. It was mysterious, bizarre and terrifying, and I woke up drenched in sweat and gasping for air. Thank God it was only a drea……

Hold on a second folks, Kerry’s talking. What’s that, honey? I wasn’t dreaming? Are you effin’ kidding me? That was reality? Sweet Mother of God, I need to up my medication post-haste and schedule a session with my counselor, Glen Livet, right away!

Take a deep breath. Calm down. Stop sobbing. Get a hold of yourself, Mike.

OK. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you’d hoped. Sometimes the underdog wins. Sometimes the sure thing falls through. That’s sports. In fact, it’s the highs and the lows—the very uncertainty of the outcome of things—that makes sports so exciting, so flat-out addicting.

I loved this season. We played 60 games, winning 46, losing 11 and tying three. It’s the best season most of us have ever had. In many cases, it’s one of the few winning seasons we’ve had, and I’m truly grateful for it. Jamie taught these boys how to beat some of the top Bantam AA teams in the U.S. Hell, he coached them to victory over some of the top Bantam AAA teams in the U.S. We won the International Silver Stick Tournament, setting Canada’s number one and number two Bantam AA teams on their heads in the process. And we did it with a rag-tag team cobbled together from everywhere; the Canadians literally had several hundred kids try out for each of their teams. Yes, they are that good. But we are the first team from Colorado to win that tournament, and one of the few American teams to ever do it at any level in the 47-year history of the tournament. Our name is posted in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada next to the case containing the original Silver Stick trophy. How many bantams can say that?

But you know what was best of all about this season? It was watching the boys learning how to adapt to unfamiliar systems. Or, in many cases, it was seeing them learn how to play with complete strangers in positions they’ve never played before: Lance became a defenseman; Gabe, a utility player; Kyle a roller hockey player-cum-ice hockey player, and so on. It was seeing them being given jobs to do and then doing them, not always happily, but willingly and with focus and effort, like the young adults they are rapidly becoming. These boys were developed and, win or lose, isn’t that what we were in it for? I think so.

There’s much more, of course. We fought through adversity, we fought through injuries. Remember when Austin broke his collar bone and separated his shoulder and had to be carried off the ice on a stretcher? Or when Blake sacrificed his kneecap to a slap shot and was forced to miss the Silver Stick finals? And how about George, who often battled against players almost twice his size, and in the process suffered two separated shoulders, a broken wrist and torn rib cartilage? He never quit, and you never caught him complaining. We have some tough kids on this team, but is there anybody tougher than him? I doubt it. He’s a great kid, and he exemplified this team’s tenacity. Talk about a champion.

I especially loved hanging out with all of you parents. You are the best parents we’ve ever been affiliated with—except for two of you (I think the rest of you know who I’m talking about). J You put up with my bullshit with grace and style and patience, and I love you all. Thank you one and all for a tremendous season. I don’t expect to have it any better ever again.

XXXX XXXXXXX

There is nothing like team sports. I am extremely greatful for getting the opporunity to play hockey with a great bunch of guys over the years. Letters like this just bring me back. There is nothing like a team.