Mark Shuttleworth is probably the worst project manager I know.

This quick quip is in response to an article over on PC Pro UK that interviewed Shuttleworth.  For more on that story, click on over to read what he had to say: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/380446/ubuntu-is-for-everyone-not-only-leets-says-shuttleworth

So you may or may not know who I’m talking about so let me fill you in a little.  Mark Shuttleworth is the founder of the company Canonical which is who funds the modern day “Ubuntu” Linux operating system.  Their premise is simple:  Make an operating system by the people, for the people that is easy to use.  Sounds good on paper right?  Well, things have gone terribly wrong for the Linux distribution known as “Ubuntu” in the past few years and here is why.

1. Ubuntu has become political.  If you’re unfamiliar with Linux then you wouldn’t know that there are literally thousands of variants you can download and install.  Of all of those variants, each has their own agenda.  Prior to Ubuntu version 10, There was no (seemingly) apparent political agenda of Ubuntu.  It was a happy go lucky OS that was making great strides in being the best OS that was free to use.  Now, we have new user interfaces, new distribution channels for support, new backend code that is changing default behavior… basically the 10 plagues of Canonical that their end users are having to deal with.
2. There is very little value-add to their effort.  Back in Ubuntu 11.x they changed to a new interface called “Unity”.  If you want to, go google how many people hate it and how many people love it.  You’ll see the former represented more than the latter;  And in some twisted effort, the latter are now evangelists about the product on behalf of Canonical!  Linux is an evolving beast that develops slowly over time, not by leaps and bounds like they are trying to accomplish.
3. People have spoken and they are leaving Ubuntu in droves. While this isn’t a doom and gloom article over the total state of Ubuntu, it is a reality that if Canonical doesn’t wake up here soon, they may find their party base either completely unhappy or non-existent.

What is ironic to me at least is I started my Linux “hacking chops” on Ubuntu almost 2 1/2 years ago.  Since then I have moved on to Red Hat, CentOS and pretty much everything else in this world that is stable.  Every now and then I’ll dabble with the new Linux distro’s out there, but rarely do I find the time.  In the Linux world, there is an increased expectation of end users and “Leet” users that in some part of their core, expect things to just work how they should be known to work.  Ubuntu unfortunately is not helping with that expectation and they are hurting the distribution in the process.  In regards to Shuttleworth managing this project, he’s flopping all over the place.  Things are dealt with almost in spite (read that as anger) because someone makes an off-handed comment on the development process, suggestions get shot down because they don’t fit the core vision of where Mark wants to take Ubuntu.  Lastly, his stubborness is what is hurting Ubuntu.  As a good project manager, you have to listen to the changing wind and be mindful of your constraints.  Unfortunately for us all, he doesn’t seem to want to pay attention and for that, Ubuntu has become a lesser Linux distribution because of it.

3 reasons why I’m not watching the ‘State of the Union’.

Short.  Sweet Simple. 

1.) Barack Obama does not represent the “average” American.  No matter what words he may use, no matter how compassionate he may sound, his value system does not align with the American heritage of a “can do attitude” and “hard work leads to success”.

2) He is addicted to his own image.  Remember in his first term, we would have a press conference every 2 days to have something be the “topic of the day” which really was an exercise in the American citizens tolerating every word that came out of his mouth.  He showed us that the only hope and change he cares about are self-interests which again, do not align with traditional American ideals.

3) Lastly, he cannot be trusted.  Remember a few short months ago when he said the phrase: “99% of Americans who make LESS than $250,000, won’t see their taxes go up!”  BULL!  He knew the entire time that the payroll tax would go up nationwide from 4.2% to 6.2%.  Has this affected you?  I’ve lost $120 bucks a month and almost $1,500 dollars annually due to his majesty and his band of misfit congressmen and women.  It is clear that Washington D.C. doesn’t give a rip about anyone in the country, so why should we pay them mind?

I’ll summarize with this;  The President has so isolated himself from being either a left, mid-center or right wing President that he has chosen to take us down whatever path his whimsical mind decides for the day.  He is delusional to think that people still “like” him as a person and even more delusional to think that a majority of Americans trust him.  As my parents have said, he is the worst President since Jimmy Carter.  I only pray that after 8 years of this tripe we are able to recover faster than we did from Carter.

Lie to me

This one hits a nerve with me because it would seem our world has become a culture dominated by this simple 3 letter word: Lie.  The trend I have noticed that you may have noticed as well because all of you people are smarter than I am is how in the past few months, we have seen some of the largest news stories come about based on lying.  Mind you, this is from a US world view but if you’re reading this blog, I challenge you to find 3 news stories in your neck of the woods in the past few months that have had this tone to them as well.  These are a few that are notable to me.

Lance Armstrong 

7 time liar.

If you notice, Lance has come out and stated that he lied about taking performance enhancing drugs.  I’m not here to split hairs on what is or is not performance enhancing drugs but lets be frank, if you know that you’re “doping”, its sad that we see a man who has an incredible story of surviving cancer, stoop to all new lows in order to be viewed as the following:  A Winner.  A person of self-worth.  An inspiration model.  A leader of whom others should follow.  In thinking about those qualities, Armstrong has all but flushed those down the toilet along with his career as a cyclist.  Bringing this home for me, I wore a Livestrong band for almost 2 1/2 years straight.  Why?  It was a serving memory of a good friend Jeff McCombs who circum to cancer.  This was simply a daily reminder that Jeff and other friends who have gone through cancer are on my mind daily.  Now having removed that band almost a year ago amid rumors of Armstrong’s involvement with drugs, I have since removed it.  You might be saying: “Oh Aaron, what’s the big deal?”  Apparently the Livestrong foundation IS a big deal.  So much so that donors are asking for contributions back, that people are actually suing the company and the publishing houses for the books Armstrong put out under the umbrella of the Livestrong charity.  So where does this leave Lance?  Honestly, I think he’s done.  There’s no come back tour, there is no fame or glory in trying to be something that you aren’t.  If I were him, I would leave the limelight and try to make peace with myself, family and friends and not bother the world with another word unless asked a question.  So looking at this, we get our first lie from the world of sports.

A victim of his own success

Manti T’eo

The reason I bring this guy up is because he has so dominated our pop culture here in the States that it is to the point where it is sad that we’re are wasting anymore time covering this story.  I’m not even familiar with all the details of this story other than the bits and pieces I’ve gleaned from conversations with people and news media stories.  The guy won the Heisman (props to him) and apparently it was dedicated to his mother and girlfriend who died earlier in the season.  The rub you ask?  He never had a girlfriend, let alone one who died.  Now I’ve heard rumors that the girlfriend was actually a dude, that T’eo is gay and that this is masking his sexual orientation to the extreme of which if you notice the pattern, no matter how small or how big the lie is, see how many more are spawned because of it?  I’m not going to spend any time on this further but we see again our pop culture eat this story up and want to know the “why?” behind it.  Folks, people lie for no reason and justifying lying for no reason apparently doesn’t make for good television.

Hillary Clinton 

The do nothing Sec. State

This is my last example of lying.  An American consulate was attacked in Benghazi, Libya .  What stands out to me is that we have a government that probably by all accounts, watched from predator drones and listened in on friendly radio chatter as American lives were lost.  Hillary Clinton, to me anyways, represents the worse of the of the three as politics and lying in this day and age seem to be synonymous with how things are done.  Is the same true for you or how you would describe politics in your neck of the woods?  Clinton testified before a panel of congressional oversight team that asked the burning question of “why and how” of which as some sort of magician, she deflected any and all questions and asked new ones which were not even relevant to the subject at hand.  People want answers and they want them now.  Who knew what and when?  The problem is, we’ll never know.  Why?  Washington D.C. has sold its soul to two things:  The almighty dollar and the greed of power.  Both of those are held together by an interesting ideology:  Both of them are a lie.  Material wealth is a lie or allusion of self-worth or perceived worth and greed assumes that nothing could be taken away from you.  Interesting though when you think about it that in Mrs. Clinton’s case, she using lying or deception to maintain her innocence of wrong doing.  Why?  Money and Greed.  Hillary, I would’ve loved to see you be president over Barack Obama but again, you remind us that are just a hallowed out person who has no real grit for being honest.  For more, check out some video of the testimony on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dVZ9jyuM9U

Wrap-Up

As you can tell as I said in the beginning, this hits a nerve with me.  Does it with you?  It seems like the 21st century has ushered in an era of where lies and deception are a minute-by-minute thing that if not kept in check, grow widely out of control.  It’ll be interesting to read your comments and see what news stories have touched you regarding this topic.  I know I can’t be the only one out there that feels this way.

Don’t make a new years resolution!

While this may sound like the boy crying wolf, I find that a definitive date for making a statement either positive or negative can actually be harmful to persons psyche.  Instead, what do our hearts seek and what do our dreams tell us?  So much of our subconscious self will tell us that we are not worth much or that we are worthless.  That will eventually kill any desire or dreams that we have.  I’ll leave you with a poem from the author Langston Hughes who talks about dreams.  Langston wrote a lot about what a dream is worth and why a dream is worth having throughout his poetry.  Visualize and reflect for even just 10 minutes on what a new year will bring and what dreams you have that are still burning inside of you.  Be that dream and be that passion this next year and every year after.

 

“Dreams”:

 

Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

 

 

Let’s be honest… Tablets have failed.*

Now that I’ve tricked you into reading my blog, I’m guessing are probably a proponent of the tablet establishment that thinks they are a great product and a great tool!  Qualifying my statement some, I have owned an Android tablet and use an iPad for work on a weekly basis.  So why the hate?  It’s quite simple really.  While tablets have made it easier for some people to get into computing and using the world wide web (seriously… who the hell calls it that anymore?) they represent a clear hurdle in getting people connected, usability and overall computing experience.

So why do they fall flat?  It’s simple.  Tablets are consumption devices.  What do I mean by that?  Well, they are made primarily for us to read e-mails, watch Netflix, listen to radio, and play a game or two.  That’s it.  You cannot convince me otherwise.  Tonight was a perfect example.  I was sitting down on my couch, watching the Olympics and I thought… “What do I want to do on my computer?”  I was dumbfounded.  I ended up coming with the idea to write this blog.  Now, would I do that on a tablet?  No way!  On my Android tablet, I found myself like most Americans, watching TV and surfing the web.  But why?

This brings me to my second point: Tablets distract.  As we have cable TV, smartphones, e-mail from work, home and text messaging, tablets require us to “manage” another device of which we just don’t have the time to deal with.  But Aaron, I sync my iPad or my Android with my phone apps and have all of my information in one place!  Do you?  If you have a smartphone, you have one device.  Have a desktop? Yet another.  A laptop, ultrabook or Macbook?  Yup.  I recently went to an Aruba conference (Aruba makes wireless gear) of which they said the average power user (that’s me) has at least 4 devices that we carry with us and/or manage during our day.  Seriously?  We don’t have time to!

Lastly, Tablets do not add any value to day to day life.  Granted my analysis of tablets are on the premise that they are consumption machines and not productivity machines.  While I haven’t talked specifically about what a productivity machine is, your best guess (because you are a smart person) is that the computing device has a keyboard and mouse, a surface area to draw on or otherwise non-10″ display is a productivity machine.  Value-add is a business term that usually is given to a service, a product or a process in which you do something that adds value.  Tablets seems to take more than they give.  They take time.  Time we don’t have.  Angry Birds while fun, doesn’t help me at my job.  Drawing or words with friends, while fun, doesn’t enhance my life much, it’s just a time suck.  Now of course everything computing related that isn’t job or education focused could be considered “non-value” add but again, it’s the combination of the above that while they tried to fulfill a need, they end up being one more thing that we end up having to deal with.

So how do we move forward as computing users?  That is a fair question of which I don’t have the answer.  Right now we Microsoft preparing the perfect storm of Windows 8 which is going to bring the tablet interface to our productivity machines at the sacrifice of usability;  Linux and Android seem to be working towards a convergence of interoperability between devices and/or using both on a myriad of hardware and lastly, Apple of whom has brought iOS type functionality to OSX desktops and laptops around the world.  So which is it?  Dumbing down or dumbing up interfaces to make them usable by hundreds of millions of users daily?  Innovation is what continues to drive the market and at the end of the day, innovation wins.  As I am getting into my mid-30′s, I’m starting to become more critical of “supposed” innovation because even if something is new, doesn’t make it good; Just because a manufacture sells millions upon millions of devices, doesn’t make it the best possible answer to how we interact with computers.

I’ll leave you with this thought.  Where are we going with computers?  Are the things we do on computers simply of self-interest or are they of historical significance?  Do we want to push the boundaries of what we can do or simply settle for what Apple and Google have told us they want us to enjoy?  I for one can’t wait to see what is in store for computing in the future because while tablets are the fad today, what is coming next I believe will be a much more accessible way for people to interact with computing devices today.

We are Americans.

This is a video create and generated through the hundreds and thousands of people who have built their businesses through dedication, hard work and the American dream of making a living for them and their family.  When President Obama uttered the words: “If you have a business, you didn’t build that…” he defined his presidency by who he is not.  He is not about the American worker, he is not about the dedication it takes to run a business, he is not for the blood, sweat and tears it takes to managed people.  If there was one word that described Obama’s worldview it would be “collective” not “individual” which is what makes up the fabric of American culture.  Individuals dictate the collective needs, not the other way around.  Come November, let’s remember that defining difference.

Rounding out my communication class… what is your self talk?

Beyond the video’s poor grammar, the message is one that I believe we ignore quite a bit.  Our biggest enemy is ourselves.  Not feeling value or not feeling like we can make a difference is something we tell ourselves after we feel defeated.  What could you go out and do tomorrow that you would achieve and feel like a kid again without the doubt or fear or failure?

 

-A

I hope this video lets you reflect…

on why the words that we use… matter.

Is 2012 the year America transforms?

Generally, I try not to touch technology on Sunday but this has got me wondering exactly how this is going to be accomplished.  There are rumors circulating that May 1st (May Day [read up on it via Wiki]) we are going to see the rise of ‘Occupy’ again and this time it is supposed to be much more violent than what we have previously seen.  There are rumors of “pill boxes” being order en mass [groundzero] and while I generally don’t pay attention to conspiracy theory rhetoric, I’m wondering if there isn’t a tiny bit of truth to what may be coming.  Furthermore, as Mr. Bush signed into law the ‘Patriot Act’ we now have drones flying over US airspace.  Don’t believe me–Read the Washington Times report here.  Right now we are seeing what we saw back in the late 1800′s;  That is a sincere, split and divided theocracies on where this country is going.  On one hand, do you want this country to go back its roots of what the founding fathers had intended for us?  Or do you want usher in a new era for the United States through government policies, mandates and central control over our states and local governments?  Both think they’re right, both think they are divinely doing what they supposed to by their supporter base but yet, is being right a reality anymore?

While that is a high level abstract as to the debate over the meta topics within the greater discussion happening in America today, the question that I’ve been asking myself is if we are spiraling so out of control and moving towards a more socialist, controlled United States, how can we even begin to think about coming together as one people as a country that is so bitterly divided during this election year?

Answer:  I don’t think we can.

Let me qualify that a bit with my own perspective on the issue.  ‘Occupy’ wants equality of opportunity.  If I had to boil down their slogan to one thing is that they want that for all people but primarily for the college age crowd or “Gen X or Gen Z” as it were. The problem is, the “general” college education is and has been dead (in my opinion) for the past 5 years.  If you are not going into college with a specific task or specific field on your mind, then the excess debt is not worth the trouble if you can’t find a job.  Devil’s advocates will tell me that it takes a college education to get a job these days and that education requirements for good paying jobs require masters degrees or higher.  While some of that statement is true, I believe jobs out there can be had in all industries without a college education and end up paying just as much if not more than people with a masters.  Coal mining is just one example of that.  Natural Gas, which some argue is the next coal industry is starting to ramp up.  If you get in on the training and delivering methods of the product, well then you can be set for some time.  I wrote a paper for my history class that defined the ‘Occupy’ movement getting its roots back in the early Clinton days of a wealthier, more prosperous America.  At the end, the movement co-oped by the ‘Arab Spring’ or vice-versa led to what we saw in the mainstream media of college age kids (primarily) revolting against large corporations and fair opportunities for all.  All the mean while living in tents, complaining about large college debts (which they agreed to by the way) and a dopey mentality of ‘life not being fair’ just doesn’t seem like the America I grew up in.

Adam Carolla made some comments on the ‘Occupy’ movement of which while some of them vulgar, resonated with me and a lot of people.  When did we want everything handed to us?  When did we simply give up and say “Give it to me I don’t want to work for it?”  The country I believe is in for a rude awakening this fall or maybe even before this fall.  What people need to remember is that as Americans, we are one people.  While we may have many different cultural backgrounds or heritages, we are a nation.  That nation of people has been built on (for better or for worse) previous generations that have FOUGHT for us to be here where we are now and it is up to us to make sure that we fight on for our kids’ kids to experience the America that we have been so fortunate to experience.  So I ask the question: Is this the year that America is transformed into something that we don’t recognize or is it a year in which we go back to our roots of what makes us Americans?

I hope over the course of the next few months to get back into writing and having discussions with people about this in a way that is constructive and conducive to a better nation for all people.  If you haven’t already, follow me on Twitter: @drumboy_ Until next time.

 

Why I believe18-35 year olds are leaving the Church.

Thanks to the Shiny Headed Prophet for the image

So this blog entry is indirectly-directly tied to my Church: Village Baptist.  One of my pastors last night, Pastor John Johnson, a respected veteran of all things theological, Biblical and spiritual is a Dr. who teaches at Western Seminary in Portland, OR.  John Johnson also happens to preach and is the Senior pastor at Village Baptist.  The framework of this response is built on a couple of variables in which I will lay out a few:

1) I have been attending Village now for almost 31 years.  Not bragging, just the facts.  I have seen a lot of changes at the Church.

2) John Johnson has been involved with Village for 11 years, some of those in which I was in a transitional part of my life.

3) Throughout the changes at Village, as in any Church (most all people know what I’m talking about) there is still some bad blood over those changes or how things should’ve changed.

John opened the word last night to Matthew 22 (15-22) in which if you are not familiar with the verse it deals with Jesus trying to be trapped into not paying the Roman tax.  He responded by saying ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.’ in essence.  The point of the message was that Jesus calls out all we have been given is due to be given back to God.  This of course rings true with another verse I have been recently reminded of Philippians 4:19 which states that ‘God will supply us our every need according to His riches in Jesus.’  Not wealth, not health, not great power, but God’s blessing which is above all else.  In response of that we honor that blessing by giving that back to him.  To John’s point though, he used this as a platform to bring into clarity what I believe most of us do not want to admit.  We are greedy with what we have been given and while we are stewards of God’s gifts, we act as the masters.

All of this coming back to a point though of which is more of less a gut check of Village.  One that while I type this, I do not want to come across as a condescending ass, but more of a “Hey, we’re all on this journey together and this is what I’ve observed…” type of feedback.  The verse of Matthew 22 seems appropriate given the fact that we are to give back to God what is required to him.  Right now, the evangelical church is asking some tough leadership questions about the younger generations and why they are losing interest in being involved with the church.  John (like most pastors these days) pointed out that we are losing generations of kids and young adults between the ages of 18-29.  I believe the age range is more or less 18-35 and some would argue 18-40.  The question is where are those people?  Now granted, there are some in the church that fit that criterion but again, cutting through the bs, why isn’t that age range the majority of Churches today?  John spoke passionately about the need for Churches to dream and to have visions.  The same is true for Village.  We must dream big, we must envision a world changed by what Jesus is doing in each of our lives.  The 18-35 year old crowd needs to be a part of those dreams and visions and that is why I believe there is some panic on asking the question within most churches “Where are they?”

A Post-modern problem in a post-modern world.

Living in post-modernity sucks; and if you don’t know what that is, look it up on Wikipedia for an interesting read.  Specifically speaking to the evangelical Church, it is a complete mess right now.  John spoke about how the Church today is seen as an institution by my generation.  It is viewed by most as a “relic” or “artifact” of a once blossoming cog in the machine of the evangelical movement now as irrelevant as the Sunday Oregonian.  The case can be made that my generation does not attend Church to gain information.  Re-read that one more time.  I do not go to Church on Saturday night or Sunday morning to gain information.  That’s right.  We live in an information age of which the Bible can fit 200 different languages on a USB stick the size of a penny.  Who cares about “gaining” more knowledge of the Bible (per se) when we can call up any part of the Bible in a matter of seconds?  Now while that sounds crude, I believe that is the singular difference (at this time) on why inter-generational dialogue is so difficult for some in Churches right now.  I have the utmost respect for my elders and men who I have met at Village that could brain dump an entire book (word for word) and given 2-10 different life lessons on that book.  That is crazy and so amazing that God has given them the ability to do that.  For me though, while memorizing scripture is not a priority as it was for generations past, the story of that scripture is what I am more interested in and the generations in the 18-35 year old age group.  The Gen Y’ers and Gen X’ers and Gen Z’ers (if there is such a classification) are about the social nature of the gospel message of Jesus and how God relates to us socially.  Old Testament to New Testament, we want something that lives and breathes life into us the way we experience getting lunch with an old friend, catching up with our closest friends whom we have not seen for weeks or months.  A connection bordering on the spiritual if not supernatural in such a way that God speaks to us through the narrative of our daily lives and who we are.

Trying to stay on point, the question of why people 18-35 have left the church is because there is no impact of the gospel in a social way.  I’m not talking about social media, social networks, ice cream socials or anything like it; I’m talking about a legitimate push for a conversation each and every Sunday about how we relate to each other, how we complement each other and how we get through the crap in this life together as the body of Jesus.  Generally as humans we organize data or structures into what we can categorize.  We then can prioritize those as critical components or frameworks of the problems at hand and start to attack them one at a time.  Going back to being a post-modern; We hate labels.  We also hate structure.  We also hate checklists and check boxes.  Why you might ask?  They feel rigid.  They feel trite.  They feel disconnected from the actual work someone has done.  When you stop to think about it, when Villagers go down to Portland Rescue Mission and serve meals to the homeless, is that worthy of putting a check in a box for those who attended?  Is that a measure of one’s spiritual growth?  Does that show the impact of simply being present to serve a person whom society has flat out rejected as a loser or a bum?  The answer to that is a resounding no and nor shall it ever be.  Jesus spoke of a life and a kingdom in which is in the here and now, it is time that more of us start acting like it and living like it.

So with the mass numbers of people leaving the church, Pastor John also mentioned that they aren’t necessarily leaving Christianity.  So instead of having a Christian who attends church 30-40 times a year, you have a Christian who attends 0 times a year but still believes that they are saved from their sins, that God is the one true God and that Jesus died for their sins.  My take on this piece of it is that while this may scare the crap out of “The Church” (meaning the evangelical Church of North America and Europe) I believe it is the next chapter in how the gospel is going to spread and that is an encouraging thought.  Think about it.  A gospel so radical that it doesn’t take a person going to church to reach someone and make their life better;  A person taking a moment of kindness to hold the door open for someone, to pick up a wallet or purse and run after the owner, a parent forgiving a child for lying about taking something that wasn’t theirs to begin with.  We are not all perfect, in fact, we’re all pretty terrible when you think about it, but it is what we think in our thoughts and how we act from our hearts that is what makes the difference to a world so jaded by the ugliness of sin.

Light, the tunnel and seeing the end of it.

The story doesn’t end in a terrible mess and the encouragement I write to Pastor John as Paul wrote to the Philippians is this; I realized about 2-3 years ago that there was a lack of leaders around me in terms of people within my age bracket.  Ironically, I was in essence standing around and waiting for the next-generation of leaders to step up and to direct me.  Speaking specifically to this issue, I wrestled with what it looked like for me to be a leader.  How would that feel?  Am I even worthy of doing so?  The answer I got was that if I didn’t, no one would.  Not to say that others have not raised to the challenge of being a leader in the church or in their workplaces but I realized God calls us be mindful of what we have been given.  A post-modern person in a post-modern time calls for post-modern measures.  As I have matured, I have realized that some of the “emerging” themes of a post-modern church are people demand loyalty, truthfulness, a person willing to call it like they see it with no sugar coating or bs of the reality of the situation, a person who listens, a person who walks through the crap of life not being a guide or above the fray but experiencing the hardship alongside them, crying when they cry, feeling pain when they feel pain.  In a culture that exploits people for their time, money and humanity, the Church is to be different.  The people are to be different.  We are supposed to be the light to the dark, the ying to the yang, the positive vs. the negative.  I see myself continuing to pursue leadership as an aspect of my spiritual walk in which my prayer is that over the course of this next year I am able to hopefully meet with some men I highly respect at Village (including you John) and talk and dream about what is next and what the kingdom is doing.  While the numbers don’t lie and while people in the 18-35 crowds will continue to bleed off from attending “church” as we know it, God has a plan.  My hope is that I am able to have conversations with those people not to get them to come to church, but to get them to experience Jesus in a fresh and compelling way.  The gospel is meant to be one of the most amazing things ever and I thank you John for reminding me why it means so much to me and my family.

May God continue to bless all peoples, all cultures and all backgrounds at Village and may we be able to engage with and serve those who are in need of the love God shows to us each and every day we draw breath.

-A