Sparky

About ten years ago I had the privilege to play a round of golf with Sparky Anderson, a hall of fame baseball manager who passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Some of you may know I'm a baseball fanatic. I played baseball in college at Biola University. It was as an alumni when I went to play in a fundraiser tournament that I got paired up with this legend. As a fan, I knew him as a manager who had won the World Series in both the American league with the Tigers, and the National league with the Reds. But I didn't know what to expect that day.

Sparky was a small man as you can probably tell by the picture. But he was a man with a huge heart. He talked and shared with us as though we had been buddies for years. At one point during the round I hit a tee shot that sliced way right into a bunch of houses. I eventually learned I had broken a window of one of those houses, as the homeowner met me half way down the fairway. Sparky had a good laugh about that.

At one point I asked him about the greatest player he'd ever had the privilege to see play. Without hesitation he said "Roberto Clemente." Clemente was a dynamic player for the Pirates in the 60s whose life was cut short when his plane crashed on a disaster relief effort. But to hear Sparky talk about him and describe his abilities was almost as real as seeing him myself. He spoke with passion as a fan, and yet someone with the credentials to speak in such a way that you believed every word he was saying was true.

I've always tried to be a learner, to observe people and figure out what makes them a leader. In the baseball world, Sparky was one of the most successful and admired leaders in the history of the game. As a player - he was terrible. He couldn't hit to save his life. And yet as a manager he was one of the most successful men of all time. And here's the deal - he accomplished that by smiling, by being genuinely joyful, believing in his players, and when necessary taking a stand for them. He was a leader of men. A passionate, fiery, joyful, pleasant, small in stature, yet giant of a man.

Baseball lost a good one this week. I only spent about four hours of my life with the man, and yet, I'll miss him.

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California

I recently spent about a week in my hometown of Yucaipa, CA touching base with old friends, family, and those that pray for and support me and my family. It was a pretty incredible trip. Here's a recap:

• First of all, I got to meet with many individuals over coffee or lunch and tell stories about Story Church. That was a huge highlight. Only a year ago, there were no stories to tell! Now I could go on talking forever about the people, the life change, and the growth and excitement we are experiencing.
• One night I got to hang out with some friends who were former students in my youth group. There's about 8-10 of them that gather every week just to pray together and talk about Jesus. They are about 20 years old. How cool is that? Blows me away. Anyway, I shared with them a bit about what God has been teaching me, and then they all laid hands on me and prayed for me. Very humbling. Very awesome.
• I spent one evening with my best friend and his family, eating dinner, laughing, sharing stories and just catching up. I miss him and his family a ton.
• Another night I got to catch up with another friend and his family. He's kind of my arch-rival. In a good way. We are both super competitive and we love to compete in whatever way we can. This time it was one of our favorites - FIFA on the PS3. We used to be neighbors and we spent many nights doing this same thing.
• On Saturday I got to reignite another passion of mine - baseball. Before moving I was a coach at our local high school. This day they happened to be holding some tryouts so I got to head out to the field and hang out with a bunch of young talented players and all the coaches. They put me right to work evaluating players and I had a blast.
• Later that day I headed over to my aunt's house for a BBQ. It was great to see my cousins, aunts and uncles and grandma. My aunt Missy made her famous Skor bar cake in my honor. Doesn't get much better than that.
• Sunday was all about telling stories with my home church. I had the opportunity to get on stage in front of both services and thank them for loving us well, sending us, praying for us, and supporting us.
• That evening I got to go hang out with some other friends who are planting a church in the neighboring city. I love seeing what other church planters are doing and learning from them.
• On Monday I got to hang out with another former student and encourage him. He's had a rough couple of years, spending some time in jail and fighting addictions. Pray for Billy.
• Finally, Monday I spent a little time in heaven. In case that's not totally clear to all of you, I'm referring to Angel Stadium - the home of Angels baseball.

It was a jam packed week but really a great time reconnecting with people. The goal of the trip was to raise some personal support and to thank those that have supported us for these two years. In that regard it was a successful trip and I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to go, thanks to my friends at Converge.

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Crazy Month

Time to shake the dust off the old blog. I've been pretty busy lately, here's a rundown of what I've been up to and what is coming soon.

March was a month of figuring some stuff out. We began to zero in on the location of our church plant. Our application for the school facility has been submitted and as of right now we are still waiting to hear back on that. I've been doing lots of talking with lots of pastors, church planters, and leaders over the last couple of weeks. I'm asking lots of questions and taking lots of notes. As we get closer and closer to September, my list of questions is growing more and more. We are still trying to raise several thousand dollars, and over the last couple of weeks some interesting opportunities have opened up that may result in some big time gifts. Last week my good friend Barry Rice of GO Church was in town and he spent the evening with our team encouraging us and helping us to understand God's heart for the church.

Our group continues to meet every week for bible study and worship and of course some great food. After Easter we will begin separating our bible study from our launch team meetings. We hope to make our bible study a little more public, meeting in a more public place - and make our launch team meetings a little more strategic and intentional, keeping those in our home for now. We hope that through our bible study we can continue to grow our launch team and be ready for launch in September.

Last week I drove to Memphis (750 miles each way!!) to spend the week with the Yucaipa High School baseball team that I used to coach in Southern California. They were there for a tournament and while it was a long ways away, it was probably the closest they will ever be to Durham. I had a great time. They gave me a uniform and put me back in the dugout with the team just like old times. It was a lot of fun. The team is pretty phenomenal too. They won the tournament relatively easily and are now 11-0 on the year.

This week my mom comes to town, and we are really excited to see her. She hasn't been with the girls since November, so she's pretty anxious to hang out with them as well. Thanks to skype, they have seen her and talked to her, but it's not the same. While my mom is here, we'll be taking a family vacation to Orlando. I'll be going to the Exponential Conference there, and the family will be joining me in Orlando thanks to the aforementioned Barry Rice. He is totally blessing us with a place to stay so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. And of course, being in Orlando we'll be spending a day at Disney. The rest of the time, the family will be hanging out at the pool and the playground while I'm at the conference learning about church planting stuff.

Along the way this month there are some other training things I'll be doing, as well as connecting with some more mentors and coaches. There's a possible trip to Arizona coming up soon but I'm not sure when that will happen just yet.

But the best thing of all - baseball starts again TODAY! Wish I could be in Anaheim watching my halos tonight, but thank the Lord for ESPN.

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2008 Western Division Champs!

That's right, my halos just got through polishing off the Yankees to capture their 4th title in 5 years. Bring on Boston or whoever the heck comes out of the East. I may be on the east coast now, but I will always be an Angels fan. Now, let's keep the best record and get home field advantage. How about 100 wins? That would be nice.

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