We're OK, C?

You may have heard that I quit my job with no other offer on the table.

And yet, within one week of that post, I had an offer. Simply put? Incredible!

But once again, the details may surprise you…

I’m taking a pay cut, moving my family to middle America, leaving family/friends/bands behind … and am really, really excited.

Scared to death, mind you … but really excited.

Let me give you a bit of background.

In October 2009, I had dinner with an old friend of mine from San Diego, @larsrood. Lars was a youth pastor at a church we went to in San Diego for a few years. I volunteered for the group for about a year and, during this time, became friends with Lars (who also got me into rock climbing!). Well, Lars moved out to Dallas, TX to become a Youth Ministry Director. Anyways…he came to visit us in Berkeley last fall and we went to dinner. Over a (really good) pizza, he told me about this church that was doing “church online.” Crazy. But even crazier was that he told me they were not only broadcasting their services to desktop browsers but that he’d recently watched a live church service on his iPhone.

“Preposterous!”, I exclaimed. “Lars, I work at one of the best mobile companies in the country for mobile video. iPhone’s simply don’t do RTSP streaming.” But sure enough, this church had already taken advantage of thepseudo-streaming capabilities released with iPhone OS 3.0 — something not even in our roadmap at our hot mobile startup.

Awhile later, I remembered our conversation and began to peruse their website. Two things struck me — 1) their leadership structure. Now, you may not have had much experience around big churches, but my experiences have been that they tend to be only two-levels deep: head pastor and everyone else. Not only was this church incredibly well-staffed, but they had position titles like “Innovation Leader”, “Media Distribution”, and “Team Development Leader.” Honestly, these positions just don’t exist in most churches, let alone at any of the companies I’ve worked at. Very cool. 2) A job description looking for a developer. I’ve been considering making a career change from what’s on my resume (product/program management) to developing. For the last few years, I’ve spent most of my free time learning to program and learning how much I enjoy the technical and creative challenges. Trouble is, I have no CS degree, and the number of programming languages I know totals … two. But this job posting was like it was written just for me. It was every skill I had, and none that I didn’t. So on a whim, I applied.

Fast-forward many weeks and many interviews later (including a few over Skype) … and a job offer shows up in my email. But I let it sit there.

For Erin and I both, the idea of moving to Oklahoma City was never on our list of life plans. When we decided last year to quit my job, we had no idea what was in front of us, but San Diego seemed like the most likely of scenarios. Then this came along…

As strange as it may sound, there was just too much to consider. Erin and I both have strong family ties in the San Diego area. Off to top of my head, I count 30+ family members and lots of friends. Erin grew up here — I’ve been here since high school. We were married here. We had our first child down here. Oklahoma City? What?

So, we called a family conference. Yup. We pulled together a group of 10 family/friends from San Diego to meet in person, and another six on a conference call. We explained to them the circumstances, where we were with the decision (at the time, 50/50), and then let them pepper us with questions.

We finished our four hour meeting with more questions than answers, and still a feeling of unease. We asked for more time on the decision, and decided to spend the weekend together, mulling over the possibilities. We took long walks on the beach, we spent hours talking alone in our bedroom, and spilled plenty of tears.

But last Sunday, as we sat across from each other at Souplantation, we counted… “1”, “2”, “3”… “Yes.” simultaneously. Then a long pause … then asynchronized”whoa.”

Now the hard part — telling family we’re leaving SD for an unknown land. Throwing away the dreams of long days at the beach, and taking on the ideas that air conditioning is actually necessary in the other 99% of the country. And the idea that there’s not a single Trader Joe’s or REI in the entire state of Oklahoma.

For many of you, our friends from San Diego, we realize that this may come as a shock to you. We understand. Truly. We thought long and hard how this would affect our family and friends in San Diego. We don’t expect you to be happy, but we’d ask for your prayers and support as we step out and begin this new adventure.

To answer some of your basic questions, here’s a Frequently Asked Questions section:

Seriously?

Yes.

When are you moving out?

We don’t know quite yet. Probably some time in February. We’re heading out Jan 29th to spend the weekend house-hunting, then will be back. Hopefully, the house-hunting process is quick and easy and we can begin setting up shop in OKC.

When will you be back?

We’ll be back in March for two events: Eric’s wedding and Ava’s birthday … then we’ll fly back.

Ok, when will you be back after that?

Don’t know. We may not be back for awhile. With Erin due to have another baby in September, our flights may be limited. Furthermore, we’re really trying to do something different with this chapter of our lives: “be here now.” When we lived in San Francisco, we simply lived our lives, trip to trip — constantly trying to get back to San Diego and never putting down roots. We’ve decided to do this a little different. But rest assured, we’ll be back to San Diego a few times a year and we hope to see you when we’re back.

You do realize there’s no rock climbing in Oklahoma?

Actually, there’s a decent amount in the SW corner of the state and the Ozarks have lots of climbing 3-4 hours East. Horseshoe Canyon Ranch (featured in Dosage V) is also in Arkansas and has some incredible bouldering. Trust me, I researched this all a long time ago.

Will Erin be working in OK?

Yup! Thankfully, the church has a great daycare system, and I’m very excited to take a more active role in caring for Ava. If you know of any great hospitals in the OKC area, let us know.

You realize you’re destroying your career, right?

Perhaps … and if you’re right, I’m ok with that. I realize how far I’ve gotten up the ladder, but I also realized that this wasn’t all there was to life. This step for us fulfills a lot of needs we have as a family and as a couple that longs to strengthen our marriage. Email me if you want more detail on that one.

What will you be doing?

Programming! LifeChurch has a dedicated team called “Digital Missions” which creates free, online resources for the worldwide church. There’s been a huge amount of growth over the last year (500,000+ new users in December alone), and the numbers are expected continue this growth in 2010. Fore more information on the team, visit this page.

I’ve been tasked with creating mobile web versions of some of their existing properties. Example project I helped create: m.youversion.com (YouVersion is an online Bible and part of a larger strategy including Android, Blackberry, iPhone, J2ME, and www). If you’ve got the “Bible app” on your iPhone or Android, chances are that these folks made it. I’ve always loved developing for mobile and I’m excited to bring my experiences to this team.

A few more sites created by these folks: ChurchMetrics.com, VideoTeaching.com, BabelWith.me, open.lifechurch.tv, and the Church Online.

Does this mean you’re one of those crazy right-wing evangelical Bible-beating Christians?

All but the right-wing part, yes. ;) And I looooove beating people over the head with my 300 lb Bible. Seriously though, if you know me well enough, but never figured out that I was a Christian … well, my bad. Yes, I believe there is a God … and yes, I believe He can change lives. I’m one of those lives and I know a heck of a lot of others.

I don’t believe in God. Can I stop being your friend?

No. That would be lame. I’ve been your friend, despite all of your crazy ideas. So there.

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If you have any more questions, comments, or concerns feel free to leave a comment. And yes, I fully expect at least one or two jokes about rodeos, gun racks, and/or pickup trucks. (but know that I will counter with how cheap housing is out there)