Month: July 2011

  • Leave the Ignoble Behind

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

    ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

    Pretty up-to-the-minute for something written in 1859, right?

    Each generation believes it has created it’s own extremes. In fact, it’s an age-old trap that has just been carried forward. The sin of our forefathers still destroys us.

    The litmus tests of extremists are in full effect today and are just as unproductive as ever. Their bi-product is never progress, only pain.

    • You’re either an evangelical conservative or a mainline liberal, chose a side.
    • You’re pro-LGBT or your anti-LGBT, which is it?
    • You’re either pro-union or anti-union, take your pick.
    • You’re a tea party love or a hater.

    As if the middle ground were the enemy. As if being reasonable and understanding all sides of issues were not possible. As if compromise and working things out were akin to selling your soul to the other side.

    In truth, Jesus asks us to reject the ignoble extremes to live in the noble tense middle.

    A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
    John 13:34

  • Swinging at the right guy

    Photo by Steve Hopkins via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    In 7th grade I ended up in the principle’s office because I got into a fight. Technically, I was trying to break it up and got punched. But, apparently to a 7th grade science teacher, getting punched meant I was in a fight and deserved to be suspended.

    Within 5 minutes the three of us were sitting in front of the assistant princple awaiting our judgement. Another 5 minutes and I’d be in class again. The student who started the fight just told it like it was, “I was meaning to hit Jeff but I hit Adam on accident, I hit the wrong guy. Sorry.”

    Case dismissed. Hasta luego.

    A lot of people swing at the wrong guy

    • Failing in a class directs a student’s anger at the teacher instead of at his study habits.
    • An honest evaluation of your work makes you angry at the system judging you instead of your lack of results.
    • A spouse takes out the stress of their job on their loved one since they can’t stand up to their boss at work.
    • Your doctor tells you that you’re obese and need to change some habits, and you never go to that doctor again.

    This same principle carries into the youth ministry

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to a church staff member lament for 30 minutes or an hour about how much their boss or their board or their executive pastor doesn’t “get them” and that if they would just see it from their perspective they’d see that you really are doing the right things. Or that the church is measuring the wrong things.

    My response? You’re swinging at the wrong guy.
    • Maybe you’re measuring greatness with a different ruler than they are?
    • Maybe they get you better than you get yourself and see you underperforming?
    • Maybe your pastor isn’t your enemy, he’s your greatest ally?
    Never shy away from an honest evaluation. I’d rather get an honest evaluation of my work than someone blowing smoke any day. You can always do better. And there will always be someone out there better than you to learn from.
    Never believe you aren’t in a fight. We all struggle against something. It’s part of what makes us human. It keeps us motivated and moving forward and innovative. There’s nothing wrong with being in the fight of your life.

    Just make sure you pick a fight with the right enemy.

    You’ll get a lot further, faster than punching the wrong enemy.

    • Failing at school? Fight your study habits.
    • Failing at work? Fight your work habits.
    • Having a conflict with your boss? Stand up for yourself.
    • Need to lose 20-30-100 pounds? Get mad at the donuts, not your doctor.

  • Homeless Teenagers Among Us

    [Video enclosed]

    The poverty rate for those under 18 will soon hit 25% in America.

    This video from 60 Minutes broke my heart yesterday. While riding the trolley to work I listened to the audio and wept.

    16 million kids in our country are currently living below the poverty line. That’s an increase of 2 million in just 2 years as families slip from “middle class” into poverty.

    It’s where you live. In your city, town, suburb, gated community, or rural area. And it’s people who never thought they’d struggle. And certainly never thought they’d become homeless.

    As the video shows, millions of kids are now homeless. We hear about foreclosures and we think of the housing market. We forget that those are also displaced people. Families who lost everything.

    5 Ways You and Your Church Can Respond

    As I listened to this story, I thought about how can the church NOT respond?

    I thought about how churches and youth ministries could easily do a few things that could make a big difference. Ministry life just can’t go on as normal with a quarter of the families in our community unsure where their next meal might come from, or unsure if they can stay in their apartment another month, or unsure if they can even keep their families together.

    It’s one thing to preach Good News. It’s another thing to actually be Good News.

    What are some things you can actually do?

  • Start a food closet. There isn’t a church door in America that doesn’t get knocked on every week asking for food. If your church doesn’t have a food closet, start one. If the church doesn’t want one, just start bringing non-perishable food items to church every time you visit. They’ll figure it out when it starts to pile up.
  • Get out of your car and look around. In your routine where you drive everywhere, you won’t ever see the problem among us. Stop driving everywhere! Commit to start walking or riding a bike, and you’ll see things you never thought existing in your community. It’ll do your heart good.
  • Take a family in. There’s a part in the 60 Minutes piece above where they say that most families foreclosed on move into a neighbor or family members house. I know it’s easier to pretend you don’t see what’s happening. But a lot of people in a lot of churches have more bedrooms than people in their homes. Maybe you’ve got a big crib for a reason?
  • Convert some classrooms into temporary housing. It’s sickening how many churches have so much space that goes unused for 6.5 out of 7 days. Spend a tiny amount of money to convert under-utilized space into temporary housing for families so they don’t get split up. Convert a bathroom stall to a shower, buy some used basic furniture, and allow families a place to regroup for 60-90 days.
  • Open your youth room 5 days per week after school. There are some things that are so simple to do, yet we don’t do it because we get hung up by thinking too small. It would cost you nothing to have a volunteer staff your youth room after school every day from 2:30 – 5:00 PM. Hang some signs up at the middle and high schools. You already have space, just make it available to kids who need a safe and quiet place to study overseen by a caring adult.

    • How about you? What are some things you can do, as an individual or as a church, in the next 30 days?

  • Baptism Video

    I love the joy on folks faces as they come out of the water! What’s not to celebrate about such a big step of faith?

    One of the cool parts about being close to the ocean is that churches don’t need a baptismal. You can just tell everyone to meet you at the beach. 

    Speaking of baptism… I guess I’m kind of famous for one I made about 4 years ago. It was one of those things that was a funny concept but I don’t think I’d do again.

    I like the one from Journey this weekend a whole lot better.

    How does your church celebrate baptism?

  • Competitive Advantage

    This clip from Tin Cup highlights the differences between an amateur and a tour professional. 

    Whether you are a casual golfer or a week-to-week preacher in a church. You and the guy on tour are fundamentally different in how you approach your craft.

    What you do is similar! But how you approach it and how it’s carried out are completely different.

    As the movie shows, the tour pro takes calculated risks, repeating the same simple winning swing over and over again, week-to-week, tour stop to tour stop.

    Whereas the casual golfer, even the aspiring professional, has to take greater risks to see lesser rewards, often swinging wildly and taking big risks in hopes that it’ll pay off.

    Having been around PGA and Champions Tour players as a tour volunteer I know that there are a lot of differences between their game and your game. 

    • They will hit +/- 1000 practice balls per day. (Driving range, sand, putting green, chipping)
    • They are surrounded by people who advise them on their game all the time. (People who know what they’re talking about, too.)
    • They only play on courses at the top of their condition. The greenskeeper at a Tour stop builds his whole growth cycle around that week.
    • They have a caddy with them who does all of the math and can tell them exact distances and best approaches to every shot on the golf course.
    • The TV cameras only show the best players on shots that have been edited. Each minute during a tournament 40-50 players take a swing, you only see the best of the best.

    I’m a 12 handicapper on my own. But I guarantee you that if you put me on that stage, in those conditions, with that practice… I’d look a whole lot better than I do normally. Give me a week with those set of circumstances and I’d break 80.

    It’s not that they don’t have skill or talent. It’s that their skill has been put on display in the best possible conditions for them to look good. (They would argue that they rose to this spot just like everyone else. Sure, they take advantage today. But they got to that point with nothing but hard work and rising through the amateur, college, and mini-tour ranks. Fair enough.)

    It’s that the game they play is similar, but completely different from the game I play with my friends. It’s set up for them to look good.

    What’s my point?

    A lot of times we go to a conference, camp, retreat, or a convention and we see a tour pro on their best day, in the best conditions, absolutely NAIL a talk. And we walk away thinking… “Why do I even bother?!? I’ll never be that good. Why not just buy that dude’s DVDs and play them at my church each week?”

    But before you get upset or lament realize this: The talk you’ve just heard has likely been delivered dozens of times. It’s been critically reviewed by an inner circle. It’s been refined, they know when to drop what line, they know how to adapt it to your setting. They have only booked themselves at events they know they’ll play well to. The lighting, sound, and environmental conditions are tailored to their strengths and weaknesses. A professional band set them up. Someone else introduced them. At best, their talk has 1-2 calculated moments of risk.

    It’s not that they are better than you. It’s that given the conditions their talents are amplified and you’re able to see them at their absolute best.

    In the end… the act of speaking at a conference is similar to what you do on a week-to-week basis, but completely different at the same time. They are only thinking about that talk. They didn’t drive the van to the retreat. They don’t have to give a new talk each week. On and on. It’s completely different from what you or I do on a week-to-week basis in our ministry.

    Here’s the fun part: Just like in the movie– you could tell that the tour pros got a kick out of the caddy hitting the big shot on the big stage. There’s a little glimmer in their eye when you take a big risk. They kind of wish they could do it, too. 

  • You Want Who to Do Whaaaaa-aaat?

    This morning I have the honor of teaching at Encounter, the high school ministry of Journey Community Church.

    I’m kicking off a series called Sea Jesus. And basically it’s stuff that Jesus has to teach us while he’s near the Sea of Galilee.

    Like everything else I produce that I’m at liberty to share, I’ve made all of my notes, handouts, slides, and even Photoshop files available in my free section.

    [download id=”18″]

  • Fear is not your friend

    These are scary times. If you allow these times to be scary. 

    The reality is that when you allow fear to creep in you are in big trouble.

    Life is full of things that seem worthy of fear…

    • Big decisions like where to go to college, who to go out with, who to marry, having kids.
    • Big moments like telling your loved ones where you are going to college, who you are dating, that you’re getting married, or that you’re pregnant.
    • Pursuing big huge dreams and taking big huge risks to fulfill them.
    • Failure or being told your dreams aren’t going to be fulfilled.
    • Having a personal failure disclosed publicly.
    • Going broke, going hungry, or even having to move in with other people.
    • Relationships ending, you ending relationships, or relationships just accidentally ending.
    • Saying the wrong thing, at the wrong time, to the wrong people.
    • Unknown-ness.
    • Upcoming known stuff.
    • Unsafe things happening next door, in your house, or even on TV.
    This list never ends, does it? We each, in our moments of vulnerability, have things we are afraid of.
    Likewise, we each have things that we should be afraid of that we’ve learned aren’t all that scary because you’ve been there and done that.

    A fearful state of mind

    Over the years I’ve learned the biggest problem with living in fear of things beyond my control is that fear puts me in a state of mind which increases my ability to make stupid decisions. I remember one of my management mentors instructing me to use fear as a tool of manipulating people to do what I wanted. “When a person buys a car or a house or their spouse is pregnant, that’s when you change their job function or work hours. Why? Because they are so strung out financially that they will just deal with it because they can’t afford to quit.“
    That was stupid advice. Ultimately, I don’t want to manipulate anyone into doing something because they are afraid of the consequences. Fear is a short-term motivator. It’s helpful in an emergency, like when a building is on fire, but you can’t motivate someone to do their best work for years at a time over fear of a job loss.
    In the same way, I do whatever I can to push fear aside. I don’t let fear of the stuff above scare me into a dumb decision. Instead, I push fear aside in those moments. Ultimately, it’s just an emotion and I have power over emotions.

    What is worth fearing? (Not a rhetorical question)

    More like who.

    The Lord. The phrase “fear of the Lord” is found at least 135 times in the Bible.

    Sure. That sounds cheesy right off the bat. But when you allow the reality to sink in that God is bigger, stronger, and in full knowledge of everything you face… it adds a new perspective on things I fear.

    Ultimately, it helps me to know that fear of stuff doesn’t come from the Lord. Over and over again I read in the Bible, when God’s people were faced with impossible odds, “Fear Me alone.”

    Next to that? Everything else is unworthy of my fear. 

  • Bono is the man

    And the moral of the story is….

    ht to Ed Noble

  • When Daddy is Away

    It’s inevitable.

    All of the chaos happens when I leave town. 

    On Monday afternoon Kristen dropped me off at the San Diego airport. All was calm and under control in the McLane clan. Leaving Kristen for 5 days with Megan, (10) Paul, (7) and Jackson (4 months) was hard. I really didn’t want to leave them. We all wished I didn’t have to do this trip. Not because I was dreading going on the trip or being in Minnesota but simply because it’s been so long since I’ve been away. And I’ve really loved being home more.

    At the same time we were prepared for daddy to be gone for a few days and for Kristen to manage the kids, and the house, and her job, and the kids school. (They go year-round, getting out July 15th) The older two are growing very independent… helpful even. In many ways, when I’m gone is like an exam. Can they handle more responsibility? Let’s hope so because they need to! 

    I checked in with Kristen Monday night when I landed in Minneapolis. All was calm and everyone was tucked in and sleeping away.

    My Tuesday was rushed in visiting with all of my fellow co-workers at YouthWorks, meetings, the normal. Then I got a call from a weird 619 number. I let it go to voice mail but quickly checked it. It said, “Mr. McLane, this is the nurse at Darnall Elementary School. We have Paul here in the office and he’s been injured on the playground. We’ll need you to come get him as soon as possible. Please call us right away.”

    My heart leapt and sank at the same time. My instinct told me to grab my keys and go get him. But my reality was that I’m a 4 day drive away. I quickly connected with Kristen, who was dashing to get him.

    He had broken his arm in an accident on the playground. Our first ER trip as parents and I missed it.

    Kristen and I exchanged a hundred text messages while they were at the ER. Paul and Amy, dear friends, came to the rescue and took Megan and Jackson for the afternoon. While Paul waited nearly 3 hours to get an x-ray and a cast… I wasn’t there. 

    It seems like this always happens. Important things happen when daddy is out-of-town. Last year, Kristen was rear-ended while I was on a trip to Washington state. I’ve missed kids losing teeth. Or winning an award at school. Or epic small group nights with major breakthroughs. Doctors appointments when Kristen was pregnant. Bed times, quiet times, crazy times, thrills, spills, shrills, and the immediate stills of realizing it’d all be OK.

    When daddy is away stuff happens. Life doesn’t stop at home. It’s inevitable. And it kills me. And while I know Kristen is a trooper/super power mom/amazingly strong woman who can handle it all I want to be there, with her, when these things happen. I want to be there.

    What does this have to do with you?

    Our Heavenly Father is the same way. While He never leaves us sometimes we go far from Him. And life moves on. Stuff happens, chaos reigns, victories occur, and sometimes bones break. For every bed time, quiet time, crazy time, thrills, spills, shrills, and the immediate stills of realizing it’ll all be OK– Our Heavenly Father wants the intimacy of sharing those moments with us.

    His heart breaks for His children when they are away from Him. He wants to be there.

    Maybe it’s time for you to come home? 

    So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:20

    I’m going home tomorrow to Kristen and the kids. But maybe today you need to go home and be with your Father? 

  • NYWC: What’s More Awesome Than a Bacon-filled Banana?

    The news: Today is the last day to register for NYWC San Diego for Super Early Bird prices.

    Bacon and flutophones?  The brainstorm session for this video was a blast. Ian, Tic, and I kicked around a thousand ideas around the concept of “What would be MORE AWESOME?”

    The shoot: This video was shot all around our office in El Cajon. Literally all around. As Ian set-up and moved lights all around the office to get lighting set, Tic got more and more creative. I stepped out for a phone call with Mark Matlock, came back, and Tic was riding my bike around the office. Hilarious. 

    But wait… there’s more. (Videos that is. Coming in a few weeks.)