Category: hmm… thoughts

  • So, you want to be great?

    “I aspire greatness with my life.”

    When I say that, almost universally people’s head will cock just a little bit to the side. American society, especially American Christian society, is so self-deprecating that you almost never hear a grown man say that.

    The truth is I am shocked how few people aspire greatness with their lives. If you don’t read anything else in this post, read this… “God wants you to aspire to greatness!”

    I believe aspiring to greatness is completely biblical. Check out how Jesus responds to his disciples. When his disciples ask him  he doesn’t shut them down. He simply tells them how to be great in the Kingdom! “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Mathew 18:1) “”What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.” (Mark 9:33b-34)

    In fact, Jesus makes it clear in his response that there is a path to greatness in this life!

    Aspiring greatness is good and important. The church needs more men and women aspiring greatness.

    Jesus doesn’t shut it down. Greatness isn’t bad. The thing is… Jesus cares most about how you aspire to greatness.

    “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:4)

    “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Matthew 9:35)

    Jesus makes it clear. The path to greatness is paved in child-like faith and servanthood. These are just two examples I’ve pulled from the Gospel narrative. There are lots and lots more!

    See, I’m stupid enough to believe that Jesus was telling the truth! Not only can I aspire  greatness in my life, I should aspire to greatness. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

    Here’s the thing that shocks me. Most people get this wrong. I read a lot of church leadership blogs and I follow the ministries of a lot of “famous” preachers in the country. People who are labeled by the evangelical community as “great.” And the shocking truth is that a lot of leaders labeled as “great” are feeding people a lot of lies.

    • There are a lot of church leaders out there who think that they can make themselves great by creating structures and organizations which ultimately serve them. I’m just going to say it… you see this most in the baptistic tradition church planting and megachurch movement. The polity lifts up organizational leaders as great.
    • There are others who believe that being a talented preacher makes them great. Trust me, this doesn’t happen to me. But you can see it happen over and over again as a new preacher emerges and everyone wants to listen to them. Next thing you know, that person’s head gets about 10 times its original size and they start to believe that their speaking ability makes them great by default.
    • What is doubly shocking is just how unapproachable some “great leaders” are. You couldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole. In some cases, their staff can’t even touch them with a 10 foot pole! They are off limits. They have body guards. You can’t make an appointment to meet them. You’ll never get to have them in your home. You can’t email them a question. You can’t leave a message on their voice mail. You might not even be able to leave a comment on their blog! Some of the “great leaders” that we lift up today in evangelicalism simply believe they are better than you and me.

    They may be great organizational leaders, they may be great preachers, but they aren’t better leaders than you can be if you just obey Jesus’ path to greatness. Honestly, some of those “great leaders” often jerks who twist scripture to elevate themselves above you and me. A man who does fancy stuff just to draw a crowd but twists Scripture to make others serve him isn’t a great Christian leader, he is a false prophet! People who veil great preaching as a way to push book sales or seminar registrations or big offerings aren’t great preachers… they are fancy talkers. The Gospels and pastoral epistles are full of advice on how to treat fancy talkers and hypocritical false prophet jerks.

    You think I’m rude for calling them names? That’s nothing compared to the words of Jesus in Matthew 23. Hypocrites. Blind guides. Fools. Greedy. Self-indulgant. Snakes. Brood of vipers.

    You want to be great? Jesus makes this perfectly clear, all you have to do is serve the needs of others.

    The first disciples, Paul, and  the early church all turned the religious community of the day upside down... they were great leaders even though the had no right to become great leaders. They ruffled the feathers of “the religious” by showing the God could turn “just anyone” into a great leader. It wasn’t Levites or even Bible scholars who turned the world on its head, it was ordinary people serving their way to greatness.

    It is upside down to aspire greatness by serving. And it angers me to see the evangelical religious community lift up people as great when, in fact, they are old-style leaders and not servant leaders. When I hear stuff like, “You need to be born to a good family to be a great leader.” Or “You need to be a part of a big-fancy megachurch if you want to be successful in ministry.” That stuff is clearly not from God. It is completely devoid of fact. And yet I watch as people lay their loyalty/money/attention at these people’s feet while ignoring the truly great God has probably put right in their local church already.

    You want to know if a church leader is a great person? Watch him/her. Is he serving others day-by-day or are others serving him? Greatness comes meekly. It comes to those who serve. Jerks and false prophets… They are not great leaders in God’s eyes. Again, the New Testament makes it perfectly clear how to deal with them.

    Back to you.

    You want to be great? Serve the needs of others. Have faith that is so child-like you are called immature for zealously obeying the Bible.

  • Build something useless

    Why? It’s fun.

  • The Guilt Trip

    Perhaps I am the only sick mind who has wondered if I could get away with a speech like this when taking the offering? And maybe I’m just a little passive-aggressive when it comes to offerings?

    If the ushers could please come forward for the morning offering.

    The offering is a time when the people of the church give back to God a portion of what God has given to them.

    This is an act of worship whereby you measure what you say you believe against what you are actually willing to put behind those beliefs, financially.

    If you are new to our church… perhaps this is your first time… we don’t want to pressure you to give. We recognize that you’re probably already feeling guilty enough. It’s OK if you don’t participate in the offering. No, really… we mean it.

    But, if this is your first time and you’d like to give, perhaps out of some cosmic belief that if you give money to a church it will make up for something you’ve done. Our theology says that it doesn’t make a lick of difference to God… eh, who are we to judge? Go ahead and drop that check, cash, or sin-laden stock options in the offering plate as it passes by. We’re a charitable organization. Even if it’s for the wrong reasons we really need the money during these hard economic times.

    If you are a regular attender of the church, this is for you. (Eyeball the church treasurer- A wink for style points.)

    To those who are faithfully giving to God, you are awesome. I think you are awesome. The church treasurer thinks you are awesome. And we’re pretty sure God is smiling on your faithfulness. I’d like to give a shout out to Dave Ramsey and Suzi Orman. Teaching people how to budget… brilliant!

    If you are a regular attender of the church and are not giving regularly, what’s wrong with you? No seriously. Talk to someone and figure it out. You gave your mailman a Starbucks gift card for Christmas but not a thing to the church. Yeah, we saw that. It’s not cool.

    [Another quick glance and wink to the church treasurer]

    While Mary Johnson sings the Ray Boltz classic, “Thank You for Giving to the Lord” we’ve prepared a little slide show of cracks in our church walls and pictures of our staff’s children. Please note that Tiffany and Peter could really use some dental work. And that the pastor is driving a 1987 Buick LaSabre.

    Let’s pray.

  • Not Dwelling

    A co-worker sent me this verse of the day. I think it is a great way to get fired up about 2010.

    This is what the Lord says, ‘Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.’” Isaiah 43:16, 18, 19

    For me, the last 12 months have been filled with highs and lows. And I learned a ton through it all. My hope is that I takeaway lessons which will spur on good things in 2010!

  • My Transition to YouthWorks

    YouthWorksOn January 1st, 2010 I will become an employee of YouthWorks.

    Before I talk about YouthWorks I do want to mention some things about Zondervan. A lot of negative things have been said and written (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) about Zondervan through this process. I want to convey publicly what I told them privately. They have been great through this. The last few months have been painful to say the least. (I think the right term is agonizing!) And at every turn the people I worked alongside at Z were professional, kind, and quick to pray for and with me. Whether or not you agree with all of their decisions in the last year or so, know that they are not awful people with maniacal laughs and evil plans. From the CEO (Moe Girkins) to the CFO (Gary Wicker) on down through the leadership team and the ranks of employees, I’ve found them to be intelligent, hard-working, and upstanding people. I’m a better person for having worked with them. I’m thankful and proud of my 18 months of work with Z. (And by proxy, being an employee of HarperCollins and News Corp was pretty nifty, too.)

    A couple weeks back, as the deal became final for YouthWorks to buy Youth Specialties, also came an opportunity for me to continue on in my ministry with YS as an employee of YouthWorks. Despite the fact that I had every reason to suspect I would be offered a job, the offer itself still came as a shock! I really had never thought about what my response would be if I were given the chance to stay on.

    The next 36 hours were as near to insanity for me as I’d ever like to get. I asked hard questions that needed to be answered. (Of YouthWorks and myself) I listened a lot. I took a couple long walks by myself. I talked to my dog. I wasted gas driving around San Diego for an evening. I shed some frustrating tears. I aimlessly walked around Best Buy for a couple hours. I talked in circles to Kristen. I burned through a few hundred text messages. I put out a Twitter request for a burning bush. Around and around I went. I just didn’t know what to do.

    Picture 2
    Apparently my iPhone changed "divining rod" to "diving rod." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing

    See, it’s not in my nature to do things halfway. There was a lot of wisdom in the advice I was getting… “Play it safe.” But that’s not me. That’s not how I roll. To me, it would have been better to just say no and move on with my life than to do something halfway with an eye on the door. I wanted to be resolute one way or the other. “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” I wanted to be true to myself even if it meant putting into action plans B, C, D, or E and all the fear and second guessing that went with that.

    Make it clear God! That was my prayer.

    That resolve I was looking for came early Friday morning.

    Long story short. On Friday morning, I talked to the folks at YouthWorks and let them know that I had decided to stay on with Youth Specialties/YouthWorks.

    And so a new adventure begins! After a weekend off, transition work began bright and early on Monday morning and will continue through the Christmas holidays. I’ve got this theory that decisions generate energy. And in this case, I’ve got lots of new energy and enthusiasm for what is next for YS.

    Just as surely as it is hard to say goodbye to so many co-workers… its been exciting to meet a whole new staff of people from YouthWorks. Over the past couple months I’ve gotten a chance to meet the leadership at YouthWorks. In my desire to learn more, I even went out looking for complaints and couldn’t find any. Lots and lots of happy customers. Lots of people impressed with their mission trips and how they go about their ministry. As I’ve gotten to know them I’ve been very impressed with how forward-thinking they are. And it’s been scary how much we’re on the same page with overall ministry-styles. I’ve only met about 10 of their staff of 60 face-to-face, so I am looking forward to getting to know more and more YouthWorks peeps over the coming months. They are differently culturally from the SoCal-YS-style, but in heart and ministry value they are very much the same.

    Soon, we’ll be rolling out a lot more about the future of YS, what’s next, etc. But just know that a big reason I’m joining YouthWorks is because I have a deep-gut belief that the best days of Youth Specialties are ahead. I know that’s a bold statement considering how great the past has been for YS, but that’s why I’m on board. I think there are even better days to come.

    Here’s a few quick FAQs based on the innumerous texts, Facebook messages, and Twitter DMs I’ve gotten in the past couple weeks.

    1. Will you have to move to Minneapolis? Nope. Sorry San Diego, you are stuck with the McLane family for a few more years. We’ll be keeping it classy together. We will be moving offices eventually. Hopefully, it’ll be something near a trolley stop.
    2. How does Kristen feel about this? I just want her to get to know my new co-workers. They are, as a whole, very missional. That’ll resonate with her. At this point, she is just glad to have my sanity back. This decision released a lot of energy! She got her husband back.
    3. What’s the new YS going to look like? More will come out in the next few weeks/months about our plans. I’ll just say I’m really excited about the stuff we’re talking about! I do know this… whatever it is, it’ll be true to the long-term mission of YS and YW, serving and equipping youth workers and church leaders.
    4. Will you be at NYWC this Fall? Even if I had to pay my own way, I’d be there. You will want to be in Nashville the weekend before Thanksgiving.
    5. Will you travel more or less? For some reason the YouthWorks staff wants to come here to San Diego more than they want me to come to Minneapolis. Go figure! So  time will tell on that one.
    6. What will you be working on? As time goes on, this will get more clear. But for now not a lot is changing with my job. It’s a safe bet that I’ll be calling 612 now more than 616.
    7. Do you even own a winter jacket? No, we donated it to the Salvation Army when we left Michigan. I do, however, own a lot of t-shirts, shorts, and sandals. See question 6.
    8. Can I ask you more questions? You bet. Leave me a comment. (Verbal comments would be awesome!)

  • The Peak of the Christian Life

    pinnacle-of-christian-life

    Question One: What is the chief end of man?
    Answer One: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
    – Westminster Shorter Catechism

    If you were to ask most preachers the question, “Practically speaking, what does the peak of the Christian life look like?” most of them would give an answer related to the answer given in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. (Even if you don’t come from that tradition.)

    The theologically correct answer to that question sounds like this, “You are in God’s sweet spot when you follow God’s call wherever that is. So it’s different for each person. For me, being in God’s sweet spot has meant being a pastor at this church. But for you, the pinnacle of the Christian life could be ____. Anything less than following God’s call to that is not the pinnacle.”

    But if you listened to their preaching you’d hear a much different message.

    A lot of preachers accidentally lift themselves and their calling to an unhealthy place. Preachers, in their messages, often imply that their calling to become a pastor is a higher calling than anyone else in the church. (Read 1 Peter 5:1-10) They use their obedience and their life as an example of getting into God’s sweet spot. Sitting there, listening to them preach and use themselves as the pinnacle of the Christian life week after week… you might start to believe that working for a church is the pinnacle of the Christian life. While I don’t think that most preachers really believe this to be true, it is easy to use themselves as an example to illustrate their sermon. And more often than not they use themselves as a heroic protagonist in the story… thus the implied status that they are the example of the peak Christian.

    The truth is there are a lot of people attending and even working at churches that believe that lie. (Heresy) Even if the preacher never directly says that that working at a church is close to the peak of the Christian life and being the lead preacher is the peak, most people believe that a pastor must be somehow superior unless they are taught otherwise.

    Next, you see this pattern emerge all the time! A person feels stuck in their spiritual journey. They desire something “greater” and decide that they need to take a leap of faith. Out of an earnest desire to experience the peak of the Christian life, they start pursuing something else. They follow the leadership example they hear year-after-year and walk away from where God has them in order to chase “the pinnacle of the Christian life” by serving at a church. And those people further perpetrate the lie by testifying, “I used to be an accountant, but God called me to become the Pastor of Finance at this church. Even though I am making much less money I am happy to be in the Lord’s service.”

    Financial sacrifice does not equal a ministry calling. But listening to the testimony of a lot of preachers, you’d think it was. As if God was going to cosmically bless a ministry simply because you gave up earning potential?

    The irony continues once you make that leap. Once you get on staff at a church you learn a dirty little secret. The priesthood of all believers is true.

    You want to reach a majority of the community you live in for Jesus Christ? (I believe most churches do.) It simply will not happen through the church staff or its programs. [Even the biggest megachurches only have a tiny reach into their community.] It will only happen when the people in the congregation take hold of what the Bible teaches and takes the Gospel to the places they have access and influence. (Places 99% of pastors have no access or influence.) This mega-change in a community is just as likely to come from a house church of 12 as a megachurch of 20,000. Just like in Acts, God is not interested in the size of the Temple. He is interested in bringing the message of the Jesus to the people where they are. Did Peter, Paul, John, or Timothy grow endearing church organizations? I think not. It was never the goal of the early church to create a massive, efficient organization. The early church built no cathedrals, had no mega-meetings, and lifted nothing but spreading the message as far, deep, and wide as they could in their lifetime. This is a far cry from the little-church-kingdom building we see among clergy today.

    I belive most Christians aspire the peak of the Christian life. It’s a good thing to aspire to! Let me encourage you with this. To reach the peak of the Christian life probably won’t mean an Abrahamic move. You likely won’t be called by God to sell your land and move your sheep, goats, and wife to a foreign place. Nor is it likely that God wants you to stop being an accountant, teacher, nurse, or business person to work in a church. The church needs more Christ-followers in the workplace and fewer business people dressed up as pastors.

    More than likely you can reach the peak of the Christian life right where you are, in the career you are in, with the friendships you have.

    “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it–he will be blessed in what he does.” James 1:25

    If you are seeking something more significant in 2010 I want to challenge you to first do your very best right where you are. Don’t forget to consider that God may have you in the right spot– it may just be you that needs to change.

    Look at your life through the eyes of Jonah and ask yourself… what am I running from? That’s most likely what God is calling you to.

  • Pressing Play on Life

    I woke up thinking about this song. Flashback to the 90s, right?

    In so many ways life has felt like it was on pause since September when I went to LA for convention. I’ve just been consumed by work. It swallowed me.

    And yesterday brought so much release. (Er, if the illustration of “swallowed by work” holds true, I guess that means work vomited or pooped me out? Let’s just not take the illustration there.) When I got home yesterday, I just felt like life could return to normal. I went to Target to Christmas shop. I took a little nap. I took Kristen out to a very nice restaurant and a movie. And this morning… it’s time to grab the leash and take Stoney to the beach.

    Back to life, back to reality…

    I’ll spare you the video of me dancing. But just so you know, I’m dancing.

  • Wisdom

    rodin__the_thinker2He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;
    he who cherishes understanding prospers.

    Proverbs 19:8

    Adam’s translation

    Wanna sleep at night? Chase after wisdom with all you’ve got. But don’t just chase wisdom, put it into action.

    For the past couple of months I’ve been living in Proverbs. Sure, I do a lot of tweeting and Facebooking on my iPhone. But I’ve also been giving the Bible app (and my snail Bible) a workout. And almost all of my reading has been in Proverbs. On the trolley. At the office. At the dining room table. At football games. Backstage during sessions at NYWC. On planes. Over coffee. You get the idea.

    Again and again, I find myself blown away by this stuff. This was recorded a few thousand years back and it is just as relevant today as it was back then.

    Here’s a sampling of the verses I’ve bookmarked in the last 3-4 days:

    Proverbs 14:15 “A simple man believes anything,
    but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.    “

    Proverbs 14:23 “All hard work brings a profit,
    but mere talk leads only to poverty.    “

    Proverbs 15:18 “A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension,
    but a patient man calms a quarrel.”

    Proverbs 15:23 “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply—
    and how good is a timely word!    “

    Proverbs 16:19 “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed
    than to share plunder with the proud.    “

    Proverbs 17:5 “He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
    whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.    ”

    Proverbs 18:6 “A fool’s lips bring him strife,
    and his mouth invites a beating.    “

    Proverbs 18:12 “Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud,
    but humility comes before honor.    “

    Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin,
    but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.    “

    Proverbs 20:19 “”A gossip betrays a confidence;
    so avoid a man who talks too much.    “

    Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit
    as surely as haste leads to poverty.    “

    Proverbs 21:21 “He who pursues righteousness and love
    finds life, prosperity and honor.    “

    What one thing you do you when you are faced with tough times and hard decisions?

  • The cry of the people

    [Please press play]

    I love this song. And I love how Bono performed it on this tour. He kicked it off and let the audience do the first verse and chorus. An amazing moment in the show.

    One reason I think this song is so powerful, particularly performed live, is that as the audience sing along loudly, each voice represents the cry of every heart there. Collectively, 60,000 people shouting their cry out during this song, each imagining what they are still looking for. Tears, joys, sorrow, pride, and dreams all mashed together and pushed towards the stage.

    I wanted to take this moment of pause to reflect, and ask you to join me in singing this chorus.

    I don’t know what you are looking for today. Each of us cries a slightly different cry. But I thank you for walking with me, reading along, and together we will continue to walk together until we find what we are looking for.

  • Hey youth workers… do you believe?

    Image by hiddedevries via Flickr (creative commons)
    Image by hiddedevries via Flickr (creative commons)

    Here’s the deal.

    Dirty little secret time.

    I think a lot of youth pastors, youth ministers, youth directors don’t believe in the power of adolescents to flip their world on its head.

    Adults think they can do it all. And they backfill that belief with anecdotal information to make themselves feel better.

    They think kids are too busy. They think kids are distracted by education. They think kids care more about sports. They think that you have to be spiritually mature to reach your friends for Christ. They think parents just get in the way. They think lack of resources get in the way. They think ordinary kids can’t do extraordinary stuff.

    When they see inspirational stories of teenagers who have made a huge difference, they don’t think their kids could do that. And they wonder why the adults who “really lead that” aren’t in the spotlight. The aspire to see stuff like that happen in their midst but refuse to believe the style of leadership that leads up to it.

    A lot of youth leaders think its their job to do those things themselves. They think that because they are “the leader” they should be the ones leading the charge. Kids are just the pawns who attract the cameras, so they think. Ultimately, they think they are the ones who are responsible for making something big happen.

    They have it upside down.

    Adults just get in the way with their ego, agendas, and desires to be famous. “Maybe Disney will make a movie of my awesome leadership?”

    Reality check– Adults who “lead” big movements of God are typically on the sidelines. They coach. They inspire quietly. They parent. They mentor. They encourage. Most importantly, they know that the best thing they can do is equip them to lead and get the heck out of the way. And then they stand by and watch. (And then coach some more, mentor some more, parent some more, encourage some more, develop some more.)

    If there is a microphone, they are reluctant to step up to it. But they are quick to put a student in front of it.

    The big fancy adult leadership Christians are infatuated with rarely, if ever, results in movements of teens. (Whether as movements of religion or otherwise.) We chase after it but it’s a myth. You get there only to discover you’ve wasted a lot of time, energy, and investment in the wrong stuff.

    The style of leadership that seems to result in the most world change involves handing the reigns over to kids and believing in them. It’s the most organic, natural, and effective style of leadership. It’s so easy a football coach can do it. Or a high school basketball coach. Or a Little League coach.

    Those leaders do their leading on practice days and give the kids the spotlight on game day. Kids step up because that coach believes in them enough to put their reputation behind them.

    And that’s the problem. Most adult leaders in youth ministry don’t seem to believe in kids.

    What do you believe in…?